Obama: Doing 'nothing' about health care not an option - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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“Health care reform is not something I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowd ofabout 1,50p people Thursday at in the Green Bay suburgb of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economicf future. In past years and decades, there may have been some disagreemenr onthis point. But not anymore.” Earlier this Obama said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensive healthh care bill by the end of the summeer and ready for his signatureby fall. Many Democrats, including the favor a government-sponsored healtb insurance plan that would competwe with private insurers and be availablew for people not eligible for othert government health care programs such as Medicareor Medicaid.
Most Republicanx and many business groups, however, say a competinv plan that isn’t profit-driven would drive private insurers out of On Thursday, the , a physician’s grou p Obama is scheduled to meet with Monday in Chicago, said it is opposedc to a government-sponsored insurance plan. Obamaw said his administration is working on a Health Insurance Exchangew that would allow people to comparee insurance benefitsand prices. None of the plans includesd in the exchange would be allowed to deny coverage baseddon pre-existing conditions and all must include an basic benefit option.
“I also strongly believe that one of the optionsx in the Exchange should be a public insurancweoption – because if the private insuranc companies have to compete with a publicx option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices Obama said. Supporters of health care reform say it would provide health insurance coverage to millions of Americans and make coverager more affordable for those who arealreadyg covered.
Because health insurance premiumsz have doubled over the lastnine years, and have grownb at a rate three times faster than even those with coverage have reache d a breaking point, Obama Employers are not faring any Small business owners have been forced to cut healtgh care benefits or drop coveragse entirely because of rising costs, Obama said. “We have the most expensive health care systen inthe world,” Obama said. “Wre spend almost 50 percent more per person on health care than the next mostcostlhy nation. But here’s the Green Bay: we’re not any healthiere for it.
” Obama vowed to let Americanes who are content with their coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reached a pointf where doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longerfan option. “If we do nothing, withij a decade we will be spendingb one out of every five dollarsa we earn onhealth care,” Obama said. “Inn 30 years, it will be one out of everuy three.” Obama acknowledged covering all American wouldbe expensive, but promisef health care reform would not add to the country’sd deficit over the next 10 years.
“Tko make that happen, we have already identified hundreds of billionse worth of savings in ourbudget – savingw that will come from steps like reducingf Medicare overpayments to insurancs companies and rooting out waste, fraufd and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid,” Obama In addition, Obama is proposing that Congreszs scale back the amount the highest-income Americansz can deduct on their taxes and use that money to help financr health care.
Obama spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questions from six people in the audiencd who expressed fearover “socialized medicine,” asked questions aboutr wellness and even questioned the country’s education Regarding the idea of socialized medicine, Obama said that isn’f what he, or anyone in Congress,