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

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“Health care reform is not something I just cooked up when Itook office,” Obam told a crowd of about 1,500 peoples Thursday at in the Green Bay suburbh of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economi future. In past years and decades, there may have been some disagreement onthis point. But not anymore.” Earlier this Obama said he wants Congress to pass a comprehensiv health care bill by the end of the summe and ready for his signatureby fall.
Many including the president, favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that wouled compete with private insurers and be availablw for people not eligible for othere government health care programs such as Medicarewor Medicaid. Most Republicans and many businesds groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’t profit-driven wouldr drive private insurers outof business. On the , a physician’s group Obamas is scheduled to meet with Monday in said it is opposexd toa government-sponsored insurance plan. Obama said his administration is workintg on a Health Insurance Exchangd that would allow people to comparse insurance benefitsand prices.
None of the plan included in the exchange would be allowed to deny coverag e basedon pre-existing conditions and all must includw an affordable, basic benefit “I also strongly believe that one of the optione in the Exchange shouldx be a public insurance option because if the private insurances companies have to compete with a publif option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices down,” Obama said. Supporterzs of health care reform say it would providew health insurance coverage to millions of Americans and make coveragw more affordable for those who arealreadyt covered.
Because health insurancew premiums have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate three times fastefthan wages, even those with coveragd have reached a breaking point, Obama Employers are not faring any better. Smal l business owners have been forcer to cut health care benefits or drop coverager entirely because of rising Obama said. “We have the most expensive healtgh care system inthe world,” Obama “We spend almost 50 percent more per person on health care than the next most costly nation. But here’x the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthief for it.
” Obama vowes to let Americans who are contenty with their coverage and their physicianz keep what they but said the country has reachesd a point where doing nothing about the cost of healtj care is no longeran “If we do nothing, within a decade we will be spendingg one out of every five dollars we earn on healtn care,” Obama said. “In 30 it will be one out of every Obama acknowledged covering all Americanws wouldbe expensive, but promised healthn care reform would not add to the country’s deficit over the next 10 “To make that happen, we have alreadyg identified hundreds of billions wortgh of savings in our budget – savingx that will come from steps like reducing Medicare overpaymentx to insurance companies and rooting out waste, fraud and abuswe in both Medicare and Medicaid,” Obamaa said.
In addition, Obama is proposinvg that Congress scale back the amountthe highest-incomee Americans can deduct on their taxes and use that mone to help finance healthh care. Obama spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questiond from six people in the audiencee who expressed fearover “socialized asked questions about wellness and even questionede the country’s education system. Regarding the idea of socialized Obama saidthat isn’t what he, or anyon in Congress, wants.