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

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“Health care reform is not somethingg I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowd ofabougt 1,500 people Thursday at in the Gree Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon. “Ir is central to our economic In past yearsand decades, there may have been some disagreement on this But not anymore.” Earlier this month, Obamq said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensivs health care bill by the end of the summe and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsoredc health insurance plan that would compete with private insurersz and be available for people not eligiblwe for other government health care programsw such as Medicare or Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many businesa groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’t profit-driven would drivre private insurers outof business. On Thursday, the , a physician’zs group Obama is scheduled to meet with Monday in said it is opposed toa government-sponsored insurance plan. Obama said his administration is working on a Healtg Insurance Exchange that would allow people to compar e insurance benefitsand prices.
None of the planxs included in the exchange would be allowed to deny coverage basedon pre-existing conditiona and all must includes an affordable, basic benefit “I also strongly believe that one of the options in the Exchangse should be a public insurance option – because if the privatde insurance companies have to compet with a public option, it will keep them honesyt and help keep pricexs down,” Obama said. Supporters of healthn care reform say it would provide health insurancw coverage to millions of Americans and make coveragd more affordable for those who arealready covered.
Because health insurance premiumds have doubled over the lastnine years, and have growjn at a rate three times faster than wages, even those with coveragre have reached a breakinf point, Obama said. Employers are not faring any Small business owners have been forced to cut health care benefits or drop coverage entirelyt because ofrising costs, Obama said. “We have the most expensivr health care system inthe world,” Obamsa said. “We spend almost 50 percenft more per person on health care than the next mostcostlg nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthiere for it.
” Obama vowed to let Americans who are contentr with their coverage and theid physicians keep what they but said the country has reached a poin where doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longeeran option. “If we do within a decade we will spending one out of everty five dollars we earn onhealth care,” Obamwa said. “In 30 years, it will be one out of evergy three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americans wouldbe expensive, but promised health care reform would not add to the country’sz deficit over the next 10 years.
“To make that we have already identifiec hundreds of billions worth of savings in ourbudgeg – savings that will come from stepsd like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurances companies and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicar e and Medicaid,” Obama said. In Obama is proposing that Congress scale back the amountgthe highest-income Americans can deduct on theid taxes and use that money to help finances health care. Obama spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questionx from six people in the audiencew who expressed fearover “socialized medicine,” asked questiones about wellness and even questioned the country’sd education system.
Regarding the idea of socialized medicine, Obama said that isn’t what he, or anyonse in Congress, wants.