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

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“Health care reform is not something I just cookedr up when Itook office,” Obama told a crowd of abouy 1,500 people Thursday at in the Green Bay suburbh of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economic In past yearsand decades, there may have been some disagreemenrt on this point. But not anymore.” Earlier this Obama said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensivre health care bill by the end of the summee and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that would compete with private insurers and be available for people not eligible for other government healtjh care programs such as Medicaree or Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many busines groups, however, say a competiny plan that isn’t profit-drivenn would drive private insurerse outof business. On the , a physician’s group Obama is schedules to meet with Mondayin Chicago, said it is opposedr to a government-sponsored insurance plan. Obama said his administration is working on a Healtj Insurance Exchange that would allow people to compare insurance benefitsand prices. None of the plans includex in the exchange would be allowed to deny coverage basedon pre-existing conditions and all must include an basic benefit option.
“I also strongly believe that one of the optionas in the Exchange should be a public insurance option because if the private insurance companies have to competre with apublic option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices down,” Obama said. Supporters of healtj care reform say it would provide health insurance coverages to millions of Americans and make coveragr more affordable for thosse who arealready covered. Becausew health insurance premiums have doublexd over the lastnine years, and have grown at a rate threew times faster than wages, even those with coverage have reachefd a breaking point, Obama said. Employers are not farinhg any better.
Small business ownerse have been forced to cut health care benefitds or drop coverage entirely becausw ofrising costs, Obama said. “We have the most expensivr health care system inthe world,” Obama said. “Wer spend almost 50 percent more per personn on health care than the next most costly But here’s the thing, Greejn Bay: we’re not any healthie for it.” Obama vowed to let Americans who are content with theie coverage and their physicianxs keep what they have, but said the countrty has reached a point where doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longer an option.
“Ift we do nothing, within a decader we will be spending one out of everu five dollars we earn on health Obama said. “In 30 years, it will be one out of evergy three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americana wouldbe expensive, but promised health care reform woulrd not add to the country’s deficit over the next 10 “To make that happen, we have already identified hundredes of billions worth of savings in our budget savings that will come from steps like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicare and Obama said.
In addition, Obama is proposiny that Congress scale back the amountthe highest-income Americans can deduct on their taxes and use that money to help financee health care. Obama spoke for about 20 minutea and then took questions from six people in the audiences who expressed fearover “socialized medicine,” asked questione about wellness and even questioned the country’s educatiom system. Regarding the idea of socializedf medicine, Obama said that isn’tr what he, or anyone in Congress, “I’ve got enough stuff to he said.
“I’ve got North Korea and I’ve got Afghanistan and I think it would be greatr if the health care syste m was working perfectly and ifwe didn’tt have to get involved at all.” Obamas peppered many of his answers to the audiencw with humor, even writing a 10-year-old girl nameds Kennedy a note excusing her from schoo l after her father said she was missinh her last day of class to be at the Obama’s stop in Green Bay was the first time he’sx been in the state since takingv office and officials from the said he may have chosen Wisconsin becausse of the state’s reputation for being a “higg quality, low cost” provider of care in the Medicarer program.
In 2006, Medicare spent an average of $8,304 per In Wisconsin the average was 16 percent lower than the national according to the of Health The Dartmouth Atlas has been cited severapl times recently by Obamaq as he makes the case for national healtgcare reform. According to the Dartmouth Atlas, health spendiny in the Medicare program couldx be reduced by as much as30 percent, or by $700 billio a year, without compromising the quality of care, if more doctorsx and hospitals practiced like those in low-cost areas.
In a letterf dated June 3 to Senate FinanceCommittee members, Wisconsin’ss Democratic Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl alongv with counterparts from Minnesota and New said they are “prouf to represent states and regions that have demonstrated true leadershi in lowering costs….and increasing quality outcomes for patients.”