FACT CHECK NO.1: Health Care Costs Versus Wages

Question....with all these studies.... all the money put forth in them....

Where are the major causes of the increases?

What are the cost drivers?

Oh, by the way, all the talk tonight about "unneed" testing....Watch how fast that changes when people start sueing over a lack of appropriate testing. Some form of reform is needed there, but then again, you dont want to curtail legimate suits.

Overall, good perfromance by the President. He was his usual charming self. He did not however do anything here that really changes the overall debate.

He did however for the first time to my ears state that this will be phased in.

Side NOte...this was not SO important that ABC could not go commerical free on this? Hell, the WWE was having ads on TV this past weekend for a commercial free show on Monday night!

In the Obama economy of 10% unemployment, isn't the rate of everything rising faster than their non-existent wages?

Why not phase out employer-provided benefits and have a single-payer system instead?

If your benefits take $1,500 per month out of your paycheck, and a public/single-payer plan would only cost $300 per month for the SAME or better benefits, and your employer would agree to pass the savings on to you, do the math: that would mean an extra $1,200 per month income for you.

So why would you NOT want to phase out employer-based coverage if it would save you over $1,000 per month??!!

Last time I checked the Constitution ... I don't remember seeing Goverment Healthcare, Nationalized Banking and a Nationalized Auto Industry.

Tom, you asked the question: Why wouldn't you want to pay a lot less for the same (or better) benefits? The answer is the same reason why I wouldn't want to eat banana splits all day every day and still lose weight. It's not reality. If there is less money going into the health care system (assuming as you do that suddenly we're all paying a lot less, although I struggle to understand how that can be when our lawmakers are struggling to get the price tag under 1 TRILLION dollars that we don't have), and the government is running it, you are going to have a rationing of health care. Are the doctors who run up all those med school debts suddenly going to start working for cheap? Are all of those machines, and the people who design, engineer, build, and maintain those machines going to get much less costly? No, so we'll have fewer doctors, fewer machines, fewer facilities. That means lousy quality of service, long waits, being denied certain drugs, etc. Please show me one example where a monopoly, let alone a GOVERNMENT monopoly, provided quality service at affordable prices. There's a reason why we have antitrust laws in this country, and they ought to apply to the government as well.

It should be the government option that will prevail and let those private ones be shunned at. If the government is losing money, let's just tap these illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship and let them pay their due fees for the number of years of being illegal. They are now about a million so every penny counts. Let them pay a hefty sum so that we citizens will enjoy prosperity. Then while these illegals are paying their dues, delay the processing until they die out.

This is the best solution.

one must be aware of where these studies come from. Seems like most of the facts checks here are from gruops that support a government health program!

I live in Canada, and everyone knows we have coverage for most things besides prescription plan unless given to us by our employer. I think the issue with USA is that too many jobs, plants, or going to Mexico, etc. which is great but it sacrifices american's livelyhoods. We have to pay a gst and pst tax, and now they tax us approx $175 per family for medical off of your income tax. Our social assistance also covers medical, dental,etc. perhaps Barack should meet with Canada's health regime and talk and see if there is something better to come up with. There should not be a price tag on anyone's life whether they are 3 or 80 years old.. All health care have guidelines, we do too, but requesting more ct scans if you have cancer, etc. should be given to those who have these illnesses that can come back within a year. I wish Barack all the best and hope he can fullfill this dire issue at hand.. maybe he should check out canada's main health insurances such as Green Shield, Sunlife, etc.. those are the 2 main ones..

The solution is quite simple,however keep in mind you can't get something with nothing, it's going to cost money.
But the result will be well worth it.I sent my plan to Health and Human services. Send them your ideas on their web site. Keep the faith America!!

Government run health care would force the U.S. to do the one thing we have avoided thus far, and all other countries who have socialized health care have had to deal with... What is a life worth? In the U.S., we will pull all the stops in an attempt to just extend the life of a person who presents with an incurable or highly advanced stage of a disease. We throw the best technology, best drugs and best minds into whipping a dead horse. Are we ready to accept the day that your doctor just shakes his head and says... "There's a chance I could save you, but the government doesn't think you're worth it."

you folks need to remember one crucial element.
someone is going to pay the other costs and theres no way that health care will miraculously cost less.
your dreaming if you thing obama ..god has that power.
it has already been proven that his plan is to charge you 26% of your income and then charge your employer anoth amount equivelent to that 26%
so that is 58% more tax.
do you think your going to get a reaise after that, or get better benefits, you might not even have a job period.

the real solution is to stop giving our money away to people who never earned it, stop plundering social security and for god sake stop wasting our tax dollars to fund bailouts for other fat cats who mismanaged companies that had decades to fix the problems theyre faced with right now.

damn it we need better government and obamas plans are not helping any of us.

we wer once the most powerful nation and soon we will be almost third world poor if this keeps up.

wake up people!!!!!