Obama's Own Doctor Doesn't Support Health Care Reform

Irony:

Opposition to President Obama's plan to overhaul the health care system is getting personal.

Obama's former doctor, David Scheiner, is among the growing number of opponents to the president's health care plan, he says because it doesn't go far enough in having government run the system.

Scheiner, who treated Obama for more than two decades in Chicago, is calling for a government-run program like Medicare, arguing that it would reduce costs by cutting out administrative costs.

"We know under single-payer, eventually people will pay less," Scheiner said Thursday during a news conference at the National Press Club.

Scheiner was among the scheduled featured speakers at a rally Thursday in Washington, D.C., to urge Congress to pass legislation that includes a single-payer health care system.

A coalition of a couple of dozen of health care advocacy groups called "Healthcare--NOW" organized the event. Several liberal members of Congress are expected to attend, including Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Obama has hit the road in an effort to win public support and pressure Congress to pass his top domestic priority. While Obama has said a government-run "single-payer" health care system works well in some countries, he doesn't believe it would be appropriate in the United States because so many people get insurance through their employers working with private companies.

Lawmakers facing a hesitant public, also note that support is slim for a program that denies any competition. Seventy percent of those with coverage now rate it as good or excellent, according to a recent poll.

"We've got to make certain at the end of the day, that we allow people to choose their own doctors and their own hospitals, and their own health insurance plans and to keep the health insurance plan they have if they want too," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.