AAPA

The White House continues to acknowledge the role of physician assistants as the President steps up his efforts to enact health insurance reform. The President cited his health plan's intent to train more physician assistants, along with doctors and nurses, in his remarks during Monday's health care rally at Pennsylvania's Arcadia University. Additionally, the White House invited three PAs to attend Wednesday's rally near St. Louis, Missouri, which will focus on the need to combat fraud in the health care system through health care reform.

The President is using the local events to reframe the health reform debate, focusing on the unsustainable costs of maintaining the current health care system. In his Pennsylvania speech, President Obama said that his plan takes into account "every serious idea" on cost containment offered by legislators from both sides of the aisle. Editorials have also appeared in major newspapers this week on the health reform plan's cost containment measure, including an op-ed in the Washington Post by Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag and Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, claiming that the President's plan will improve the nation's fiscal health. A second editorial appeared in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal by Harvard economist David Cutler, outlining elements of the health reform plan that promise to bend the health-care cost curve. For more information, please contact Sandy Harding, AAPA Director of Federal Affairs, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .