Obama: Doing 'nothing' about health care not an option - Business First of Louisville:

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“Health care reform is not something I just cookede up when Itook office,” Obama told a crowd of abou t 1,500 people Thursday at in the Greenj Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economic In past yearsand decades, therw may have been some disagreement on this point. But not Earlier this month, Obama said he wants Congressw to pass a comprehensive health care bill by the end of the summert and ready for his signatureby fall.
Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsoresd health insurance plan that would compete with privatew insurers and be availabls for people not eligible for other government health care programs such as Medicare or Most Republicans and manybusiness groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’ft profit-driven would drive private insurers out of On Thursday, the , a physician’s grouop Obama is scheduled to meet with Monday in said it is opposed to a government-sponsorer insurance plan. Obama said his administration is working on a Healthg Insurance Exchange that would allows people to compare insurance benefitsand prices.
None of the plans included in the exchange would be allowed to deny coveragd basedon pre-existing conditions and all must includw an affordable, basic benefit option. “I also strongly believed that one of the options in the Exchange should be a public insuranceoptiobn – because if the private insurance companies have to competw with a public option, it will keep them honesf and help keep prices down,” Obama said. Supportersz of health care reforkm say it would provide health insurancee coverage to millions of Americans and make coveragse more affordable for those who arealready covered.
Because healtbh insurance premiums have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate three timesd fasterthan wages, even thosse with coverage have reached a breaking point, Obama Employers are not faring any better. Small businesxs owners have been forced to cut healtgh care benefits or drop coverage entirely becauss ofrising costs, Obam said. “We have the most expensive health care system inthe world,” Obama said. “W e spend almost 50 percent more per personm on health care than the next mostcostl nation.
But here’s the thing, Greeb Bay: we’re not any healthier for Obama vowed to let Americans who are contentf with their coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reached a point whers doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longedan option. “If we do nothing, withibn a decade we will be spending one out of everh five dollars we earn onhealth care,” Obama said. “In 30 it will be one out of everh three.
” Obama acknowledged covering all Americans wouldbe expensive, but promisesd health care reform would not add to the country’e deficit over the next 10 “To make that happen, we have alreadyt identified hundreds of billions worth of savings in our budget savings that will come from step like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companiess and rooting out waste, fraudf and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid,” Obamz said. In addition, Obama is proposing that Congress scale back the amounthe highest-income Americans can deduct on their taxes and use that monegy to help finance health care.
Obama spoke for about 20 minutesx and then took questions from six peoplre in the audience who expressed fearover “socialize medicine,” asked questions about wellness and even questioned the country’sx education system. Regarding the idea of socialized medicine, Obam a said that isn’t what he, or anyone in Congress, “I’ve got enough stuffr to do,” he said. “I’ve got Nort h Korea and Iran. I’ve got Afghanistan and I think it would be greatt if the health care system was workinyg perfectly and ifwe didn’t have to get involvexd at all.
” Obama peppered many of his answers to the audienc with humor, even writing a 10-year-old girl named Kennedty a note excusing her from school aftefr her father said she was missin her last day of class to be at the Obama’s stop in Green Bay was the firs time he’s been in the state since takingv office and officials from the said he may have chose Wisconsin because of the state’s reputation for being a “higjh quality, low cost” provider of care in the Medicarwe program. In 2006, Medicare spent an average of $8,304 per In Wisconsin the averagewas $6,978, 16 percent lower than the nationalk average, according to the of Healtn Care.
The Dartmouth Atlaz has been cited several times recently by Obams as he makes the case for national health care According to theDartmouth Atlas, health spending in the Medicarer program could be reducerd by as much as 30 percent, or by $700 billiob a year, without compromisinbg the quality of care, if more doctors and hospitald practiced like those in low-cost areas. In a letter dated June 3 to Senatde FinanceCommittee members, Wisconsin’s Democratic Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl alongt with counterparts from Minnesotaq and New Hampshire, said they are “proud to represent states and regions that have demonstrated true leadership in lowerinyg costs….
and increasing quality outcomes for