Obama to Critics on Health Care: "What's Your Answer?”

Anthony, I don't believe I will be taking the advice of one that seems to have no concept of how to make a point;being as you repeat the same argument and act as if it were a separate point. Although I do respect your freedom to speak.

I have been a Republican my entire life. I still am and I have worked for the Bush and McCain campaign along with donating more time and money than most people in this country ever have. I feel the Republican party is falling out of touch with mainstream Americans more every day. Universal Health Care is socialized medicine, just as our education system is socialized education.

When it comes to taking care of the health of our citizens, why would anyone object unless they have alterior motives like being in the pocket of big insurance? England and Canada seem to be able to make health care for their citizens available and financially viable. Why can't the most powerful country on the planet do the same?

To refute your comment I think you should know that President Obama has recently stated that anyone who does not wish to have health care as an individual will NOT be fined for it. So everyone still has the right to participate or not. Although one will not realize how much he or she needs health care until he or she needs health care.

I towed the line on health care for a long time before I realized the ignorance in not caring for our people. However, I had to learn the hard way. I played hockey my entire life, including representing my country on the United States Jr. Team. I also worked 80 hours a week for ten years once my career in hockey ended at a major Division I College due to a severe back injury. I wanted to continue to work but it got to the point where I would return to work after a surgery, be able to work for six months and end up under the knife again. This ended a very promising work career and the potential for me to get any job in the future.

Now, since after 18 months after I had to leave work for physical reasons, I tried to purchase every insurance I could and money was no option. However, there are no insurance companies out there that will cover me due to my preexisting conditions. There is a state insurance option that is available as a last resort for people like me, but there are several problems with it.

First of all, they put an 18 month preexisting condition limit on all of my doctor bills, which put a $16,000 financial burden on me. Secondly, they refuse to cover the medications I need which costs me $2500 a month. I make a decent amount of money due to my life insurance policy that I put money in my entire life, but I don't know of many people that can afford $2500 a month for medication. Therefore, I have to life in miserable pain and because I cannot have the proper treatments done, I will most likely never be able to walk again.

In short, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the United States like me - ashamed, demoralized and desperate. I am in favor of fiscal conservatism, a powerful military and low taxes. But if the government offers me a health plan that will allow me to purchase it and cover me for the necessary treatments and medications I need, ignoring my preexisting conditions, I have no problem paying whatever premium they see fit to charge.

Only the ignorant who do not see the suffering people in this country as people can be so obtuse;a country that is known around the world for it's generosity. I believe in the constitution, yet I believe our founders would be baffled by our lack of assistance for those who truly need it. And I can finally say, with a whole heart and no reservations, that for the first time in my life, unless the Republican Party has a change of heart, I will never vote for a Republican candidate again until they get on board and pass a National Health Care Plan that can aid the suffering, the poor, the weak, the huddled masses who come here or have come here, yearning to be free. Freedom isn't free and the pursuit of happiness will never be complete until all citizens of this great country can be bretheren, truly loving thy neighbor, caring about one another and ensuring that we are all healthy enough to pursue our American Dream.

These are my thoughts on what I have read on the web. First I live in New Jersey so writing any of my representives is a joke. They just want to raise taxes and put money in their pockets.
Ok The great health care law.
Lets see:
First if passed I get Health care from someone.
Second oh I have to choose or be fined. Thank you.
Third there goes one of my constitutional rights to choose. Thank you
Fourth If I don't choose I get fined. Yeah America.
Fifth I get my taxes raised to cover the new health paln. Yeah Thank you Mr. President and the rest of my elected officals.
Sixth Lets take money from medicad and medicare which takes care of the elder already.
I'm missing these plans and promises.The stimulus plan was a joke. You give me extra money and OH gas goes, cost of living goes up, taxes go up. Thank you.
The only people seeing any benifit from the current leadership are those who represent us.
These are my opinions. If the heath bill gets past we will give up our right as Americans to choose and hand ourselves over to be controled by the goverment.

Nightline (ABC) has long ago betrayed its journalistic integrity even so far back as the campaign trail and this interview for tomorrow's show is no different. My personal belief is that the answer to the healthcare crisis is in the free market. Tell people that paying $7.00 for inpatient aspirin tablets is not the final answer - a Nurse can - for perhaps $1.00 per elevator trip, go to Walgreens next door to buy aspirin for an overpriced $7.00 a bottle.

For the last 4 months I have worked for the nation's largest COBRA administrator, and everyone calls to say that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is "Obama's Subsidy" for people who were laid off and who are expected in normal conditions to pay 100% of the charges by insurance companies for continued healthcare coverage that they experienced under a Group Health Plan while at work. It is not "Obama's Subsidy," and in fact it is the former employer - not the government who is expected to pick up the 65% of the former employee's Group Health Plan premiums. The fact that the general public does not realize it goes to the burden of the former employer, and not the government is the start of a clue of the entire deception of the Obama Administation's goal to hide the fact that corporations are evil, and government equals Messianic salvation. Yes, employers can claim tax deductions on their 1099's, but in fact this creates a cash flow crisis within the corpporations, and the result, in fact, is the predictable and manifest higher unemployment numbers.

Because Big Health has Congress firmly in its pocket through legalized bribery, by the time bribed legislators are finished with their dirty work in behalf of their secret masters, no meaningful health reform will be have been enacted.

By the way networks such as CNN and FOX News only post little details about health reform benefits, funding and costs to simplify the debate when the real situation is more complex, because if the solutions required easy consessions and changes, then there would be no such health care crisis. Networks only post specific opinions of reporters and analysts who make opinions of pundits and political analysts who make personal opinions due to personal biases, and thus the debate can be easily controlled by repeating a few myths. Thus TV networks don't provide actual viable reforms that truly cut health care costs with reform comprehesively as well as be adequately funded, but only pieces of fact and personal opinions about a complex issue that can give false impressions on people who don't know much about all the full in and outs of the issue. Before looking to anyone advocating for any position, look at all sides of the argument, and if not then stay out of the argument and let those who know the facts decide the most informed, cost-effective decisions that will actually work and not be a waste of legislative time. C-SPAN also presents statements of opinions many times of officials as well as dry unfiltered positions of officials but these positions are not always made out of understanding all of the parts of complex debate. Look up all sides before ripping one side with myths or lies that dominate and delay effective legislation on health care reform!!

Honestly, have anybody bothered to read the myths related to health care reform and how they have disrupted reform in the past for decades to lead us up to these massive hidden taxes for everyone for compensation to hospitals for the many uninsured or undercovered? Fears of "government rationing" have only been able to persist out of myths that the health care industry has not provided free competition for basic coverage due to Medicare, when in fact it is precisely because insurance companies have merged together and dropped certain patients for "preexisting conditions" and not increasing access that Medicare has needed to fill the gap in service with subsidies to these same insurance companies and hospitals have been forced to ask for subsidies to even take care of many patients. The co-op strategy will not work eventually since the private insurers already in business will drive many more employers to cut health care benefits due to cost increases via higher premiums and those less health patients will be forced to overburden the co-ops or the co-op would adopt even higher premiums to accept new customers to large insurance companies who can pool risk with far more people. The public option will though be able to limit the middlemen, design more effective, health, cost-saving treatments and prevention methods advocated by doctors themselves but who can't afford to due so due to the incentive system that equates more tests as better even when not needed. The health insurance companies will not change these incentives unless by real competition for health care access by healthy young people and small-business owners through a public option that bundles risk in the most effective manner to reduce costs. The public option is quite different from the Medicare currently because Medicare has become so costly precisely due to health insurance companies getting actually huge subsidies for treating such low-income patients when the public option which will model the Canadian system, which is agreed by every other developed nation to have healthier people for lower cost. Also the public option is an option, not forced upon anyone, but useful for anybody without health insurance or those overpaying for their current coverage which includes hidden administrative costs and unneeded costly tests not based upon the most updated techniques and prevention methods and anyways the health care exchange which is also being proposed will actually increase competition between health insurance companies by giving patients more options than currently including the public option. Medicaid is also running the government broke precisely since the government is giving health care insurance companies and drug companies huge subsidies that were forced upon as concessions to private insurers who were not changing incentive structures many decades ago no matter how costly and how many people were uninsured but the public demanded greater access. If health care insurance companies would change incentive structures to focus on rewarding less-costly equally effective prevention medicine, better results of teams of doctors and primary care, the insurance plans would not have to be so costly on employers and rise faster than inflation. Also a public plan to force insurance companies and health-care deliverers to change insurance policy models to reduce costs that they impose on the federal government and businesses in health care, force more competition between insurance companies which has decreased consistently with mergers that increase profits as well as premiums. By the way medicare reform being proposed will eliminate more unneeded subsidies, then costs would decrease to the government as well. Eliminating either employer-based health care or private insurers would disrupt though the people with plans that they already like, and be unneeded.

Before entering into any debate, people, do not let a few myths or even incomplete truths control your opinion of health care reform, or else mischaracterizations will force the debate to help persist or even worsen the current health care financial and uninsured crisis to escalate! Do not let a few people (politicians and political analysts control your own opinion about health care reform before at least finding out the actual drivers of health care costs and increased uninsured and if you don't want to look at all sides of the argument, then stay out of the argument and let those who know the details of health care costs actually drive the debate without oversimplifying the debate!

Jim, most of us who oppose universal single-payer (govt) health insurance also opposed the bailouts. And we are mostly not opposed to helping those who cannot afford basic insurance to gain access to it-- we just oppose the public option. For example, I support government- subsidized health insurance or tax rebates where appropriate for those who make too much to qualify for Medicaid or are too old for SCHIP. I support pools for purchasing private insurance, so that individuals and small businesses can get the same sort of deals large employers now enjoy. I do not, however, support a single-payer plan or anything that opens the door to a future single-payer plan.

JackJack, I'm afraid I don't get your point. When I turn 75, I will be covered by Medicare. Thank goodness, I will have, most probably, a well-stocked Health Savings Account as well. Why would I want to have a Canadian-type public health program at that point, with waiting lists of months for basic tests and treatments?

I am afraid you will have to speak more clearly, because I don't understand. And I am a Republican and do oppose the public option, so I assume you are talkin' to me.

For those in the party of NO who oppose a public health-care system like the one in Canada, let’s see if you say the same thing when you turn 78 years old. Not fair? Okay, let’s make it 75 then. Sounds like a bad joke? Well it’s not a joke at all.

If we focused our attention, and money, on making sure that everyone could see a primary care physician instead of paying so much money to insurance companies, then we'd save a lot of money and be healthier.

Support the Patient-Centered Medical Home.

Lydia - You said "you are ignoring that of the 85% of Americans with health insurance, many of them are underinsured. That is why half of all bankruptcies are from medical bills, even thought the majority of those individuals had health insurance."

Think about the hard facts there is no way that you will have 100% insurance, there will always be a point where your insurance will not pay for a procedure/medicine. Most states have a state required minimum for your auto insurance, this is a minimum and you could conceivably reach a point where you need more than the insurance policy will pay. Medical insurance is the same way, you pay for a set benefit package, the more benefits the more you pay in premiums. What you want is to have 100% coverage no matter what and you expect the government to pay for it.

So where does the money come from for the healthcare which you say is so badly needed? I won’t discuss the requirement for healthcare I just want to know where the funding is coming from, remember that on more than one occasion Dear Leader has said the country is broke.

And yes, I’m in the 85% who is happy with his healthcare but dreading the day when I will be forced into Medicare which is a poorly run GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE program. If they haven’t made Medicare and Medicaid work over the past 40+ years what makes you think that all of a sudden they can come up with a program which is successful.

Sunny, I am truly sorry that you have so much pain in your life. It is a terrible shame and I hope you get more help than you have so far.

Having said that, I must point out that government-controlled health care insurance is not going to solve your problem in the way that you think it will. First of all, the government will push generics even more than private insurance does and will not listen to your doctor's patient, rational explanation that you need brand-specific medication. You know this already, because you said that Medicaid does not pay for what you and your physician feel you need. So what makes you think the president can 'fix' that by putting everyone on a similar public plan?

I wonder if you live in a large city. I know that in my small city, most of our doctors (many of whom are also friends and/or neighbors of mine)still have the personal touch. For example, my primary care physician is in a practice with 5 doctors. She knows me well, spends time during my check-ups asking about my children and sharing stories about her own kids, prescribes medication based on my personal needs, and cares about how I am doing. I trust the specialists she recommends, and have visited three different sorts of doctor in the past month (turning 50 is not for the faint of heart-- I swear the wheels start to fall off at that point). All of them are board certified in their fields and all of them accept Medicaid patients, as does my primary care doctor. All of them are compassionate people who care about the outcome of their treatments. Our local hospital's emergency room has saved my life, as has the care I got at a bigger hospital in an urban center 'down the road' when I had to have medical procedures not available in my community. I know how it feels to be grateful to be alive because of good medical care. I am truly sorry that you do not get that same level of care I have enjoyed where you are in your current situation.

However, I do not see how having the government take over health insurance and dictate things to the health care community will improve your level of care and I know that it will have a detrimental effect on my level of care.
If Medicaid is so dismal, it should be reformed. The entire country's medical coverage should not be dragged down to its level.

I do not want the government to decide what treatments I can receive under rationed care, and the comprehensive universal care you advocate would necessarily mean rationed care, as it does in other countries with such programs. I do not want the government to be able to say, "Sorry, Sunny, but generics will work just fine. It's the same stuff, so the difference is just in your head. Take what you can get and don't complain." I do not, truly, understand why you want that for either of us.

"if we don't provide a reasonable way everyone can afford health insurance."

But thats not what this is. This is health insurance paid for by other people. Those that cannot afford insurance are being covered by people who do pay their own insurance. At some point, when are people responsible for themselves? Most of these people get 3k back at the end of the year in their tax return, why not have the government just keep that and put them on health insurance? It should be a safety net, not a system for all. And health insurance for a family can start around 400 buck a month. If your family goes to the doctor twice a year, for a 60 dollar visit and 100 bucks in prescriptions, I wouldnt buy insurance either.

Basic healthcare should be everyones responsbility, catastrophic health care should be insured. How we insure that doesn't have to be an all or nothing approach. How about ambulatory care, emergency care, become government/state programs just like police and fire. But day to day, or long term treatment, be the responsibilty of the individual?

What weighs down the system in other countries is the abuse of the system. The system always has the best intentions, but it is abused. Germany just instituted a Co-pay because the system is out of control with abuse. When people have to take money out of their pocket and pay for their care, they have far more appreciation of it, and shop around for the best price for the best care. Thats what is missing, that is why the our system is expensive. Well one of the reasons, I have a post below where I think we could do more.

I say let's get rid of third party involvement in health care--both government and Insurance companies. Let the simple free market idea of demand and supply work. Then when only a handful individuals can afford, this nonesense of "freemarket" is god idea will show itsell for what it is--nonesense and a tool of exploitation by the few.

They'll do anything to increase the U.S. Federal debt (especially War, Health Care, and Infrastructure). A big problem is that credit can grow on a whim now that it is no longer backed by anything (since 1971, see Gold Standard on Wikipedia). Even worse, the Federal Reserve has the fortune of creating as much money as it wants out of thin air, which is also the international reserve currency. And even worse, the Federal Reserve, which is a private entity, creates money at ZERO cost to itself (i.e. they just go a computer and enter a dollar amount to create in its bank account), then LENDS the money to the U.S. Government AT INTEREST. The Government (i.e. the American people) has to give real money to this private cartel of banks for their “service” of creating money out of thin air. The Government (i.e. the American people) is truly the loser in this system. Andrew Jackson (who was almost assassinated) eliminated the private central bank in 1833, but it just popped back up under the Aldrich-Vreeland Act and the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, immediately after Woodrow Wilson was elected. Wilson's political opponent had also promised to sign the same Act, which was under a different name, if he were to get elected. The international bankers gave themselves once again control over the American monetary system without paying a penny. JFK started Silver-backed currency, then got assassinated a couple of months later. The Federal Reserve has never been audited, and Goldman Sachs, the leader of the banking cartel, truly rules the world... for now. Pelosi, Obama, Bush, Cheney, and most others in DC (except Ron Paul) are just spokespeople for the Federal Reserve.

KR, The poll I mentioned was done by WHO the world health organization. They didn't poll people, they actually looked at the hard facts like stats provided by hospitals, etc.
As for leaders coming to our country for health care that is because money talks. Any rich person can get great care here. Many Americans go to India for operations because they can't afford to get them here. And many Americans don't get the operations they need because they lack insurance. The true value of a health care system is how it treats an ordinary citizen. Our society can't be healthy if we don't provide a reasonable way everyone can afford health insurance. And look at it this way if someone can't afford insurance or treatment how can they work and support themselves and their family? Who benefits if a dad gets cancer, has insurance but the family goes bankrupt because of medical bills the insurance won't cover? Who benefits if a small business can't afford to cover insurance for its employees and they go elsewhere?
Our lack of good health insurance for everyone is a constant drain on families and individuals and hospitals across the country. It is time for a public health insurance plan.

"... I have to ask —what’s your answer?”

Simply delusional. Maybe Obama needs needs to hire a translator, watch ABC news, do a press conference with Tapper, and listen to C-SPAN before he asks this question. This is the most juvenile argumentative form I remember hearing from a supposedly "nuanced" President. The statement is evidence that he is the most partisan President ever, when he admits that he is unable to comprehend or identify the arguments of opponents to his policies. How can there be bi-partisanship without acknowledging Republicans.

I guess opponents of his policies don't deserve any "empathy", nowadays that's just a legal term...

Republicans are so 'concerned' about health care that the only time they even think of it is when they're booted out of power.....

A lot of economists are saying that the higher deficits that this plan represents will cause inflation to rise making the dollar worth half its current value. Is this ok with you?
Posted by: Sam

A lot of economists? eh
were those the same guys who said everything was peachy keen with the economy around July 08?

It's absolutely appalling that the United States of America, supposedly, the leader of the free world, continues to haggle over how we are going to provide some kind of health coverage for it's law abiding, tax paying citizens who are most in need of it and in the meantime have rewarded people who almost drove this country and the free world along with it into bankruptcy with their scandalous and treacherous financial wizardry. Amen