OBAMA: "It's Time To Deliver-Health Care Reform-Is Not A Luxury"

[kpete]

Obama to Forge a Greater Role on Health Care
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: June 6, 2009

WASHINGTON — After months of insisting he would leave the details to Congress, President Obama has concluded that he must exert greater control over the health care debate and is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, town-hall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers, senior White House officials say.

..................

But Mr. Obama has grown concerned that he is losing the debate over certain policy prescriptions he favors, like a government-run insurance plan to compete with the private sector, said one Democrat familiar with his thinking. With Congress beginning a burst of work on the measure, top advisers say, the president is determined to make certain the final bill bears his stamp.

more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/politics/07policy.html?_r=1&hp

.................

"This issue, health care reform, is not a luxury," Obama said during his weekly radio and Internet address, released Saturday while he visited France. "It's not something that I want to do because of campaign promises or politics. This is a necessity. This is something that has to be done."

Releasing an address on domestic policy on the heels of a major speech to Muslims in Cairo, the 65th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, and visits to Saudi Arabia and Germany showed Obama's commitment to health, advisers said.

Even while completing a whirlwind overseas trip, Obama used his weekly message to push for a health care plan whose momentum has slowed while the economy continued its downward slide. Initial bursts of activity have been overshadowed by the struggling auto industry, worried financial institutions and climbing unemployment.

"All across America, our families are making hard choices when it comes to health care. Now, it's time for Washington to make the right ones," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, released Saturday morning from the White House while Obama was in Paris.

"It's time to deliver."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090606/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_health_overhaul

[chill_wind]

1. If not now, when?

K & R.

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. Anything short of single payer

is not reform.

It is a sell out that undoubtedly will make some folks feel sanctimonious and self-righteous while doing nothing to improve access to health care for many of the millions who canot afford health insurance and/or health care.

[cali]

9. Nonsense. utter and complete. A viable public option

would make it reform on a rather large scale.

[NYC_SKP]

3. This is Attainable. Single Payer, much as we might prefer it, is not. Not yet.

We can cry all we want on this discussion board about how this is not enough, that anything less than single payer is some sort of joke.

I'd rather have improvements that help than to resist them while I insist on having something that I will not get.

We don't presently have a Congress that will let Single Payer happen.

It's that simple.

[snappyturtle]

4. Maybe the President fears he's losing some on his healthcare

policy and I am assuming that includes a public option. Have you seen this post?:http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5794961

It outlines what our congresscritters may have in store to handle a public option. President Obama has good reason to worry.

[NYC_SKP]

5. I did see that thread...

I'd love to see big pharma put out of our misery, let our universities and publicly funded research agencies provide these products at cost.

Of course, much as it makes sense, it's unlikely to happen.

Even our military services are being privatized.

Sigh.

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. Even with public option health care there will still be many people

that go without health care and live diminished lives and die unnecesarily early deaths because they cannot afford to secure necessary health care. Public option health insurance won't do anything for folks who cannot afford it. Perhaps you find that acceptable. I don't.

Blame COngress all you want. But the real failure rests within our citizenry. We are too ignorant and/or too selfish to insist that single payer be enacted. I guess it is easy to compromise with somebody else's life and well-being.

And, yeah, it's just that simple.

[and-justice-for-all]

12. The US not having UHC is appaling...

There is no fucking excuse for it at all. Turning Everything over to the free market is utterly insane, you see what it has gotten us? right on some things and severally wrong on others.

Some things, just on principle, should not be for profit and Health Care is on of those.

[endless october]

6. if we're going to have UHC...

then we need to pay for it. that means taxes go up. enough with this borrowing bullshit. it's making me very, very nervous.

[RC]

7. Our taxes may go up, but you will save by not paying for

Junkets, golden parachutes, obscene bonuses, billion dollar ad campaigns, services you paid for but are denied. You know, the status quo.

[eridani]

11. That taxes go up is beside the point if premiums to private insurers are eliminated

--and that money put into the pool of money used to pay for health care. We are already paying for universal health care--we just aren't getting it.

[annabanana]

14. I know that UHC would be a plus for MY pocket...

More than worth any taxes levied.

[and-justice-for-all]

13. Please...PLEASE tax me a little more so I do not have to stress

about going to the doctor or buying a prescription.

We pay a little less in taxes then France, a 4% tax increase to have UHC is acceptable. Which I am more than happy to pay.

[eridani]

15. And you won't have to pay insurance premiums. Should be a net plus n/t

[and-justice-for-all]

16. I know, RIGHT!!

Insurance companies will not die because of UHC, some will, but private insurance will still exist. It is still available in Germany and I am sure in all the other countries with UHC.

It still exist because some people think that the UHC does not go far enough, so they by a little more. But UHC is really for those who would other wise not have health care at all.

Companies would save MILLIONS from not providing health care to their eployees; you would think that would make them very fuckin' happy.

[eridani]

17. A heart attack is not like an iPod--it is like a house fire

Liposuction is like an iPod, though. Let private insurance take care of that kind of thing. Basic care should be a public good, like the fire department.

[and-justice-for-all]

18. Spot On!

People will still what Life Insurance, Auto Insurance, Home Owners/Renters insurance..etc.

[Wednesdays]

8. K&R

:kick:

[KakistocracyHater]

19. if you can't pay for an unexpected medical emergency

because of the sky-high inflated prices the insurance & drug corps. demand, somehow you're to blame-wtf? It's like breaking a horses' legs then demanding it runs a race to prove it can run-anywhere else this would be a crime, here? It's called "good for business".

Anyone remember good federal health insurance before Reagan got to it in 1980?

[Cleita]

20. Then he needs to ask Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers in the House, and

Bernie Sanders in the Senate to take over the reins of crafting a plan. Dennis spoke eloquently this afternoon about the folly of allowing the insurers and Big PhRMA to write the plans. He pointed to the failure of Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit for seniors as a perfect example of whom not to leave in charge of emptying our treasury twice by allowing them to be part of the program.