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

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“Health care reform is not something I just cooked up when I took Obama told a crowd ofabout 1,5000 people Thursday at in the Greej Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economic In past yearsand decades, thered may have been some disagreement on this But not anymore.” Earlier this month, Obama said he wantx Congress to pass a comprehensive healthg care bill by the end of the summef and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that would compete with private insurers and be availablr for people not eligible for other governmentt health care programs such as Medicare or Medicaid.
Most Republicanse and many business however, say a competing plan that isn’tt profit-driven would drive private insurers out of On Thursday, the , a physician’s groupp Obama is scheduled to meet with Mondayg in Chicago, said it is opposed to a government-sponsoresd insurance plan. Obama said his administration is working on a Healtgh Insurance Exchange that would allow peopl to compare insurance benefitsand prices. None of the plans included in the exchange would be allowed to deny coveraged basedon pre-existing conditions and all must include an basic benefit option.
“I also strongly believer that one of the options in the Exchange shoulde be a public insurance option because if the private insurance companies have to compete with apublic option, it will keep them honestr and help keep prices down,” Obamsa said. Supporters of health care reform say it woulx provide health insurance coverage to millions of Americans and make coveragde more affordable for thoses who arealready covered. Becausew health insurance premiums have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate three times fasterthan wages, even thosr with coverage have reached a breakinbg point, Obama said.
Employers are not faring any Small business owners have been forced to cut health care benefitsd or drop coverage entirely because ofrising costs, Obama said. “We have the most expensivre health care system inthe world,” Obama said. “We spend almost 50 percent more per person on healt care than the next mostcostly nation. But here’w the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthiert for it.” Obama vowed to let Americanxs who are content with their coveragw and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reacher a point where doingt nothing about the cost of health care is no longertan option.
“If we do nothing, within a decades we will spending one out of every five dollars we earn onhealty care,” Obama said. “In 30 it will be one out of every three.” Obama acknowledgec covering all Americans wouldbe expensive, but promised health care refornm would not add to the country’s deficit over the next 10 “To make that happen, we have already identified hundreds of billiones worth of savings in our budget – savingsz that will come from steps like reducinfg Medicare overpayments to insurance companiese and rooting out waste, fraud and abus in both Medicare and Medicaid,” Obama In addition, Obama is proposing that Congress scale back the amoun t the highest-income Americans can deduct on their taxeds and use that money to help finance health Obama spoke for abouy 20 minutes and then took questions from six peoplde in the audience who expressedr fear over “socialized medicine,” asked questionds about wellness and even questioned the country’es education system.
Regarding the idea of socialized Obama saidthat isn’t what he, or anyonre in Congress, wants.