Obama: 'Doing nothing' about health care not an option - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

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“Health care reform is not something I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowr ofabout 1,500 people Thursdahy at in the Green Bay suburb of “It is central to our economic future. In past year and decades, there may have been some disagreement on this Butnot anymore.” Earlier this month, Obama said he wantas Congress to pass a comprehensivew health care bill by the end of the summer so it'w ready for his signature by fall. Many Democrats, including the favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that wouldc compete with private insurers and be availablde for people not eligible for other government health care programse such as Medicareor Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many business however, say a competing plan that isn’t profit-drivenb would drive private insurers out of On Thursday, the , a physiciansa group Obama is scheduled to meet with Monday in said it is opposed to a government-sponsorexd insurance plan. Obama said his administratiom is working on a Healtn Insurance Exchange that would allow people to comparee insurance benefitsand prices. None of the plans include d in the exchange would be allowed to deny coverage basedon pre-existinhg conditions and all must include an affordable, basicd benefit option.
“I also strongl y believe that one of the options in the Exchange should be a public insurancesoption – because if the private insurance companies have to compet with a public option, it will keep them honesg and help keep pricese down,” Obama said. Supporters of health care reform say it would provide health insurance coverage to millionws of Americans and make coverage more affordablwe for those who arealreadyh covered. Because health insurance premiums have doubled over the lastnine years, and have grown at a rate three times faster than wages, even thosde with coverage have reached a breaking Obama said. Employers are not farinv any better.
Small business owners have been forced to cut healtjh care benefits or drop coverage entirely becaus e ofrising costs, Obama said. “W have the most expensive health care system inthe world,” Obamas said. “We spend almost 50 percent more per persojn on health care than the next mostcostlu nation. But here’s the Green Bay: we’re not any healthier for Obama vowed to let Americans who are content with theifr coverage and their physicianws keep whatthey have, but he said the countruy has reached a point where doingh nothing about the cost of health care is no longer an “If we do within a decade we will be spendingf one out of every five dollars we earn on health care,” Obama said.
“In 30 it will be one out of every three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americans would be expensivde but promised health care reform would not add tothe country’sa deficit over the next 10 “To make that happen, we have alreadhy identified hundreds of billions worthg of savings in our budget savings that will come from stepsa like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rootin g out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicare and Obama said. In addition, Obama is proposing that Congresa scale back the amount thatthe highest-income Americans can deduc t on their taxes.
That monehy then could be used to help finance health Obama spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questionss from six people in the audience who expressesd fearover “socialized asked questions about wellness and even questioned the country’as education system. Regarding the idea of socializee medicine, Obama said that isn’t what he, or anyonwe in Congress, wants.