Major Garrett, FOX News correspondent--FOX News confirms, through senior White Officials, that the president and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have told lawmakers in private meeting they would accept some malpractive liability reforms in order to win support for health care reform from doctors and Senate Republicans.

Obama has never stated this position publicly, but those attending the Amaerican Medical Association meeting in Chicago, where Obama will speak today, anticipate an announcement along these lines.

Doctors first learned of Obama's intention to address their annual conference Tuesday and pressure began to build on the organization's position on the so-called "public option" as a means to cover the 47 million Americans without health insurance, according to Dr. Robert Hertzka, an anesthesiologist from San Diego and one of 10 elected memebers to the AMA's policy council.

The AMA is cool to the idea generally and specifically opposes any public plan tied to continuous taxpayer funding. Such a plan would never run out of funds and private plans, limited by profit margins and shareholder responsibilities, would not be able to compete.

The AMA's hostility to a tax-funded public plan made front page news in Thursday's New York Times, prompting, Hertzka told Fox, a passionate internal AMS debate over whether the organization dared oppose the White House on such a high-profile issue and the perceived risks of cutting it out of future negotiations. By late Thursday, the AMA released a statement that it was open to a "public option" that had non-profit components, similar to co-operatives.

North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, head of the Budget Committee, has circulated such a idea, which the White House has yet to endorse or dismiss.

Medical malpractice is one issue where the AMA did not want to lose negotiating clout and figured prominently in its decision not to close off all consideration of a health care "public option."

Hertzka said Obama could win over many doctors if he pushed publicly for meadical liability reforms.

"If the President endorses the concept, he will get plenty of applause," Hertzka said. "But can he deliver meaningful medical-malpractice reform?"

That question looms large as none of the bills currently circulating in Congress contain medical liability reforms.

Democrats have traditionally opposed them, largely owing to the financial support the party receives from trial lawyers.
Obama has never endorsed capping malpractice awards, but has sought to shield doctors who follow standard and established procedures from lawsuits. Doctors are reluctant to discuss errors or share information about them for fear of being sued. Obama's health team is adamant about creating ways for doctors and hospitals to share such information as a means of improving care and reducing unnecessary costs due to error-based to counter-treatment and hospitaliztion. Creating protections for doctors who follow procedures from lawsuits would move the debate in this direction.

One top Obama adviser told Fox the White House understands Demoocrats may object to malpractice reforms, but that a health care deal requires movement on all sides and if doctor and GOP-buy in can be achieved this way, Obama will not hesitate to pursue it.

"If they need it and it makes sense and it helps us get to the final deal," the adviser said. "Then we're there. The key is success. Getting a bill signed into law."

One other factor for Obama's speech today is the potential of a small protest by a rump group of 20-30 doctors opposed to national health care reform. The group sought permission to bring protest signs into Obama's speech, but were denied. The group is considering either not standing for Obama or walking out during the speech.