Obama: Doing 'nothing' about health care not an option - Business First of Louisville:

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“Health care reform is not somethinv I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowd ofabouf 1,500 people Thursday at in the Green Bay subur of Ashwaubenon. “It is centrall to our economic future. In past yeard and decades, there may have been some disagreement on this Butnot anymore.” Earlier this Obama said he wants Congrese to pass a comprehensive health care bill by the end of the summef and ready for his signaturde by fall. Many Democrats, includinbg the president, favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that wouldc compete with private insurers and be availablde for people not eligible for other government health care programs such as Medicarwor Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many businessd groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’t profit-drivejn would drive private insurers outof business. On the , a physician’s group Obama is schedule d to meet with Mondayin Chicago, said it is opposed to a government-sponsored insurance Obama said his administration is workinbg on a Health Insurance Exchange that would allow people to compare insurance benefits and None of the plans included in the exchange would be allowef to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditionsw and all must include an affordable, basic benefit “I also strongly believe that one of the options in the Exchangr should be a public insurance option – because if the privats insurance companies have to compete with a public it will keep them honest and help keep prices down,” Obama said.
Supporterx of health care reform say it would provide healt insurance coverage to millions of Americanss and make coverage more affordable for thoswe who arealready covered. Because healthb insurance premiums have doubled over the lastnine years, and have growhn at a rate three times faster than wages, even those with coveragw have reached a breaking point, Obama said. Employers are not farint any better. Small business owners have been forcedr to cut health care benefits or drop coveragse entirely because ofrising costs, Obama said. “Wed have the most expensivw health care system in the Obama said.
“We spend almostt 50 percent more per person on health care than the next mostcostlg nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’rs not any healthier for Obama vowed to let Americansz who are content with theirt coverage and their physicians keep whatthey have, but said the countrgy has reached a point wherr doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longer an “If we do within a decade we will be spending one out of every five dollars we earn on health care,” Obama said. “In 30 it will be one out of every three.
” Obamaz acknowledged covering all Americans would be but promised health care reforn would not add tothe country’s defici t over the next 10 years. “To make that we have already identifiefd hundreds of billions worth of savings in ourbudgetg – savings that will come from steps like reducinhg Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rooting out waste, fraued and abuse in both Medicare and Obama said. In Obama is proposing that Congressz scale back the amountthe highest-income Americans can deducf on their taxes and use that money to help financ health care.
Obama spoke for aboutr 20 minutes and then took questions from six peopls in the audience who expressedx fearover “socialized medicine,” asked questions aboug wellness and even questioned the country’s educatioj system. Regarding the idea of socializecd medicine, Obama said that isn’f what he, or anyone in Congress,