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

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“Health care reform is not somethint I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowd ofabout 1,50o people Thursday at Southwest High Schoo in Ashwaubenon, Wis. “Igt is central to our economic future. In past yeares and decades, there may have been some disagreemeng onthis point. But not anymore.” Earlier this Obama said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensiv health care bill by the end of the summer and ready for his signatureby fall. Many Democrats, including the favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that would compete with private insurers and be available for peoplse not eligible for other government health care programzs such as Medicareor Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many businessw groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’tr profit-driven would drive private insurers outof business. On the , a physician’s group Obams is scheduled to meet with Monday in said it is opposed toa government-sponsoredf insurance plan. Obama said his administration is workinh on a Health Insurance Exchange that woul d allow people to compare insurance benefitsand prices. None of the planas included in the exchange would be allowed to deny coverage basedon pre-existinfg conditions and all must include an affordable, basic benefiyt option.
“I also strongly believe that one of the option in the Exchange should be a publi insuranceoption – because if the privats insurance companies have to compete with a publicd option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices down,” Obama said. Supporters of health care reform say it would provide health insurance coverage to millionws of Americans and make coverage more affordable for thosee who arealready covered. Because health insurance premiumws have doubled over the lastnine years, and have growhn at a rate three time faster than wages, even those with coveragew have reached a breaking point, Obama Employers are not faringv any better.
Small business owners have been forcedf to cut health care benefits or drop coveragse entirely because ofrising costs, Obamaw said. “We have the most expensivre health care system in the he said. “We spend almost 50 percent more per persojn on health care than the next mostcostly But, here’s the thing, Green Bay: We’re not any healthief for it.” Obama vowed to let Americans who are conteny with their coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reached a pointt where doing nothing about the cost of healtn care is no longer an option.
“Ic we do nothing, within a decade, we will spending one out of ever five dollars we earn onhealth care,” he “In 30 years, it will be one out of everh three.” Obama acknowledged coverinv all Americans would be but promised health care reform woule not add to the country’s deficit over the next 10 “To make that happen, we have already identified hundreds of billionsa worth of savings in our budget – savingzs that will come from stepas like reducing Medicare overpaymenta to insurance companies and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid,” he said.
In Obama is proposing that Congress scale back the amoungtthe highest-income Americans can deduct on theird taxes and use that money to help financse health care. Obama spoke for aboutg 20 minutes and then took questions from six people in the audience who expressed fearover “socialized asked questions about wellness and even questionede the country’s education system. Regarding the idea of socializes medicine, Obama said that isn’t what he, or anyone in wants. “I’ve got enough stuff to he said. “I’ve got North Korea and Iran. I’vr got Afghanistan and Iraq.
I think it woulr be great if the health care systen was working perfectly and ifwe didn’ t have to get involved at all.” Obama peppered many of his answerz to the audience with even writing a 10-year-old girl named Kennedty a note, excusing her from school after her fathefr said she was missing her last day of clasws to be at the Obama’s stop was the first time he’ been in the stater since taking office, and officials from the said he may have chosejn Wisconsin because of the state’s reputatioj for being a “high-quality, low-cost” provider of care in the Medicare program.