Both the AMA and ACP advocate against budget-neutral solutions to fund primary care.

In an ideal world, that would be the optimal solution. But I don’t see it happening, especially with traditionally physician-antagonistic Democrats controlling Congress, and the fact that we’re in a recession.

Rather than start another specialist versus primary care battle, I simply want to acknowledge Bob Doherty’s point that budget-neutral changes that benefit specialists occur regularly.

“Whenever new procedure codes and relative values are added to the fee schedule,” Mr. Doherty writes, “those adjustments benefit one group of physicians – the ones who do the procedures – at the expense of other physicians who do not.”