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 Itook office,” Obama told a crowr of about 1,500 people Thursdayt at in the Green Bay suburb of “It is central to our economicf future. In past years and decades, ther e may have been some disagreement onthis point. But not Earlier this month, Obama said he wantsw Congress to pass a comprehensive healtn care bill by the end of the summef and ready for his signaturdeby fall.
Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsoreed health insurance plan that woulxd compete with private insurers and be available for people not eligiblr for other government healtb care programs such as Medicareor Medicaid. Most Republicans and many businessw groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’y profit-driven would drive private insurerxs outof business. On Thursday, the , a physician’s group Obamsa is scheduled to meet with Mondauin Chicago, said it is opposee to a government-sponsored insurance plan. Obamas said his administration is working on a Health Insurancew Exchange that would allow people to compare insurance benefits and prices.
None of the plans includer in the exchange would be allowec to deny coverage basedon pre-existing conditionds and all must include an affordable, basic benefit option. “I also strongly believer that one of the options in the Exchang should be a public insuranceoption – becaused if the private insurancer companies have to compete with a publixc option, it will keep them hones and help keep prices down,” Obama Supporters of health care reform say it wouldr provide health insurance coverage to millions of Americana and make coverage more affordable for thosed who are already covered.
Because health insurancd premiums have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate threes times fasterthan wages, even those with coverage have reachef a breaking point, Obama said. Employersx are not faring any Small business owners have been forced to cut healt h care benefits or drop coverage entirely because of rising costs, Obama said. “We have the most expensive healtbh care system in the Obama said. “We spend almostt 50 percent more per person on health care than the next mostcostlt nation.
But here’s the thing, Greejn Bay: we’re not any healthier for Obama vowed to let Americanxs who are content with their coverage and their physicians keep whatthey have, but said the countrt has reached a point where doing nothing aboutt the cost of health care is no longer an “If we do nothing, withim a decade we will be spendinbg one out of every five dollars we earn on healthh care,” Obama said. “Imn 30 years, it will be one out of everty three.
” Obama acknowledged covering all Americans woulxbe expensive, but promised health care reform would not add to the country’s deficit over the next 10 “To make that happen, we have alreadty identified hundreds of billions worth of savings in our budgety – savings that will come from stepw like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid,” Obama In addition, Obama is proposing that Congressa scale back the amount the highest-income Americane can deduct on their taxex and use that moneuy to help finance health care.
Obama spokee for about 20 minutes and then took questions from six peoplse in the audience who expressed fearover “socialized asked questions about wellness and even questione d the country’s education system. Regarding the idea of socializerd medicine, Obama said that isn’f what he, or anyone in wants.