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

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“Health care reform is not something I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowsd ofabout 1,500 people Thursdat at Southwest High School in the Greeb Bay, Wis., suburb of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economid future. In past years and there may have been some disagreement on this Butnot anymore.” Earlier this month, Obamqa said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensivde health care bill by the end of the summet and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that would compete with private insurerz and be available for people not eligible for othe government health care programs such as Medicars or Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many businese groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’ profit-driven would drive private insurers out of On Thursday, the , a physician’s grou Obama is scheduled to meet with Monday in Chicago, said it is opposerd to a government-sponsored insurancde plan. Obama said his administration is workinbg on a Health Insurance Exchangw that would allow people to compare insurance benefitsand prices. None of the plans includedf in the exchange woule be allowed to deny coverage basedon pre-existingy conditions and all must include an basic benefit option.
“I also strongly believs that one of the optionw in the Exchange should be a publicx insuranceoption – because if the private insurancse companies have to compete with a publif option, it will keep them honestr and help keep prices Obama said. Supporters of healtn care reform say it would provids health insurance coverage to millions of Americans and make coveragd more affordable for those who are already Because health insurance premiumw have doubled over the lastnine years, and have grown at a rate thres times faster than wages, even thosr with coverage have reached a breaking point, Obam said.
Employers are not faring any Small business owners have been forced to cut healthy care benefits or drop coveragw entirely because ofrising costs, Obamaq said. “We have the most expensive healtj care system inthe world,” Obama said. “We spend almost 50 percen t more per person on health care than the next mostcostlty nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthietr for it.
” Obama vowed to let Americans who are contenr with their coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reached a poinr where doing nothing about the cost of healthb care is no longeran “If we do nothing, withi a decade we will be spendiny one out of every five dollars we earn on health Obama said. “In 30 years, it will be one out of everyg three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americansa wouldbe expensive, but promisesd health care reform would not add to the country’s deficiyt over the next 10 “To make that happen, we have alreadhy identified hundreds of billions worth of savingzs in our budget – savings that will come from steps like reducing Medicare overpayments to insuranc e companies and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicarw and Medicaid,” Obama said.
In addition, Obamq is proposing that Congress scale back the amountthe highest-income Americanse can deduct on their taxes and use that moneyh to help finance health care. Obama spok for about 20 minutes and then took questions from six people in the audience who expressed fearover “socialized medicine,” askede questions about wellness and even questionexd the country’s education system. Regarding the idea of socializee medicine, Obama said that isn’yt what he, or anyone in Congress, wants.