Obama Health-Care Reform | 06/15/2009 11:05 am
President Obama to Pitch Health-Care Plan to American Medical Association, But Will It Sell? (Video)
Overhauling the nation’s health-care system is Obama’s top domestic priority, but will he be able to do what many presidents before him could not?
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President Obama today will try to sell his health-care plan to the American Medical Association — but he likely will face a tough crowd.
The group of 236,000 physicians — which has opposed its fair share of health-care legislation during the past two decades — wants to be part of the debate, and has the power to be a powerful friend or foe. What will Obama tell the AMA? For one, that too much money is being spent on treatments that don’t make Americans healthier, and another, that he wants the AMA to provide incentives for excellence, reports The Chicago Tribune. The president wants to raise cut backs on the growth of payments to hospitals and medical-equipment manufacturers, and pull back on spending on federal health programs for the elderly and poor, among other things, to pay for this huge reform proposal — expected to cost more than $1 trillion over the next decade. The rest of health-care reform likely will be paid for by tax increases, but we don’t know which ones yet. The Washington Post says, "Democrats are deeply divided over which taxes to raise, and the issue has become a central stumbling block in the push to enact legislation in the fall." Some Democrats want Obama to break his campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class.
Obama’s plan includes a government-funded public option it says will create more competition and lower treatment costs — an idea that has some Republicans steaming. The president will have to convince the AMA that the public option will work as well.
You can read more about Obama’s plan here. Listen to Obama’s weekend address, describing how he plans to pay for health-care reform, below. What do you think of his plan? Do you think it’s too little or too much? And can we really pay for it?
Read more about: AMA, American Medical Association, Democratic Party, Doctors, health care, Health-Care Reform, News, Obama Administration, President Obama, Public Option, republicans, U.S., Video
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383 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
It costs much more to fix something that is broken than it does to prevent it from breaking down in the first place. A great part of Obama’s plan focuses on prevention. Good for him. Right now, a doctor is not paid for the actual care a patient receives. He gets paid per visit. Most doctor visits are approximately six minutes in length with a prescription in hand and advice to come back in two weeks. Toss in the Medicare fraud, and we have a seriously broken system.
People who oppose the President’s initatives need to accept a scary fact. Unless you are Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, you are one step away from bankruptcy and severe debt if a serious accident or illness should befall you. Last year , 700,000 Americans could testify to that. Sadly, most of them had health insurance through an employer.
The AMA is about the status quo. In fact, one of its reasons for ‘concern’ was the doctor’s salaries. The majority of doctors want healthcare reform and there have been resignations from the AMA since it came out against reform.
Right! The AMA is a fading organization but the fact remains doctors own BC/BS. Once we get the for-profits out of healthcare, the money will be there - 15% of every Medicare dollar spent now goes to for profits, and that must stop. It’s a great time for the administration to clean the slate and start a new, better, healthier program, but will they do it? They’ll have to say bye bye corporate for profits, but at the same time, those same jobs will be in the non-profit sector, and the insurance companies will be still surviving on other insurance instruments. Watch … they’ll be next pleading for bail out funds. Oh me oh my.
I was shocked when one of our illustrous senators stated that when LBJ started Medicaid he said it would cost … but now it’s 1000% more. The idiot didn’t mention that is the increase in poverty level populace in this country as his "group" rose in wealth, and … 75% of that increase is going to sub-contractors CMS is paying, or that the states run Medicaid, and at least Texas farmed it out to an insurance company whose gate keepers have no medical licenses, nor are they qulaified in any way to function in the health care system. This whole for-profit mess is criminal.
It is now time that we the people took over healthcare reform in the nation. Obama told us not to wait for him, just do it, and we must.
well i am so pleased to see someone with a brain. i agree s.g. on june 15th we have to join together in this battle.
It’s hard to know whether Obama’s healthcare proposal is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/202015
Interesting article by R. Samuelson. On the other hand, Alter says the following, " The costs of modest reform are high, not just in dollars but in lost opportunity. It will be quite a while before the country has the appetite to confront this issue again."
In l963, President Johnson’s health care advisor called him with very bad news. Like most people, he dreaded having to give Johnson bad news. That bad news was that Medicare would cost $450 million more than expected, a very large sum in that year. After what must have seemed like an eternity, Johnson said, " Let it be". In July, 1965, he signed HR 6675 with former President Truman at his side, who was also the first person to be enrolled in Medicare. Truman had championed health care in l944. Later Carter tinkered with it lightly but he had far bigger isses with the hostages. We know how well Hillary fared in ‘93. Nothing with the Bushes.
I am with Alter. We cannot afford to be afraid of health care reform. There will be the naysayers, of course, and so many people are desperately afraid of any change. Some people fret just watching the weather channel. The cornerstone of prevention is what the President advocates. Minor problems caught right away , from a suspicious lesion to an infection to hypertension, may never blossom into a major problem. There is already some headway with Little Clinics, a company that operates 99 of these clinics in the USA. The cost? For basic evaluation, including cholesterol and hypertension screenings, is $60. This is just one example of reform that works , and that the President is clearly interested in, because these clinics keep people from the ER. The Cleveland Clinic partners with CVS, and the Mayo Clinic has an outpost in Minnesota.
Clearly , a little creative capitalism can accomplish good and great things…. but not if we are afraid to try.
Insurance giants panic at the prospect of competition www.hightowerlowdown.com (we must get Jim on Wowowow) and get rid of Baucus, who said at the opening senate hearing, "Everything is on the table with the exception of single payer . . . " for an open discussion?????? Transparency? Change? Freedom of speech?
It is up to us, now!
sjmorgan girly, LOOK AT IT THIS WAY . WON’T YOU PLEASE… O’BAMA AND HILLIARY CLINTON ARE TRYING THEIR BEST TO GET THE OWNERS OF THE LORDS FAVORITE PLACE , THE ONE HE WEPT FOR ——-JERUSALEM ——— TO BE HANDED OVER TO A COUNTRY THAT DOESN’T EVEN BELONG TO IT. JERU7SALEM TO GIVE IT AWAY SO THERE CAN BE PEACE????/ SOME PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THAT IS THE HOLY LAND WHERE THE TEMPLE IS AND WHERE ——-ETC. READ YOUR BIBLES PEOPEL. PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEWS. THE CZARS————-WHERE THE HEY DID THEY ALL COME FROM ALL AT ONCE?
JERUSALEM TO ANOTHER COUNTRY——-A HEALTH PROGRAM THATY SAYS WHEN WE CAN GO TO THE DR. >????????????????? THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS HAPPENING ALL AT ONCE AND UNEXPECTEDLY. HOW COULD HE COME UP WITH SO MANY IDEAS ALL AT ONCE.
NOW HE IS TAKING FROM OUR MEDICARE ? TAKING FROM, THE MEDICAID? MY SON IS A QUADREPHELIGIC AND HAS BEEN FOR 27 YEARS LAST MONTH. SAME BREAK AS JONI ERICKSON. 4TH & 5TH NECK VERTEBRAS BROKEN. HE IS INTELLIGENT AS ALL GET OUT. HE GRADUATED WITH 2 DEGREES. HE WENT TO WORK AND THE GOVERNMENT TOOK HALF OF WHAT HE MADE EXACTLY ALL AT ONCE HE HAD NO IDEA HE WAS DOING ANYTHING WRONG. SO THEY TOOK HIS S.S..I. CHECK FROM HIM. THEY KEPT IT AWAY FROM HIM UNTILL HE WAS PAID IN FULL BACK TO THE GOVERNMENT. B.S. OS HE WENT TO WORK AT ADIFFERENT JOB. FINDING A JOB FOR A QUAD. BELIEVE ME ISN’T EASY BUT HE KEPT SAYING ME TAKE ME HERE AND TAKE ME THERE AND HE GOT ANOTHER JOB AND THEN TO FIND OUT WHO TO SEND 1/2 OF HIS PAYCHECK TO SO THEY WOULD BE PAID AND ALL OF A SUDDEN NO ONE KNEW BOLOGNE. ABOUT HOW TO DO THTA ONE,. THAT IS CRAZY…….SO WHEN THEY TOLD HIM TO SEND HOW MUCH HE HAD IT SAVED BACK BUT THEY WOULDN’T ACCEPT A CHECK FROM HIM. IT HA DTO BE A CERTAIN TYPE OF CHECK ETC. THIS IS CRAP . GRADUALLY HE WAS BEATEN DOWN TO A WEE BIT OF A OVER EDUCATED QUAD. WHO SO MANY DECLARED COULDN’T WORK. SACHOOLING IS NOT CHEAP. THERE WERE THIGNS MOM AND DAD HAD TO PAY FOR ETC. WHAT IS IT THAT IS EASY./ BECOME A DRUG ADDICT OR A DRUNK AND THEN THEY CAN NOT PUSH THE MONEY DOWN YOUR THROAT FAST ENOUGH. HAVE ILLEGTIMATE BABIES AND THEY PUSH THE MONEY DOWN YOU. OUR QUAD SAID GEE I GUESS I COULD BECOME A WHORE AND THEN IT WOULDN’T BE SO BAD ON YOU MOM AND DAD. BUT WE TOLD HIM EDUCATED UP A MT. AND YOU STILL HAVEN’T LEARNED THAT YOU ARE A BOY QUAD. LOL! OS HE LIES IN BED NOW 24 -7 BECAUS EPEOPLE DO NOT WANT TO TAKE CARE OF HIM FROM THE HOME HEALTH CARE BECAUSE IT IS HARD TO LIFT PULL AND SHOVE A QUAD. THEY HAVE SCRATCHED HIM WITH THEIR NAILS AND THOUGHT HE CAN NOT FEEL IT.E IS B.S. TO GALORE GIRL AND NO ONE MOVES TO DO IT RIGHT! WE WILL END UP LOSING OUR QUAD DUE OT NONSENSE THAT ANOTHER BRAINY BULL WANST TO PUSH HIS WAY THRU THE 4 YRS. LIKE IN SOME CHINA SHOP. THANKS TO THE CHINA FOR THE KEEPING US IN DEBT TOO.
I believe we do need to do something about healthcare and I do not think there is anyone that disagrees with that! One of the largest concerns is the cost and especially right now when we are in debt up to our heads. Trillions of more debt, is just going to hurt the economy even more, if that is even possible.
The AMA is absolutely Not about status quo! I am always in awe of those who think that way and also who think it is all about money. It is so ridiculous! Here in Florida we are losing our doctors in groves because of the cost of malpractice insurance and overhead, which is the cost to run an office, if you can even afford to have a private practice, most cannot afford it any longer. There are so many things regarding medicine that the typical laymen does not understand at all. I think it would be a great thing for all of us to be educated about medicine. There might be some docs out there that provide 6 minute appointments, but I have never heard of such a thing. I, for one would not ever go back to a physician like that and most people would not.
Doctors lose their rear ends with the medicare patients, but most of all, the largest cost is the red tape and you basically need to hire someone, just for that job alone. It is a nightmare that you would not believe, which would be so much worse with the government involved even more. Heck, it is a nightmare to just get your drivers license!
If more people really understood what most doctors go through to just get to the point of practicing and understood their school loans which takes a decade to pay back, their overhead, and most of all the hours they put in, some would not choose to judge so quickly. Their children’s birthdays pass, Christmas’ pass, among all the other things that they miss out on because they have chose a profession to help others and to save lives. The doctors are Not the villains here, at all. Yes, I do realize that there are always bad apples in every bunch, but it is not fair to judge 250,00 doctors by a few who just are not commited to their patients and to medicine as a whole. I sure do not know the answer to this dilema and I realize it is getting worse. But, the one concern I have is trying to do this right now because of the cost and we know who is going to foot that bill. In normal times that would be acceptable, but today it is not. Most Americans Cannot afford for their taxes to go up at all. They barely can pay their mortgages and put food on their tables and that is if they are one of the lucky ones that still have a job! Whatever President Obama does, I just hope he does this slowly and listens to many others who really understand medicine, but I would hope that the Government would Never run medicine as a whole, it would be disaterous, but I do not believe that it is Obama’s goal to do that.