American Medical Association: Rehberg’s spending proposal ‘foolish’
Congressman criticized for eliminating efforts to improve health care
BILLINGS, Mont.—One of the nation’s oldest and most respected organizations is panning Congressman Dennis Rehberg’s controversial spending proposal for terminating the agency responsible for improving the quality of health care.
The American Medical Association calls the spending plan Rehberg introduced to his congressional committee “pennywise and pound foolish” for eliminating the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
“With healthcare expenditures responsible for an increasingly large share of our nation’s budget, we believe that it is pennywise and pound foolish to eliminate the very agency that is dedicated completely to improving the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of healthcare in this nation,” wrote Dr. James L. Madara the Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Medical Association.
Rehberg’s defunding of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality prevents critical cost-containment and care-improvement research from being implemented in the health care industry.
Rehberg—while protecting tax breaks for millionaires and corporations that ship jobs overseas—proposes axing the “agency on the cutting edge of addressing so many of the challenges facing our health care system,” according to the American Medical Association.
“If health care in the United States is to maintain its places as the finest in the world, the transformative research done by [the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research] will be key,” concluded Dr. Madara is his letter urging Rehberg not to sacrifice the Agency.
Read more about the American Medical Association’s criticism of Rehberg’s spending proposal HERE.
Prominent groups across the nation are criticizing Rehberg’s bill:
- Rehberg’s spending proposal threatens life-saving research
- Rehberg’s cuts to science and health care research cause for “grave concern”
- Nursing Community voices “deep concern” over Rehberg’s spending proposal
- Steelworkers: Rehberg’s spending proposal ‘will cost American jobs’
- Educators: Rehberg’s spending proposal “reflects the wrong priorities”
- Rehberg takes heat from community health centers for spending proposal
- Miners call riders in Rehberg’s proposal “a death sentence”
- Mental health association smacks Rehberg for “dangerous” proposal
- Leading health research organization hits Rehberg’s reckless spending plan
- Public health professionals attack Rehberg’s irresponsible spending plan
- Family physicians criticize Rehberg’s spending plan
- Pediatricians to Rehberg: “Put children first”
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