[solemnclockwork]

Originally Posted by MMM

clintjm, No other industrialized nation in the world has no national health plan. Are they all perfect? Far from it...but some are better than others. Regardless, what we have now stinks. It's partially because of our litigious nature, but health care are too high for the average American to pay for them. As a result we all end up paying more. SOMETHING needs to be done. I don't think the president is saying "my way or the highway"...he said the very opposite last Wednesday. But I agree killing his plan for the sake of killing it is not an option unless you have an alternative strategy. Enough of not facing the health care issue.

But yet, our health care rates among the best. Would it also be the slumping dollar that is also the reason why health care prices are up? I would suspect once the economy reaches a certain level, inflation would go down, thus causing health care prices to mellow out, and probably go down.

They are exactly doing things there way without input from Republicans.He's so rock solid towards a public plan that he willing to kill health care for it, then in his speech he badly snips bi-partisanship. Polls reflect this. tort reform (it's a big issue, to which they don't address at all), let health care providers compete nationwide (when you have only one or two in a single state that is a problem), insurance tax subsidy more fair, and Low-income supplemental debit card of $5,000. Republicans ARE facing the issue. Point is you don't trade a worn system for one that going to be broken. Obama Has yet to find a definitive way to pay for a public option and one of the ways that keeps popping up he criticized John McCain for considering.


Obama’s Health Care Speech | FactCheck.org

the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that Democratic plans in the House and Senate both would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal deficit over the coming decade.

In his speech, the president reduced the price tag, saying "the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years." That’s about $100 billion less than what the CBO said the House bill would cost. And the president embraced a tax on expensive employer-paid health plans, something he’s resisted in the past. He also said there will be a provision in this plan that "requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don’t materialize."

But it remains to be seen whether the CBO’s budget experts will agree that the plan would be fully paid for. For that, they’ll need to see more specific details.
Obama: [T]hose of us with health insurance are also paying a hidden and growing tax for those without it – about $1,000 per year that pays for somebody else’s emergency room and charitable care.

That figure comes from a study by Families USA estimating the effect on premiums of uncompensated care, which is care that is provided to the uninsured but not paid for. But that group advocates vigorously for wider government health coverage.The figure is not supported by the Kaiser Family Foundation or the Congressional Budget Office. Both have reported that uncompensated care actually leads to lower hospital profits, not higher premiums. KFF’s estimate of the amount of uncompensated care shifted to premium-payers works out to about $200 per family per year, not $1,000.

Current Events - Rasmussen Reports

/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform

Fifty-three percent (53%) say passage of the plan will make the cost of health care go up while 17% say it will make costs go down. In August, 52% thought the plan would lead to higher costs, and 17% thought it would achieve the stated goal of lowering costs.

If the plan passes, 24% of voters say the quality of care will get better and 50% say it will get worse. In August, the numbers were 23% better and 50% worse.

The most important fundamental is that 68% of American voters have health insurance coverage they rate good or excellent