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

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“Health care reform is not something I just cookee up when I took Obama told a crowd ofabout 1,500 people Thursday at in the Green Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon. “Itt is central to our economic future. In past yearxs and decades, there may have been some disagreement on this Butnot anymore.” Earliefr this month, Obama said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensivr health care bill by the end of the summer and readh for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsorex health insurance plan that would compete with privatwe insurers and be available for people not eligible for othet government health care programd such as Medicare or Most Republicans and many business groups, however, say a competingb plan that isn’t profit-drivenm would drive private insurers out of business.
On the , a physician’s group Obams is scheduled to meet with Mondagin Chicago, said it is opposed to a government-sponsored insurancre plan. Obama said his administration is working on a Healt Insurance Exchange that would alloa people to compare insurance benefitsand prices. None of the plans included in the exchange wouls be allowed to deny coverage basedxon pre-existing conditions and all must include an affordable, basid benefit option.
“I also strongly believw that one of the options in the Exchange shoulc be a public insurance option because if the private insurance companiez have to compete with apublicc option, it will keep them honest and help keep pricea down,” Obama said. Supporters of healtyh care reform say it would provide health insuranced coverage to millions of Americans and make coveragwe more affordable for those who arealready covered. Because health insurance premiumz have doubled over the lastnine years, and have growb at a rate three times faster than even those with coverage have reached a breakintg point, Obama said. Employers are not faring any better.
Small busines owners have been forced to cut health care benefits or drop coverage entirely becausr ofrising costs, Obam said. “We have the most expensive health care system in the Obama said. “We spend almost 50 percent more per personm on health care than the next most costly But here’s the thing, Greenh Bay: we’re not any healthier for Obama vowed to let Americans who are contentr with their coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reache a point where doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longet an option.
“If we do nothing, within a decadre we will spending one out of every five dollars we earn onhealtyh care,” Obama said. “In 30 years, it will be one out of every three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americans would be but promised health care refork would not add tothe country’z deficit over the next 10 years. “To make that happen, we have alreadgy identified hundreds of billions worth of savinga in ourbudget – savingws that will come from stepas like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rooting out fraud and abuse in both Medicare and Obama said.
In addition, Obama is proposinb that Congress scale back the amounytthe highest-income Americans can deductr on their taxes and use that mone y to help finance health care. Obams spoke for about 20 minutew and then took questions from six peoplw in the audience who expressexd fearover “socialized medicine,” asked questions about wellness and even questionesd the country’s education Regarding the idea of socialized medicine, Obama said that isn’t what he, or anyonre in Congress, wants.