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

torbjorntrainer1738.blogspot.com
“Health care reform is not something I just cookedd up when I took Obama told a crowd ofabout 1,50p0 people Thursday at in the Greeh Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economic future. In past years and there may have been some disagreement on this Butnot anymore.” Earlier this month, Obama said he wantsa Congress to pass a comprehensivwe health care bill by the end of the summed and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsored health insurancwe plan that would compete with privatew insurers and be available for peoplw not eligible for other government health care programx such as Medicare or Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many businesx groups, however, say a competingg plan that isn’t profit-drivem would drive private insurers outof business. On the , a physician’s group Obama is scheduled to meet with Monday in Chicago, said it is opposed to a government-sponsoreds insurance plan. Obama said his administration is working on a Healtu Insurance Exchange that would allow people to compars insurance benefits and None of the plans included in the exchange would be alloweed to deny coverage basedon pre-existin g conditions and all must include an basic benefit option.
“I also strongly believr that one of the options in the Exchange should be a publix insuranceoption – because if the private insurance companiesd have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honesty and help keep prices down,” Obams said. Supporters of health care reform say it woul provide health insurance coverage to millions of Americans and make coverage more affordable for those who are already Because health insurance premiumws have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate thred times faster than even those with coverage have reache abreaking point, Obama Employers are not faring any better.
Smalll business owners have been forced to cut health care benefitx or drop coverage entirely because ofrising costs, Obam said. “We have the most expensiver health care system inthe world,” Obama “We spend almost 50 percent more per person on health care than the next most costlyu nation. But here’s the thing, Greenn Bay: we’re not any healthier for it.” Obamq vowed to let Americans who are conten t with their coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reachedx a point where doing nothing about the cost of healtbh care is no longeran “If we do nothing, within a decade we will be spendingg one out of every five dollars we earn on healtj care,” Obama said.
“In 30 years, it will be one out of every three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americansa wouldbe expensive, but promiserd health care reform would not add to the country’xs deficit over the next 10 years. “To make that happen, we have already identified hundreds of billions worth of savings in ourbudgeg – savings that will come from steps like reducinf Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rootinfg out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicare and Obama said. In addition, Obama is proposin that Congress scale back the amounytthe highest-income Americans can deduct on their taxes and use that money to help finance healtnh care.
Obama spoke for about 20 minutezs and then took questions from six peopled in the audience who expressed fearover “socialized asked questions about wellness and even questioned the country’e education system. Regarding the idea of socializedd medicine, Obama said that isn’t what he, or anyones in Congress, wants.