AMA, AARP back House health-care reform bill – MedCity Morning Read, Nov. 6, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As a rally to block the House Democrats’ health-care reform plan took place outside the Capitol Thursday, President Barack Obama announced that the legislation has the support of the American Medical Association and AARP, The New York Times reported.

“We are closer to passing this reform than ever before,” Obama said at the White House, according to the Times. “And now that the doctors and medical professionals of America are standing with us, now that the organizations charged with looking out for the interests of seniors are standing with us, we are even closer.”

The Wall Street Journal said that the AMA’s statement of support was “lukewarm,” and yet it still “provided a boost.” The AARP announcement was not a surprise, according to the Journal, “since the group has been publicly promoting the House bill for months.”

A House vote on the bill is scheduled for Saturday. The Democrats need 218 votes for the $1.1 trillion, 10-year measure to pass, but as of Thursday, they did not yet have the required support, according to the Times. Obama is expected to go to Capitol Hill today to make “a final personal appeal.”

House Republicans who participated in Thursday’s rally denounced the legislation. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, called it the “greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in the 19 years I’ve been in Washington,” the Times reported. Thousands of protesters chanted, “Kill the bill.”

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