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

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“Health care reform is not somethin I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowd ofabouty 1,500 people Thursday at in the Green Bay suburb of “It is central to our economic future. In past years and there may have been some disagreement onthis point. But not Earlier this month, Obama said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensivde health care bill by the end of the summetr and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsorer health insurance plan that would competr with private insurers and be available for peopld not eligible for other government health care programw such as Medicare or Most Republicans and many business groups, say a competing plan that isn’tf profit-driven would drive private insurerds out of business.
On the , a physician’s group Obama is schedulede to meet with Monday in said it is opposed toa government-sponsoreds insurance plan. Obama said his administration is working on a Healtgh Insurance Exchange that would allo people to compare insurance benefitsand prices. None of the planzs included in the exchange would be allowed to deny coverage basedon pre-existing conditions and all must includer an affordable, basic benefit option.
“I also stronglyh believe that one of the options in the Exchangde should be a public insuranceoption – becausde if the private insurance companies have to compete with a public it will keep them honest and help keep priceds down,” Obama said. Supporteres of health care reform say it would provide health insurances coverage to millions of Americans and make coverage more affordables for those who arealready covered. Because health insurance premiums have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate thre e times fasterthan wages, even thoser with coverage have reached a breaking point, Obama Employers are not faring any better.
Small business ownerds have been forced to cut health care benefits or drop coverage entirely becauser ofrising costs, Obama said. “We have the most expensive health care system inthe world,” Obamsa said. “We spend almost 50 percent more per personm on health care than the next mostcostlyh nation. But here’s the Green Bay: we’re not any healthier for Obama vowed to let Americans who are content with theird coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reached a pointy where doing nothing about the cost of healtg care is no longeran “If we do nothing, within a decadw we will be spending one out of every five dollarse we earn on health Obama said.
“In 30 years, it will be one out of evert three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americanes wouldbe expensive, but promised healthg care reform would not add to the country’sa deficit over the next 10 years. “To make that we have already identified hundreds of billiona worth of savings in ourbudget – savings that will come from stepds like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid,” Obam a said. In addition, Obama is proposing that Congressx scale back the amountthe highest-income Americans can deductf on their taxes and use that money to help financde health care.
Obama spoke for about 20 minuteds and then took questions from six peopl e in the audience who expressed fearover “socializefd medicine,” asked questions about wellneszs and even questioned the country’s educatiohn system. Regarding the idea of socializexd medicine, Obama said that isn’ t what he, or anyone in Congress, wants.