Obama Signals Willingness to Compromise on Health Reform

This should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. You the drugster aka rush limpballs has a drug problem. Get well soon the drugster aka limpballs.

Myth - "It will be very expensive to get good health to everyone." Fact - Actually there's a way we can have better universal health care at no more than we are now paying (see 5. below). Here are the facts (cf. www.pnhp.org): 1. We waste $100 - $200 Billion a year on the high overhead of insurance companies. 2. We waste 200 - $400 Billion a year on doctors filling out forms for insurance companies. 3. I don't know the compliance cost of patients fighting with insurance companies, but it must also be in the 100's of Billions. 4. We pay the highest drug cost in the world to drug companies that spend twice as much on profit and three times as much on "marketing" as they spend on research. This is about another $100 Billion each year. 5. Because of the above, we could give Super Medicare (few limitations, no co-pays, no deductibles and complete drug, dental & mental coverage) to everyone at no more cost per person than we are now paying. Other countries with single payer systems get better health care as measured by all the basic public health statistics and they do it at less than half the cost per person. If we build on our rotten system, we will get a health care system with rotten foundations.

I don't care what it takes, there has to be a way to bring health care cost under control. Reasons: 1). Too many working families do not have health care. I'm not talking the slime that won't work, I'm talking people that take any job they can. 2). you bring down the cost of health care, you bring down the costs to employers. More buisness's stay in this nation, employee costs are lowered and competive again with the rest of the world. See the auto industries health care/retirement packages. 3). There is more waste in health care then there is in the pentagon... Good god, I beleive in paying for quality products... But not to line the pockets of people that have nothing to do with the service provided. 4). Healthy workers equals less money lost to sick leave, again... Lower employee costs for manufactures. I don't care how it's done, but it has to be done.

Tort reform! Why are going through this exercise if the lawyers can bring punative law cases against doctors at the drop of a hat? This adds hundreds of billions to the cost of health care. Democrats receive a lot of campaign money from the trial lawyers. Is the goal to reform health care or is it to keep the special interests going and the campaign money flowing to Democrat coffers?

Healthcare will never be worth squat in the USA because it is and always will be strictly profit driven (like everything else). But one thing for sure, the illegals will continue to do well stealing our social benefits. The vetrans and seniors get worse healthcare than illegals!

I don't know how they will do it but I voted for all Democrats last November because I want health care legislation passed ASAP. My husband and I lost our health insurance and are very worried. Neither of us have any health problems but you never know. I know lots of people who go to emergency rooms for every health problem. That is very expensive for us all since the hospitals have to charge patients extra to cover those costs. That's one thing that will save money when we have govt health care similar to Medicare.

Working from the premise that there is going to be some form of mandate/requirement, is it possible to build on the Federal Employees' program? That covers an enormous number of people - my guess is combined it is by far the largest group policy, as such covering young and old, healthy and sick.....so would it be possible to tweak it and basically make those options available to everyone? Wouldn't it combine individual choice (there are many coverage options) with a centrally administered system? Just a thought.

Where my free health care? I want it and I want it now!

After how much gross privatization and capitalism have wrecked America, I heartily welcome more socialization of critical social programs, such as the universal health coverage practiced in Europe.

"That's one thing that will save money when we have govt health care similar to Medicare." - - - - - My goodness, do you people listen to yourselves? Do you actually think that Medicare is a success? Don't you realize that it will be bankrupt within ten years? And this is what you want our entire health insurance system to be like? Madness!

Do they have within the White House some type of task force working directly with the governors as a sort of economic emergency response team? Perhaps coordinating an effort to gain a better, TRUTHFUL picture of the true US economic situation would help improve real recovery, bypassing the occluded heads and PR think of Bernancke and the other Wall Street dross. I mention this because many will lose health care coverage with the job losses, ultimately, when they get sick, the government will pay, anyway. So why not keep them working while crafting a plan?

Every other nation on earth which industrialized over a century ago has universal health coverage. I appreciate President Obama's concerns about forced universal coverage in the USA context - we're likely to end up with a plan that makes physicians the new United Auto Workers and subjects low-income individuals to charges that would bankrupt them even before they get sick. I trust that the president will exercise good judgment in this matter. He's a savvy politician and means to leave a serious mark on US history. If that gives Republicans and physicians from India heartburn, I have a suggestion. Move there.

How many campaign promises has Obama kept? Any? These continued failing policies will eventually bring the American people to their knees! When will all the sheeple wake up?

Before people sign on to the idea of Universal Healthcare, they should first understand what a complete failure it is in Europe. Universal Healthcare will come down to the government, not your you or your doctor, deciding what treatment you or your loved one will receive. This is such an outrage! The fact of the matter is that all who need healthcare have access to it.

All I hear is more talk about the options we have,sound familiar. I can hear it now, Socialism, welfare, but these same citizens can't come up with and idea besides a lot of crying. Republicans don't have and idea, they think everything is fine

The cost of healthcare here is way out of contol - I just paid a bill for $172 for a "canvas arm sling", made in China for probably 50 cents - how ridiculous is that??????!!!!!!!!!

independent_1, it would be truly alarming if any American who got sick could just go to a doctor, wouldn't it? Or should I say, any nation which could be bankrupted by allowing that to happen must either be incredibly unproductive, or in the grip of one or more powerful minorities intensely interested in keeping some folks miserable. I have no doubt that American workers can be as productive as any in the world, though to tell the truth our nation's productivity can't compare to that of Western Europe or Japan due to the unique legacy of slavery and our willingness to take in "huddled masses yearning to be free". The minorities I'm speaking of, who enjoy a death-grip on the health care issue here, aren't black people or illegal immigrants. They're powerful health insurance companies, and the "International Brotherhood of Physicians and Surgeons" - otherwise known as the American Medical Association.

People in this country are working for their employer provided health care benefits. What's the net cost of folks staying at jobs they can't stand just so they can afford to get sick? Think maybe a lot of the seemingly wacky, stupid, dangerous things people do might just be related? Road rage? Domestic violence? Child abuse? Maybe the odd mass murder? Just something to think about. Oh yeah - about a national health care plan being too expensive . . . It's already too expensive! Our de facto national health care plan now is poor people who defer treatment and go to the emergency room with advanced illnesses. Anybody here think that NOT a tax ? Maybe it's just well hidden.

to bgormley1: I empathize with your situation. Are you prepared to have over half of your income go to the government to pay for healthcare? This is not free, people. And since when has the government run ANYTHING efficiently. Unfortunately, this crazy idea will likely pass only because everyone falsely believes they will get something for nothing. Interest rates and inflation are about to sky-rocket as a direct result of Obama's reckless unprecidented spending. Increased unemployment will likely follow...ask any economist....It's interesting how Obama's reckless spending is much like the irresponsible consumer running up his/her credit card- the very problem that got the country into this mess! baffling really...

I am a Massachusetts resident and small business sole proprietor. I pay for my own health insurance through Tufts. I'm a registered Democrat, but have voted Republican as often as not. I was prepared to be cynical and negative about the Mass Connector health care insurance program proposed by Rommney, but implemented by Patrick, which seems to be a model for several current national proposals. Surprise!!! I'm saving over $250 per month on my premiums, with a pretty similar policy, (more on routine deductibles, but still capped out on major expenses). Basic preventative care is paid for (mammograms and stuff like that). I've got the same docs. So far all communications with the Mass Connector and Tufts have been easy. I'm 57, but healthy. TG the worst case scenario has not been tested, but if this type of system went national, we would probably be better off than we are now.

Right now the rich and middle class have good healthcare, and the poor don't have much of anything. Under universal care, the rich continue with good care, the poor get a little more, and the middle class takes it in the shorts. Big time. Don't underestimate the number of people coming out of the woodwork needing healthcare. It will be overwhelming. Sorry, but I don't want to be in a queue behind some street person that hasn't showered in months that needs a liver transplant, bottled oxygen, and other expensive care because of their lifestyle choices. Especially since I paid into the system when I was healthy, and will shortly find out there isn't enough to go around when I need it now. And do you want gov't bureaucrats meeting to decide between your heart transplant when the only thing on their mind is when the heck do they break for lunch?

Right now we have a perverse incentive for employers of good, productive low-income workers to keep them at about 38 hours per week, so that they don't have "full time workers" and find themselves in competition with employers who offer health benefits. If you're familiar with non-union grocery and pharmacy operations you know what I'm talking about. Our economic system would be much more rational if the health care issue were removed from company vs company competition calculations by some form of national health care. It can't be in the taxpayers' interest to keep a mother of 3 who's proven to be a reliable worker, working part time at the minimum wage with no health insurance. And if you don't think that's happening in big and little towns all across the USA, you just don't know where to look.

There "IS" healthcare for all, the problem is not everyone wants to pay for it. So once again, the liberals want the taxpayers to pay for the healthcare of those (DNC base) that expect healthcare to be for free. Just another "free ride" on the Obamaexpress!!

cschotta1 wrote: "There 'IS' healthcare for all, the problem is not everyone wants to pay for it." So how does that work for two parents with three children, both parents working as hard as they can at local retail outlets which won't hire anyone full time and pay no benefits? Out of their combined, say, 70 hours per week of minimum wage paychecks, after social security tax is deducted, they're supposed to go into the open market for health insurance and buy a policy for a family of five that would cost, oh, 60 per cent of their take home pay per month? You, my friend, are believing what it is convenient for a person in your position to believe - as opposed to believing what is the case.

How much would we save from reducing lifestyle related illnessess? Diabetes, obesity and smoking related disease are all avoidable. Put out the cig, put away the doritos turn off the boobtube and get off the couch. America would save billions without socialized healthcare.

I WANT TO BUY THE SAME GROUP INSURANCE POLICY THAT CONGRESS GETS. NOTHING LESS!

free health care for ALL americans. if the unwashed europeans can do it, surely the great white america can too.when health care is finally passed, and it will.those opposed will look like the angry racist holding the water hose during the civil rights days.jump into the new century, you have been left behind.

BIGGER Government = Job Security for Politicians........... smaller Government = Job Responsibility for Politicians.......

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Going to a system like Germany has would certainly work. Or even Switzerland. Almost anything works better than our non-system, and the added bonus is that every other system is significantly cheaper, which amounts to a massive universal tax cut. check out Frontline online. (frontline.org) they have two companion pieces - one is "Sickl Around the World" which does an analysis of several different countries health care systems, and one is called "Sick in America." We should be ashamed of how wretched our health delivery systems are, and we should be shocked and outraged at how much we pay for substandard care.

Smeagol, how would that have worked when the consensus among witch doctors was that margarine and crisco (trans fats) were healthy alternatives to butter and lard? We already have intrusive do-gooders telling us how to eat. That was supposed to be one of the costs of getting national health insurance. Guess what? We don't have national health insurance, and we've already paid that price. There's no end to the rationalizations you (generic you, not you in particular) will come up with to justify keeping the guy down the street from seeing the doctor if his seeing the doctor would run up your bill.

If we are to have a national health care system, it must NOT be a health insurance program. Insurance is meant for catastrophic events not routine medical treatment. What we would need instead is a health care program. The current health insurance system is also bloated and inefficient. If a national insurance program is implemented, it should not be "given" to health insurance companies, they will simply rip the US citizens off. We need to have a system where the patient and doctor have no middle-man between them. That, I realize will be difficult to implement. For now I don't have a solution, other than keep the health insurance companies out of it.

I think the wealthy have better coverage, I don't know if that results in better care. The middle classes, and I include most doctors in that category, are burdened by what health care has become in this country. And most Americans can't even get insurance once they lose their jobs, even when they can pay the insurance companies are so incompetent and badly managed they refuse covereage for even temporary health problems, never mind the big, chronic ones, like heart disease. So, one way or the other, our government is affected, and we all pay until they clean it up. And I have to wonder about those advocating against reform -- if you're a middle-aged guy and you lose your job, and you even have an inkling of heart problem, they will refuse you, or you will end up with bottom of the barrel care, if you can even get that...

Had I never witnessed $300/k per year businessmen in five hundred dollar suits venting their spleen on minimum wage clerks at McDonalds restaurants, I would take Republican arguments more seriously.

If you don't want universal health care coverage, you have probably never been without it, which means you've been lucky, perhaps, and stupid, surely.

Howard Dean is correct. "a"(Toothy, Robust)"public health insurance option is more important than bipartisanship, and Democrats should pass health-care legislation that includes the option with 51 votes if necessary." "Democrats should have "no intention" of working with Republicans if it's not the strongest possible legislation that could be passed with a simple majority." (Howard Dean) This is what WE THE PEOPLE gave the Democrats all that power to do for ALL of us. You see, Dr. Dean knows that in medicine and healthcare there is only one acceptable standard. And that standard is the HIGHEST level of EXCELLENCE you can provide for everyone. Nothing less has ever been acceptable in caring for a precious human life. And the White House is right too. "Good health care reform is essentially good economic policy." (Christina Romer) jacksmith -- WORKING CLASS

"A government-run plan would set artificially low prices that private insurers would have no way of competing with," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday on the Senate floor. Exactly! And this is bad why? For god's sake, we've waited long enough - now go to the corner and lick your sores.

We're going to force congress and the President to enact single payer universal health care. Go here to sign these 2 petitions with political teeth that will force Baucus to enact single payer universal health care. Go to http://bit.ly/single_payer_baucus http://bit.ly/single_payer

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