The former president of the American Medical Association, Dr. Donald Palmisano, a surgeon, warned that if the Obama administration did not slow down on its drive for a government-led health care overhaul, the treatment choices available to patients would be undercut.

He added that the president’s “public option” plan in particular would be a disaster for patients and medical innovation.

“When it comes to health system reform: slow down. Patients’ lives are at risk,” Palmisano told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. “Today, in America, we have the best health care system in the world – a system that provides urgent, preventative, and long-term care in every community at all hours of the day.