Obama Takes Center Stage in Healthcare Debate
The president criticized "misrepresentations" of healthcare reform
With Congress in recess, heated debate over the Obama administration's healthcare reform plan continues to move from Capitol Hill to town hall meetings nationwide.
President Barack Obama took aim at the health insurance industry today and tried to dispel fears that passing his plan would place America's healthcare entirely in the hands of the government.
"Under the reform we're proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan," Obama said at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H. "I don't think government bureaucrats should be meddling, but I also don't think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling."
Obama was addressing residents of a state where 89 percent of the population has health insurance. "Where we disagree, let's disagree over things that are real, not wild misrepresentations that don't bear any resemblance to anything that's actually being proposed," he said.
Obama's remarks came as angry protests have been turning town hall meetings into rowdy shouting matches and have put many lawmakers on the defensive. He called for "serious debate" on healthcare and accused critics of creating "bogeymen" to "scare and mislead the American people."
The president talked about the assertion that his plan would create "death panels" to determine end-of-life healthcare choices, a reference to a Facebook post by former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
His plan would not "pull the plug on Grandma because we've decided that it's too expensive to let her live anymore," Obama said.
There were no outbursts during the meeting.
This morning, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania was the latest Democrat to face a hostile crowd at a town hall meeting. The audience in Lebanon, Pa., began booing the senator even before the question-and-answer session began.
A man who had not been selected to speak walked into the aisle and started yelling at Specter as he was trying to respond to a question about whether Americans would be able to keep their private insurance under the proposed healthcare plan.
Specter shouted into the microphone repeatedly that if the man wanted to leave he could. The man was escorted out.
Rep. Gwen Moore, a Wisconsin Democrat, held a town hall meeting on healthcare in Milwaukee today, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, convened one in Hillsboro, Mo.
Obama is expected to continue discussion about his proposed healthcare overhaul this Friday in Bozeman, Mont. He then plans to travel to Grand Junction, Colo., to talk about protections against high out-of-pocket costs for the insured.
- See photos of healthcare town hall meetings.
- See photos of Obama behind the scenes.
- See a gallery of political cartoons.
- Follow U.S. News Weekly on Twitter for live updates from town hall meetings.
Reader Comments
LIAR
The reprentative who called Mr .Obama a liar should be applauded for the guts it took to tell the Truth.What congress is struggling to approve has government funded abortion in it.A public option no matter what you call it it is government controlled heath care with a provision making it illegal for anyone not to take part along with a $9600 dollor fine.A provision allowing planned parenthood(abortion mill) to set up offices in our high schools.Plus our fine representatives do not even care whats in it .Mr Kerry and Polosy they just want to approve this crap without even reading it.How far from a free society is this!
Some people have read and kept up with congress to tell the American people the truth
I referrence aclj.org
Thanks, Melissa, for excellent, helpful comment
The word "welfare" means not only that an individual "fares well," but that an entire population "fares well." The word "relief" means relieving suffering and deprivation not only of one person, but letting general populations have lives worth living. "Public Health" is an all-encompassing word." Melissa described very well a situation that existed since the Industrial Revolution when capitalism meant "speed-ups" at work & union organizers often had to fear for their lives. I was study partner for my husband when he did a course in "Time and motion study" at UCBerkeley. It was for "Efficiency Experts" who could be at work stations, timing what workers did. Many generations of workers have endured & are enduring painful health problems. By being unable to work, they lose health insurance. We all grow older every minute & the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE IS GOOD HEALTH. We need tax-paid health care not involved in any with with employers. We have socialized medicine for the military & for Congress. Because it's tax-funded, it's called "socialized.' We spent 2 billion dollars a week at the start of the Bush war in Iraq. Surely, by ending wars, we can use taxes to help us all have health care.
A different approach
I agree that a healthcare system for everyone is needed; However, my vision of the plan was very different. I had hoped that the nationalization of doctors and medical facilities would be the task at hand and the individuals using the facilities would simply provide (example) their social security number which would allow the doctor/facility to bill for services. This would regulate the costs for treatment as well as drugs and would keep the treatment at the physician level.
Current insurance carriers can exist but must also adhere to the medical costs/payouts as perscribed for services to the physicians and medical facilities.
We presently have a medicare tax burden now, and adding a GMT(govermental medical tax)would not be an outrageous issue when applied in the same manor.
If private and public insurance is required to submit to one database, it should be easier to track fraud and eliminate some of the existing issues. Using the SS# would then allow tracking for each individual as we do for taxes. A yearly audit verified by the individual for services rendered may also help with control.
Putting the responsibility on the providers should also allow for substancial costs reductions to run the system, decreasing notices, publications etc.
We do need healthcare for all....and we do need to contain costs. Not an easy task. I sincerly hope that some form of
advertisement
