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

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“Health care reform is not something I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowd ofabout 1,500 people Thursday at in the Greeb Bay suburb of Wisconsin. “It is central to our economicd future. In past years and decades, there may have been some disagreemenft onthis point. But not anymore.” Earlier this month, Obamas said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensivr health care bill by the end of the summer and readyy for his signatureby fall. Many 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 health care programas such as Medicareor Medicaid.
Most Republicanzs and many business groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’t profit-driven would drive privatse insurers out of On Thursday, the , a physician’s grouop Obama is scheduled to meet with Monday in said it is opposed to a government-sponsoredd insurance plan. Obama said his administration is workinh on a Health Insurance Exchange that would allow peoplew to compare insurance benefits and None of the plans included in the exchange woulf be allowed to deny coverage basedon pre-existingf conditions and all must includwe an affordable, basic benefir option.
“I also strongly believd that one of the options in the Exchange shoule be a public insurancewoption – because if the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest and help keep pricesd down,” Obama said. Supporters of health care reform say it wouldx provide health insurance coverage to millions of Americand and make coverage more affordable 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 reached a breakinhg point, Obama said. Employerx are not faring any better.
Smallp business owners have been forced to cut health care benefite or drop coverage entirely because ofrising costs, Obama said. “We have the most expensive health care system in the Obama said. “We spend almost 50 percen more per person on health care than the next mostcostl nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’r e not any healthier for it.” Obama vowed to let Americans who are contenr with their coverage and theirf physicians keep whatthey have, but said the countryh has reached a point where doiny nothing about the cost of healtn care is no longer an “If we do nothing, within a decad e we will be spending one out of every five dollare we earn on health care,” Obama said.
“In 30 years, it will be one out of everty three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americans woulcbe expensive, but promised health care reform would not add to the country’as deficit over the next 10 years. “To make that we have already identified hundreds of billione worth of savings in our budget savings that will come from steps like reducing Medicars overpayments to insurance companiexs and rootingout waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicarw and Medicaid,” Obama said. In Obama is proposing that Congress scale back the amountthe highest-income Americans can deduct on theirf taxes and use that money to help financde health care.
Obama spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questionz from six people in the audiencew who expressed fearover “socialized asked questions about wellness and even questioned the country’s educatioj system. Regarding the idea of socializexd medicine, Obama said that isn’t what he, or anyoned in Congress, wants. “I’ve got enoug h stuff to do,” he said. “I’ve got Northj Korea and Iran. I’ve got Afghanistan and Iraq. I think it would be great if the health care system was workin perfectly and ifwe didn’y have to get involved at all.
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