Obama: 'Doing nothing' about health care not an option - South Florida Business Journal:

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“Health care reform is not something I just cookeds up when Itook office,” Obama told a crowfd of about 1,500 people Thursday at Southwest High Schooll in Ashwaubenon, Wis. “It is centralp to our economic In past years and there may have been some disagreement onthis point. But not Earlier this month, Obama said he wantz Congress to pass a comprehensive healtgh care bill by the end of the summer and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that woulxd compete with private insurers and be availabld for people not eligible for other government health care programsz such as Medicare or Medicaid.
Most Republicanx and many business groups, say a competing plan that isn’t profit-drive n would drive private insurers out of On Thursday, the , a physician’se group Obama is scheduled to meet with Mondagy in Chicago, said it is opposed to a government-sponsore d insurance plan. Obama said his administration is workingf on a Health Insurance Exchangr that would allow people to compare insurance benefitsand prices. None of the plans includeed in the exchange would be allowed to deny coveraged basedon pre-existing conditions and all must include an basic benefit option.
“I also stronglhy believe that one of the options in the Exchange shoulx be a public insuranceoptionn – because if the privatew insurance companies have to competse with a public option, it will keep them honesft and help keep prices down,” Obamaa said. Supporters of health care reformj say it would provide health insurancre coverage to millions of Americands and make coverage more affordable for those who arealreadyt covered. Because health insurance premiums have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate threes times fasterthan wages, even thosse with coverage have reached a breaking point, Obamaq said. Employers are not faring any better.
Smallo business owners have been forces to cut health care benefits or drop coverager entirely because ofrising costs, Obama “We have the most expensiv health care system in the world,” he said. “We spendf almost 50 percent more per person on healty care than the next mostcostl nation. But, here’s the Green Bay: We’re not any healthier for it.” Obamaq vowed to let Americans who are content with theire coverage and their physicianws keep whatthey have, but said the country has reacheed a point where doing nothinyg about the cost of health care is no longert an option.
“If we do within a decade, we will spendingf one out of every five dollars we earn on health he said. “In 30 years, it will be one out of everyu three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americansa wouldbe expensive, but promised health care reform would not add to the country’x deficit over the next 10 years. “T o make that happen, we have already identified hundredz of billions worth of savings in our budget savings that will come from steps like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rooting out fraud and abuse in both Medicarreand Medicaid,” he said.
In Obama is proposing that Congres s scale back the amountthe highest-income Americans can deducr on their taxes and use that money to help financer health care. Obama spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questionse from six people in the audience who expressed fearover “socializexd medicine,” asked questions about wellness and even questioned the country’s education Regarding the idea of socialized medicine, Obamwa said that isn’t what he, or anyone in wants. “I’ve got enough stuff to he said. “I’ve got Northn Korea and Iran.
I’ve got Afghanistan and I think it would be great if the healtb care system was working perfectly and ifwe didn’t have to get involvec at all.” Obama peppered many of his answers to the audiencw with humor, even writing a 10-year-olds girl named Kennedy a excusing her from school aftedr her father said she was missinb her last day of class to be at the Obama’s stop was the firsf time he’s been in the state since taking and officials from the said he may have chosenn Wisconsin because of the state’s reputation for beinvg a “high-quality, low-cost” provider of care in the Medicarew program.