Three health care questions for Barack Obama
President Barack Obama will talk about health care reform in a nationally televised press conference tonight and at a town hall-style meeting in Cleveland on Thursday.
His speech comes as a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll shows declining confidence in Mr. Obama’s handling of health care reform. For the first time, fewer than half of Americans say they approve. That’s down from 57 percent in April.
Mr. Obama is an articulate man and a dynamic public speaker. We won’t presume to tell him what to say. But we hope he’ll answer these three questions when he speaks to the American people:
• “What’s the rush?”
A chorus of critics is urging Congress to slow down reform efforts. That’s an argument for the status quo — a prohibitively expensive system that provides uneven quality and excludes millions of middle-class Americans and millions more who are poor.
History suggests that if health care reform isn’t enacted within the next year, it may be years before Congress has the nerve to tackle it again. We all would pay the price for our failure to act, some more than others.
While we wait, an average of 720 men, women and children in Missouri lose health insurance each week. In Illinois, about 1,660 people become uninsured every week.
More than 50 million Americans already are without health insurance, an increase of about 4.3 million in just the last 18 months.
If unemployment hits 10 percent by year’s end, as many economists predict, that figure probably will climb to 51.5 million. That’s about one of every five people under the age of 65.
And those people lucky enough to have coverage will continue to see their out-of-pocket costs increase.
• “Isn’t it too expensive?”
Yes, reform will be expensive. But doing nothing will be even more expensive.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that current reform proposals would cost about $100 billion a year in each of the next 10 years.
That sounds like a lot of money. In fact, it is one quarter of 1 percent of overall health spending. We’ll spend about $8,200 per person on health care this year. Without reform, we’ll spend about $13,100 per person in 2018.
That puts American businesses at a competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace. It also places an undue burden on companies that offer health benefits to their workers.
Without reform, the number of businesses offering health insurance will continue to shrink, and the number of people without health insurance will grow.
Republicans are touting a federal report showing that 23 million workers would have their coverage shifted to a so-called public option health plan if the Democratic reform is approved. That includes 8 million already covered by Medicaid.
Without reform, all those workers — and at least 18 million more — simply might be uninsured, and the cost of their care in clinics and emergency rooms will be passed on to the rest of us.
• “Won’t reform mean the government will make decisions that should be made by patients and doctors?”
Right now, those decisions aren’t being made by patients and doctors. They’re being made by for-profit insurance companies, which can and do increase earnings by blocking care.
Yes, insurance companies are responsive to customers’ needs and wants. But you are not the customer. Your human resources manager is.
In recent years, human resource managers have been under pressure to rein in insurance costs. So insurance companies instituted higher deductibles and tiered co-payments for prescription drugs, costing you more.
None of the reform plans in Congress calls for a new government-run single-payer system. But Medicare, which is a single-payer government plan, gets higher satisfaction marks from its customers than any private insurance plan gets from its customers.
So if government-run health insurance is good enough for the elderly, the military, veterans, the president and members of Congress, why isn’t it an option for the rest
“So if government-run health insurance is good enough for the elderly, the military, veterans, the president and members of Congress, why isn’t it an option for the rest”
It ISNT good enough for our veterans, the VA is in shambles.
The President and Congress exempted themselves from this bill, they WONT sign up their families for the “public option”
Have you seen how the government runs IHS? Disgraceful.
The correct statement should be “If it isnt good enough for the President and Congress, it isnt good enough for America.”
#1 The reason there’s a rush is to get this boondoggle passed before the public fully understands what a disaster this “reform” bill is. The “status quo” isn’t such a bad thing compared to a multi-trillion-dollar plan that will Not lower costs, will NOT guarantee keeping your current plan or doctor, and will NOT improve quality. It WILL lead to government control, huge tax increases, and less freedom for the American people.
#2 Government can only control costs by rationing healthcare. Anyone who claims we can insure 40 million ADDITIONAL people, provide a high level of quality care, and save money is a liar!
#3 Medicare is going broke. And patients and doctors are not making decisions for Medicare patients, the government is! Go to the Medicare website and read through the patient handbook. It has as many rules, restrictions, and regulations as any private plan. And most people have to purchase an additional Medicare
supplemental health policy to help pay for all the things Medicare DOESN’T cover. Seniors also must enroll in a RX drug plan that has a formulary with tiered costs just like everybody else.
One more point: The proposed ObamaCare plan will not affect the President and members of Congress. They get to keep the sweetheart plan they presently have. Funny how the “reform” plan the Post is so enamored of isn’t good enough for our elected representatives.
As a combat disabled vet, the VA totally stinks, it tries like the military to low ball our disabilities and make us take years sometimes to get the benefits we deserve. Also, if the doctor is guilty of a malpractice event, we can’t sue the government and the parties that make the mistake. We just have to suck it up and drive on. If this is what one thinks is good enough for us disabled vets and the military, I want no part of this. I will not buy insurance because the disability I have will not and can not change. Why should I run to a doctor and get told the same thing. They make us go every year. I would refuse to do that if I could. There are people that need the medical more than I do. I am totally health and hope to stay that way. If something happens and I am not, I will not run around blaming the world for my problems. Here in Southern Illinois, the VA has stopped major operations because of the deaths of my fellow vets due to an quack doctor they had hired. Get ready folks, the worse is yet to come. So much for bozobama and his so called health care. I want no part of this.
It’s a conflict of interest for Democrats to include a public option in health care reform. Democrats will be using taxpayer money to create a bureaucracy and a constituency of medical patients beholden to them. This is an attempt to solidify power before taxpayers wise up. Worse, government run insurance will undermine choice in health care and the lack of choice will dampen the demand for innovation. We need a market driven health care system to keep medical research jobs in this country and to make more affordable medical care options.
With regard to customer satisfaction with Medicare, if you are retired and move to Mexico, where you can live much more cheaply than in the United States, Medicare benefits from the U. S. government are not available. Consequently, if you leave the country, any private insurance plan should be more popular than Medicare.
Would you want your doctor to just do something when you visit him? Or would you want him to take time and do something meaningful and productive? It’s a shame the Obama Agenda only lasted 6 months. Here’s to 2010 and 2012!
Better watch out, editor, all those senators in the back pocket of corporate health care profiteers might tell them to have their leg breakers pay you a midnight visit. They’ve been making huge fortunes from the health care system for a long time by telling everybody the lawsuits were driving the prices up and conveniently leaving out the part about keeping their good-old-boy money-mongering docs from getting fired for incompetence no matter how many patients they poisoned, maimed and killed. Those same senators were probably the ones that voted to keep people from buying cheaper medicine from Canada and you can bet, they don’t want health care fixed or even looked at too close.
Great spelling of the Prez’s name in the headline, LOL.
What’s the rush? If it’s not passed soon, Obama might not have a supermajority and then it’s even more unlikely to pass. Not to mention the bill is full of ideaology and the public has been ill informed as to what this bill actually means. It’s a game of confuse everyone now, and work out the details later.
Isn’t it too expensive? Yes it is too expensive. The US gov’t doesn’t have the money first off and secondly, the GOV’T SHOULDN’T BE IN THE BUSINESS OF RUNNING MY HEALTHCARE. WHY DON”T YOU LIBERALS GET THAT!!!!!
““Won’t reform mean the government will make decisions that should be made by patients and doctors?”
Right now, those decisions aren’t being made by patients and doctors. They’re being made by for-profit insurance companies, which can and do increase earnings by blocking care.”
That statement is a complete and total lie. Both my doctor and I are making decisions about my healthcare. And that’s the same way it is for everyone with insurance. You might have to work within the guidelines of your insurance carriers restrictions, but for the most part you can get almost any test, treatment or procedure performed.
And finally, it’s not an option for the rest of us b/c again, THE GOV’T SHOULDN’T BE RUNNING HEALTHCARE!!!!! It’s not the job of gov’t to provide health insurance to it’s citizens. And it’s not the obligation of the wealthy to pay for anyone’s health insurance.
Editorial Board:
Apparently the anonymous commissars who make up the Editorial Board are no better at answering their own questions than they are in the ham handed editing of critical comments to their positions. I’ll try to help.
“• “What’s the rush?”
A chorus of critics is urging Congress to slow down reform efforts. That’s an argument for the status quo — a prohibitively expensive system that provides uneven quality and excludes millions of middle-class Americans and millions more who are poor……… And those people lucky enough to have coverage will continue to see their out-of-pocket costs increase.”
A megalomaniacal community organizer has no particular expertise in health care or the insurance coverage required for it, yet he charges amuck into the most critical decisions made for every American.
Patient payment for 100 percent of routine office visit costs to their doctor would be an “out-of-pocket costs increase” reducing most of the expensive processing of claims to insurance companies and consequently, drastically reduce the cost of premiums. If loopies were left to their own devices, (I wonder why the UAW and elected federal officials didn’t think of this?) insurance would cover limousine service to and from their every medical evaluation.
“• “Isn’t it too expensive?”
Yes, reform will be expensive. But doing nothing will be even more expensive.”
Isn’t that cute? Offer false choices then select the one that advances your agenda. If the Editorial Board has the name of just one American who thinks nothing should be done because every health care program is just hunky-dory, why not expose them to the ridicule they deserve? The Board does their readers a disservice by discussing what they think is a better option while haughtily dismissing a phantom bogeyman.
“• “Won’t reform mean the government will make decisions that should be made by patients and doctors?”
Right now, those decisions aren’t being made by patients and doctors. They’re being made by for-profit insurance companies, which can and do increase earnings by blocking care.”
This power grab called Reform does mean that like insurance companies today, government will make decisions that should be made by patients and doctors. Insurance companies do not block care, they decide if their policy covers and reimburses specific medical procedures and the insured patient decides if they want a treatment that is not paid for by somebody else. If you think this same situation will not exist in your version of REFORM, you have an obligation of honor to share some of that stuff you’re smoking.
You won’t presume to tell him how to answer, because you don’t have to. President Obama will continue to promote a government takeover of healthcare using the same misleading left-wing rhetoric that has been warming hearts for years at 900 North Tucker.