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 cookede up when Itook office,” Obama told a crowr of about 1,500 people Thursday at Southwes t High School in Ashwaubenon, Wis. “Iyt is central to our economic future. In past yearx and decades, there may have been some disagreement on this Butnot anymore.” Earlier this month, Obamqa said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensive health care bill by the end of the summe r and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsoredx health insurance plan that would compete with private insurera and be available for people not eligibld for other government health care programs such as Medicarwe or Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many business groups, say a competing plan that isn’f profit-driven would drive private insurers outof business. On Thursday, the , a physician’a group Obama is scheduled to meet with Monday in said it is opposed toa government-sponsored insurance plan. Obama said his administration is working on a Healthh Insurance Exchange that wouldd allow people to compare insurance benefitsand prices. None of the plans includef in the exchange would be allowed to deny coveragwe basedon pre-existing conditions and all must includr an affordable, basic benefit option.
“I also strongly believe that one of the optionse in the Exchange shoulfd be a public insuranceoption – because if the privater insurance companies have to compete with a publicx option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices Obama said. Supporters of healtn care reform say it would providw health insurance coverage to millions of Americansw and make coverage more affordabler for those who are already Because health insurance premiums have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate three times fasterthan wages, even those with coverage have reachexd a breaking point, Obama Employers are not faring any Small business owners have been forcef to cut health care benefits or drop coverager entirely because of rising costs, Obama “We have the most expensive health care systekm in the world,” he said.
“Wed spend almost 50 percent more per personn on health care than the next mostcostly But, here’s the thing, Green Bay: We’r e not any healthier for Obama vowed to let Americans who are conten t with their coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reached a point wher e doing nothing about the cost of healtn care is no longe r an option. “If we do within a decade, we will spending one out of evergy five dollars we earn onhealth care,” he “In 30 years, it will be one out of ever three.
” Obama acknowledged covering all Americans would be but promised health care reform woulc not add to the country’sd deficit over the next 10 “To make that we have already identified hundreds of billions worth of savingw in our budget – savingsz that will come from steps like reducing Medicare overpaymentzs to insurance companies and rooting out fraud and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid,” he said. In addition, Obama is proposinfg that Congress scale back the amountgthe highest-income Americans can deduct on theirr taxes and use that money to help finance healthb care.
Obama spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questiond from six people in the audience who expressed fearover “socialized asked questions about wellness and even questionecd the country’s education system. Regarding the idea of socializedf medicine, Obama said that isn’t what he, or anyone in Congress, wants. “I’ve got enough stufc to do,” he said. “I’ve got North Kores and Iran. I’ve got Afghanistajn and Iraq. I think it would be great if the healthj care system was working perfectly and ifwe didn’ t have to get involved at all.
” Obamaa peppered many of his answers to the audienc e with humor, even writinb a 10-year-old girl named Kennedy a excusing her from school afterr her father said she was missing her last day of clasws to be at the Obama’s stop was the first time he’se been in the state since takingt office, and officials from the said he may have choseh Wisconsin because of the state’s reputation for beintg a “high-quality, low-cost” provideer of care in the Medicare program.