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“Health care reform is not something I just cooker up when Itook office,” Obama told a crowd of abou t 1,500 people Thursday at in the Green Bay suburgb of Ashwaubenon. “It is central to our economicx 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 e health care bill by the end of the summeer and ready for his signature by Many Democrats, including the president, favor a government-sponsored health insurance plan that wouled compete with private insurers and be available for peopls not eligible for other government health care programs such as Medicars or Medicaid.
Most Republicans and many businesws groups, however, say a competing plan that isn’tr profit-driven would drive private insurers out of On Thursday, the , a physician’s group Obamq is scheduled to meet with Mondagy in Chicago, said it is opposed to a government-sponsoredf insurance plan. Obama said his administration is workinvg on a Health Insurance Exchange that would allo people to compare insurance benefitsand prices. None of the planws included in the exchange would be allowed to deny coverages basedon pre-existing conditions and all must include an affordable, basic benefit option.
“oI also strongly believe that one of the optiona in the Exchange should be a public insurance option – because if the private insurance companies have to compete with a public it will keep them honest and help keep pricez down,” Obama said. Supporters of health care reform say it would providre health insurance coverage to millionsx of Americans and make coverage more affordablew for those who arealready covered. Because healtg insurance premiums have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate thre times fasterthan wages, even thoser with coverage have reached a breaking point, Obamaa said. Employers are not farinvg any better.
Small business owneras have been forced to cut healthj care benefits or drop coverage entirely becaused ofrising costs, Obama said. “Wwe have the most expensive healthg care system inthe world,” Obama “We spend almost 50 percent more per persom on health care than the next most costlt nation. But here’s the thing, Greeb Bay: we’re not any healthier for Obama vowed to let Americans who are content with theirt coverage and their physicians keep what they but said the country has reached a poinrt where doing nothing about the cost of healtu care is no longeran option.
“Iv we do nothing, within a decade we will be spendin one out of every five dollars we earn on health Obama said. “In 30 years, it will be one out of evert three.” Obama acknowledged covering all Americans would be but promised health care refor would not add tothe country’s deficigt over the next 10 years. “To make that happen, we have already identifiecd hundreds of billions worth of savinga in ourbudget – savings that will come from stepd like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companiesz and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicarer and Medicaid,” Obama said.
In addition, Obams is proposing that Congressd scale back the amountthe highest-income Americans can deduct on their taxes and use that moneyh to help finance health care. Obamsa spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questions from six peoplse in the audience who expressed fearover “socialized medicine,” asked questionss about wellness and even questioned the country’xs education system. Regarding the idea of socializede medicine, Obama said that isn’rt what he, or anyonre in Congress, wants.
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