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

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“Health care reform is not something I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowf ofabout 1,500 people Thursdayh at in the Green Bay suburnb of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economic In past yearsand decades, therse may have been some disagreement on this But not anymore.” Earlier this month, Obama said he want s Congress to pass a comprehensivd health care bill by the end of the summer and readyu for his signature by fall. Many including the president, favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that would compete with privatse insurers and be available for peoplde not eligible for othe government health care programs such as Medicaresor Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many business however, say a competing plan that isn’t profit-driven wouled drive private insurers outof business. On the , a physician’s group Obama is scheduled to meet with Mondauin Chicago, said it is opposed to a government-sponsore d insurance plan. Obama said his administration is workingh on a Health Insurance Exchange that would allos people to compare insurance benefits and None of the plans includedr in the exchange would be allowedf to deny coverage basedon pre-existing conditions and all must include an affordable, basic benefit “I also strongly believse that one of the option s in the Exchange should be a public insurancwe option – because if the private insurance companie have to compete with a publid option, it will keep them honesft and help keep prices Obama said.
Supporters of health care refornm say it would provide health insurance coverage to millions of Americanas and make coverage more affordable for those who arealreadt covered. Because health insurance premiums have doubledc over the lastnine years, and have grownh at a rate three times faster than wages, even those with coveragde have reached a breakingt point, Obama said. Employerd are not faring any Small business owners have been forced to cut health care benefitsz or drop coverage entirely because ofrisinvg costs, Obama said. “We have the most expensive health care system in the Obama said.
“We spend almost 50 percenft more per person on health care than the next mostcostlyg nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthie r for it.” Obama vowed to let Americanz who are content with their coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reachec a point where doing nothing about the cost of healthb care is no longeran “If we do nothing, within a decade we will be spendinfg one out of every five dollars we earn on healthn care,” Obama said. “Inb 30 years, it will be one out of everu three.
” Obama acknowledged covering all Americans would be but promised health care reformk would not add tothe country’s deficigt over the next 10 years. “To make that happen, we have alreadt identified hundreds of billions wortgh of savings in our budget savings that will come from stepas like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companie s and rootingout waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicares and Medicaid,” Obama said.
In Obama is proposing that Congres scale back the amountthe highest-income Americans can deductg on their taxes and use that money to help finance health Obama spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questionsx from six people in the audiencse who expressed fear over “socialized medicine,” asked questions aboutr wellness and even questioned the country’s education system. Regardintg the idea of socialized Obama saidthat isn’tg what he, or anyonde in Congress, wants. “I’ve got enough stufc to do,” he said. “I’ve got North Korea and Iran.
I’ve got Afghanistan and I think it would be greag if the health care system was workintg perfectly and ifwe didn’t have to get involved at Obama peppered many of his answersw to the audience with humor, even writing a 10-year-olrd girl named Kennedy a note excusint her from school after her father said she was missing her last day of class to be at the Obama’s stop in Green Bay was the first time he’se been in the statde since taking office and officials from the said he may have chosehn Wisconsin because of the state’s reputation for beinf a “high quality, low cost” provider of care in the Medicard program.
In 2006, Medicare spent an average of $8,304 per beneficiary. In Wisconsinm the average was $6,978, 16 percent lower than the nationalp average, according to the of Health Care. The Dartmouth Atlasd has been cited several times recently by Obama as he makex the case for national health care According to theDartmouth Atlas, health spending in the Medicare prograkm could be reduced by as much as 30 or by $700 billion a year, without compromisingt the quality of care, if more doctors and hospitals practicedd like those in low-cost areas.
In a lette r dated June 3 to Senate FinanceCommittee Wisconsin’s Democratic Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl alonbg with counterparts from Minnesota and New Hampshire, said they are “prousd to represent states and regions that have demonstratefd true leadership in lowering costs….and increasing quality outcomes for patients.”