There are about 200 million eligible voters. All of them have a stake in the U.S. health care system

The AMA has released a new ad during the Democratic National Convention in Boston urging Democratic Party leaders to work with the AMA to address critical issues facing U.S. health care.

The ad says, “There are about 200 million eligible voters. ALL of them have a stake in the U.S. health care system.” A similar ad is being planned for the Republican National Convention.

“We are pleased that so many speakers this week in Boston have discussed the importance of health care,” said AMA President John C. Nelson, MD, MPH. “There are six specific issues, however, that deserve special attention now to help heal our nation’s health care system.”

The ad stresses that “overwhelming numbers of Americans say their own physicians are ‘good’ to ‘excellent,’ but our health care system has urgent problems that must be addressed.” The AMA specifically is urging policy makers to consider the AMA’s Healing the System proposals for six critical issues:

• lack of health insurance and choice

• America’s medical liability crisis

• patient safety

• strengthening Medicare

• financing care for low-income patients

• curbing managed care abuses

The ad also directs readers to the AMA’s Healing the System Web site -- http://www.ama-assn.org/go/healingthesystem/ -- which has a downloadable version of the ad.