"Whoever is in Christ is a new creation," the author of Second Corinthians confidently proclaims this Sunday. President Barack Obama took his case for creating a new system of health-care coverage to the American Medical Association (AMA) Monday. Obama told wary doctors Monday that the nation's health system is a "ticking time bomb for the federal budget" and said those who call his plan for a taxpayer-funded coverage option a step toward a government takeover of health care "are not telling the truth."

Obama told the AMA the time is right to overhaul the system but acknowledged how difficult it will be. "You'll hear warnings about socialized medicine . . . long lines and rationed care, decisions made by bureaucrats and not doctors," he said. Obama countered that a public plan would not be a "Trojan horse for a single-payer system" in which government regulates all health care.

AMA leaders said they share Obama's goal of covering the nation's more than 46 million uninsured people, but some members of the group said they have qualms about the details. Doctors fed up with red tape are not "confident that the government's going to be able to take over the whole system and do any better," said J. Gregory Cooper, a Cynthiana, Kentucky family doctor.

Source: An article by Judy Keen for USA TODAY