(CNN) -- Health care reform should mean all Americans can get coverage while allowing doctors to heal patients instead of being bureaucrats, President Obama told the American Medical Association on Monday.



The AMA agrees with Obama on the need for health care reform but not how to go about it.



In a speech to the 158th annual meeting of the doctors' advocacy organization, Obama called an overhaul of the ailing health care system the most important issue for the nation's long-term economic stability.



He acknowledged the concerns of doctors that reforms could bring a government-heavy system that would dictate how patients get treated and how much physicians get paid. But he called such thinking wrong.



Obama urged all players -- doctors, patients, insurance companies, drug companies and the government -- to contribute to a workable system that would provide coverage for the 46 million uninsured Americans while reducing costs and increasing efficiency.



"You did not enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers," Obama said to a standing ovation at the conference in Chicago, Illinois. "You entered this profession to be healers, and that's what our health care system should let you be."



Obama has made health care reform a top priority of his young administration, and Congress will consider at least three proposals in coming weeks to address an issue that deeply divides Democrats and Republicans.  Watch Sen. John McCain discuss health care reform »



The AMA represents a powerful constituency of U.S. physicians, and its support is considered important in getting a bill through Congress. Dr. J. James Rohack, president-elect of the AMA, welcomed Obama's speech for acknowledging the challenges facing doctors, including excessive bureaucracy, the threat of malpractice lawsuits and medical students' debt burdens.



The president's 50-minute speech detailed the problems of the U.S. health care system and presented his plans for confronting them.



He blamed some of the spiraling costs on a reimbursement system that he said pays for the number of tests and services provided, regardless of what is needed.



"It is a model that rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care; that pushes you, the doctor, to see more and more patients even if you can't spend much time with each; and gives you every incentive to order that extra MRI or EKG, even if it's not truly necessary," Obama said. "It is a model that has taken the pursuit of medicine from a profession -- a calling -- to a business."



He also cited unnecessary tests and procedures as part of a "defensive" medicine culture created in part by the risk of medical malpractice lawsuits. To loud applause, he said ending unnecessary procedures could require restrictions on malpractice liability to protect doctors.



"I'm not advocating caps on malpractice awards, which I personally believe can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed, but I do think we need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, how to let doctors focus on practicing medicine, how to encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines," Obama said.  Watch the Health and Human Services chief talk about the administration's plan »



Rohack called for a "safe harbor" for doctors to determine treatment, warning that "unless we have protection in a courtroom for not ordering a test, we're going to order that additional test."



Obama's speech advocated an end to health care insurance providers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, with an emotional reference to his mother's battle against cancer amid concerns of whether her treatment would be covered.



"Changing the current approach to pre-existing conditions is the least we can do -- for my mother and every other mother, father, son and daughter who has suffered under this practice, who've been paying premiums and don't get care," he said to another ovation.



Any health care bill must include measures to modernize record-keeping with an electronic system that reduces paperwork and increases efficiency, and to emphasize preventive treatment to reduce overall illness and chronic conditions that sap the health care system,
Who is the president? What did the AMA agree the nation needs? What AMA official said? Who called for insurers to stop denying coverage? What type of conditions does the president want insurers to stop denying coverage for? Who called for malpractice protection for doctors?
Obama health care reform "unless we have protection in a courtroom for not ordering a test, we're going to order that additional test." Obama pre-existing Rohack
question: Who is the president?, answer: Obama | question: What did the AMA agree the nation needs?, answer: health care reform | question: What AMA official said?, answer: "unless we have protection in a courtroom for not ordering a test, we're going to order that additional test." | question: Who called for insurers to stop denying coverage?, answer: Obama | question: What type of conditions does the president want insurers to stop denying coverage for?, answer: pre-existing | question: Who called for malpractice protection for doctors?, answer: Rohack