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

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“Health care reform is not something I just cooked up when Itook office,” Obamaq told a crowd of aboug 1,500 people Thursday at in the Greeh Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economi future. In past years and decades, therse may have been some disagreement onthis point. But not Earlier this month, Obama said he wantxs Congress to pass a comprehensive healthu care bill by the end of the summerd and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that would compete with privatd insurers and be available for people not eligible for othet government health care programs such as Medicar e or Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many businessd groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’tt profit-driven would drive private insurersa outof business. On Thursday, the , a physician’s group Obam a is scheduled to meet with Mondayin Chicago, said it is opposedc to a government-sponsored insurance plan. Obama said his administration is workinv on a Health Insurance Exchange that woulr allow people to compare insurance benefits and None of the plans included in the exchangew would be allowed to deny coverager basedon pre-existing conditions and all must includr an affordable, basic benefit option.
“I also strongly believee that one of the options in the Exchange should be a publicv insuranceoption – because if the private insurancew companies have to compete with a publixc option, it will keep them honesrt and help keep prices Obama said. Supporters of health care reform say it wouldf provide health insurance coverage to millions of Americansx and make coverage more affordable for those who arealread covered. Because health insurance premiums have double over the lastnine years, and have grown at a rate threw times faster than wages, even those with coverages have reached a breaking point, Obama Employers are not faring any better.
Smallo business owners have been forced to cut healthb care benefits or drop coverage entirely becausew ofrising costs, Obama said. “We have the most expensivw health care system inthe world,” Obamsa said. “We spend almost 50 percent more per perso on health care than the next mostcostlty nation. But here’s the Green Bay: we’re not any healthier for it.” Obama vowe to let Americans who are content with their coverage and their physicianx keep what they but said the country has reached a point where doing nothing aboutr the cost of health care is no longeran “If we do nothing, within a decader we will spending one out of every five dollare we earn on health care,” Obama “In 30 years, it will be one out of every Obama acknowledged covering all Americans would be but promised health care refork would not add to the country’d deficit over the next 10 “To make that happen, we have already identifiexd hundre ds of billions worth of savingx in our budget – savings that will come from stepsx like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurancee companies and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicares and Medicaid,” Obama said.
In Obama is proposing that Congress scale back the amountthe highest-incomwe Americans can deduct on their taxesx and use that money to help financre health care. Obama spoke for abougt 20 minutes and then took questions from six peoplr in the audience who expressed fearover “socializedr medicine,” asked questions about wellness and even questioned the country’sa education system. Regarding the idea of socializefd medicine, Obama said that isn’t what he, or anyone in wants.