Health Care Reform

[Fifthfiend]

Huh, he actually sounds serious:

At Summit, Obama Urges Solutions for Rising Cost of Health Care

By Ceci Connolly and William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 5, 2009; 4:15 PM

President Obama launched a campaign today to reform health care in the United States by the end of this year, telling a White House summit on the issue that that fixing the troubled system is "no longer just a moral imperative, it is a fiscal imperative."

Joined by lawmakers, health industry executives and a handful of "average Americans," Obama vowed to press for legislation this year that dramatically expands insurance coverage, improves health care quality and reins in skyrocketing medical costs.

"The same soaring costs that are straining families' budgets are sinking our businesses and eating up our government's budget, too," Obama said in an East Room appearance.

"At the fiscal summit that we held here last week, the one thing on which everyone agreed was that the greatest threat to America's fiscal health is not Social Security, though that's a significant challenge," he said. "It's not the investments we've made to rescue our economy during this crisis. By a wide margin, the biggest threat to our nation's balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care. It's not even close."

At the same time, the White House unveiled a new Web site, www.healthreform.gov, and said it plans to hold town-hall-style meetings across the country to rally public support for what is expected to be a protracted and arduous legislative battle. The meetings will be hosted by Democratic and Republican governors.

Medical spending, now about $2.3 trillion, consumes about 16 percent of the gross domestic product. And although the United States spends more per capita on health care than any industrialized nation, Americans do not live longer or healthier lives, according to a range of international measures.

As an opening maneuver, Obama set aside $634 billion in his proposed budget to be dedicated to health reform. The 10-year reserve fund could be used to provide health insurance to some of the 46 million Americans who do not have it today. To raise that money, Obama would cut itemized tax deductions for the wealthiest Americans and trim federal payments to hospitals, home health aides, drug manufacturers and some physicians.

The budget must be approved by Congress, and already lawmakers and lobbyists are objecting to certain provisions.

Describing the budget proposal as a "significant down payment" that "does not add one penny to our deficit," Obama nevertheless said today that he is open to other ideas.

"Every option must be on the table; there should be no sacred cows," he told the gathering, which included many of the industry lobbyists who have killed previous reform efforts. "Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything that we want, and that no proposal for reform will be perfect. . . . But when it comes to addressing our health care challenge, we can no longer let the perfect be the enemy of the essential."

Obama added, "The status quo is the one option that's not on the table." He said that while everyone has a right to participate in the discussion, "no one has the right to take it over and dominate." And he warned that "those who seek to block any reform at all, any reform at any cost, will not prevail this time around."

He said the purpose of today's forum is to start determining how to lower costs, improve quality and expand coverage to all Americans.

"And our goal will be to enact comprehensive health care reform by the end of this year," he said.

Among those attending the summit were seven average Americans selected by the White House from among thousands of people who hosted and attended meetings on health care in December in response to an appeal for input from the Obama transition team.

Text of Obama's speech

"We are here today to discuss one of the greatest threats not just to the well-being of our families and the prosperity of our businesses, but to the very foundation of our economy -- and that is the exploding cost of health care in America today.

"In the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages, and an additional nine million Americans have joined the ranks of the uninsured. The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes. And even for folks who are weathering this economic storm, and have health care now, all it takes is one stroke of bad luck -- an accident or illness; a divorce or lost job -- to become one of the nearly 46 million uninsured or the millions who have health care, but can't afford it.

"We did not get here by accident. The problems we face today are a direct consequence of actions we failed to take yesterday.... [T]here are those who say we should defer health care reform once again -- that at a time of economic crisis, we simply cannot afford to fix our health care system as well.

"Well, let's be clear: the same soaring costs that are straining our families' budgets are sinking our businesses and eating up our government's budget too. Too many small businesses can't insure their employees. Major American corporations are struggling to compete with their foreign counterparts. And companies of all sizes are shipping their jobs overseas or shutting their doors for good.

"Medicare costs are consuming our federal budget. Medicaid is overwhelming our state budgets. And at the Fiscal Summit we held here last week, the one thing on which everyone agreed was that the greatest threat to America's fiscal health is not Social Security, though that is a significant challenge; and it is not the investments we've made to rescue our economy; it is the skyrocketing cost of health care.

"That is why we cannot delay this discussion any longer. And that is why today's forum is so important. Because health care reform is no longer just a moral imperative, it is a fiscal imperative. If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy, then we must address the crushing cost of health care this year, in this Administration. Making investments in reform now, investments that will dramatically lower costs, won't add to our budget deficits in the long-term -- rather, it is one of the best ways to reduce them.

I'm amazed, this is the kind of rhetoric people usually reserve for the semiannual effort to run Social Security into the ground. It's sort of amazing to see it being tied to an actual for-real problem.

I'm still not super-sure about the eventual outcome of this given that any meaningful solution pretty much requires someone drinking the insurance industry's milkshake. But if Obama's actually willing to stand up and paint the issue in terms of national emergency then who knows maybe he actually might be willing to get that done.

Or I mean alternately he'll go back to that weaksauce 'lets make health insurance like car insurance' nonsense he was pushing during the election, in which case urgh, I'd really rather we didn't.

...Just to unpack another thought but so far the opposition response to Obama's speech has been generally including something to the effect of "something something free market something something socialism something something competition." And the crucial point here I think is that the purpose of competition and markets and all that shit is that it's supposed to ultimately, via invisible hands and down-trickles and all that other shit, produce the socially desirable result. And health care is an area where the market has completely and utterly failed to do so.

So I think it just bears restating that the actual goal of a health care system is not to ensure that enough private corporations have the chance to enrich themselves, or that people kowtow sufficiently to some God of the Market, but rather to make sure that people are able to go see doctors so that they can prevent or treat their illnesses. It just seems effed up that some parties see the latter as sort of an optional side effect and the former as the primary, critical goal.