WHITE HOUSE
Washington
If you’re like most Americans, there’s nothing more important to you about health care than peace of mind.
Given the status quo, that’s understandable. The current system often denies insurance due to pre-existing conditions, charges steep out-of-pocket fees – and sometimes isn’t there at all if you become seriously ill.
It’s time to fix our unsustainable insurance system and create a new foundation for health care security. That means guaranteeing your health care security and stability with eight basic consumer protections:
No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
No cost-sharing for preventive care
No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
No gender discrimination
No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
Extended coverage for young adults
Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid
Learn more about these consumer protections at Whitehouse.gov.
Over the next month there is going to be an avalanche of misinformation and scare tactics from those seeking to perpetuate the status quo. But we know the cost of doing nothing is too high. Health care costs will double over the next decade, millions more will become uninsured, and state and local governments will go bankrupt.
It’s time to act and reform health insurance, drive down costs and guarantee the health care security and stability of every American family. You can help by putting these core principles of reform in the hands of your friends, your family, and the rest of your social network.
Thank you,
Barack Obama
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Comments: 15 ( 2 removed by Jack E. )
Why shouldn;t a person feel responsobility for their own health?
The latest report is that 10% of health care cost is obesity that seems like a choive for most of the people who suffer from. Smoking seems like a choice. DUI seems like a choice. Why shouldn't a person own some of their health care?
The stalling is almost over and the public will have the health care it needs not insurance ripoffs.
You are reading in what you want not what was said. I surely don’t believe we should be told how to live except for infringing on other peoples choices. Along with allowing people to make the choices in their lifestyles I also believe that they should be allowed to live the consequences of their choices.
I simply asked questions.
I will offer analogy. If a person buys a Prius they pay less to run the vehicle because it consumes less gas per mile driven, in fact many would say they are doing a service to society vs. someone who buys an SUV. Do feel people should pay for how much gas they use or should everyone pay a maximum annual fee and then drive all they want choosing whatever vehicle they want?
Duame when you lose your humanity what do you have to live for? Why are you so big on playing up to the insurance industry that steals your money and then refuses to pay up when they have to?
people need affordable health care and their is no reason why we have to be the last free country in the world to have it. Party politics do not interest me at all.
I am tired of seeing the same attack dog GOP propaganda on how real health care is going to bankrupt the country.
The public has a right to anything it wants to pay for. The government was made to serve not be served because of a criminal orginazation like the GOP or democrats that spit on you everyday.
thanks for posting the information!
“People pay federal and state taxes according to how much fuel they buy.” That suggests to me that you feel it is appropriate for people to pay for their choices of actions, at least how they use natural resources. I agree, we each need a way to measure the impact of our choices. All I suggest is that all of our choices be included. My former employer many years ago was encouraging healthy lifestyles. They were providing the prescription meds and counseling for smokers, they were paying for health club memberships, regular medical visits for health assessments, and so on. What they found was that when these services were free many people signed up but few people used them. However, when people had to pay a nominal fee there was a much higher rate of use.
What I learned from that was that unless people have a stake in the activity they have a tendency to devalue what they are being given.
Another part of the work activities was getting people to do the right thing, including their personal safety. When people had a choice of the actions to take they/we have a tendency to respond best to what is immediate, personal, and certain. I am not talking about administrative actions rather personal feedback. In the case of lifestyle choices many negative consequences are distant and uncertain.
You want free medical care, I see people not appreciating medical care they don’t pay.
You seem to feel that people shouldn’t pay for their health choices. I feel like the gas taxes, they should have a consequence, an immediate one. You may want a tax on food, I would rather focus it on the consequence. If a person has healthy lifestyles they are less likely to require medical care so they pay less.
When I talk about healthy and unhealthy lifestyles I include such things such as a person who runs too much as well as someone who exercises too little.
People do pay for their health care including public health care through their taxes.
The best thing would be to regulate the insurance industry and drug makers but who is going to do it our political parties that do nothing but suck up to corporate lobbies? The big percentage of drug funding comes from America tax payers yet we have to pay beyond our means for necessary drugs because the drug lords can sell the drugs developed with my tax money to foreign markets where national health care has been proven to work better and more efficient than the rip off system we live under now. Who do you think pays for Medicare? With your thinking Medicare should be done away with. Why should I pay for Medicare if I don't want it? Someone else is getting the benefit of my money I could use for something else.
Why do you continue to support corporate cons that take your money and give you nothing for it? You haven't answered any of my questions Duane you are just going around in the same circle of denial.
Do you collect S.S.?
What a person calls a healthy lifestyle varies with every individual and things that may be good for you may not be good for someone else. Not everyone has a normal healthy body and some are born with conditions they have no say over. Many obese people have a medical condition that makes them that way, its not all from over indulgence.
Do some research on the Canadian, Australian, and Taiwan public health care and you will see how much propaganda the GOP is pushing at you.
You know my bugaboo about cost too. I've still seen nothing that says we can get all that is being promised without it being another burden on us taxpayers. Why aren't more specific/targeted ideas being used, why such a huge proposal?
“Who's health standards are you referring to Duane?” In the example I offered it was medical professionals (doctors and nurses and nutritionists and more). From all I have read and heard medical professionals have don’t innumerable research on quality of health and what contributes to it such as moderate physical activity, mental activities, balanced consumption of nutrients, etc. If you have a different perspective such as there is no particular physical, mental, nutritional things that affect a persons health then that would surely diverge my understanding and experience is.
“Many companies put in recreation facilities for their employees but it doesn't mean all employees have the time or physical ability to use them.” It wasn’t the company facilities; the company was paying memberships in local health clubs like the YMCA that employees selected. The learning from it was that more people used the facilities when they paid some of the costs than when it was free.
“People do pay for their health care including public health care through their taxes.” My experience is that the closer to what the individual can control the more likely the individual will control their actions. YOU see the price of gas every time you fill up. If you don’t pay for your insurance or part of the cost of your medical treatment you less likely to see in direct relations to your health then loose that sense of control or personal impact.
“The best thing would be to regulate the insurance industry and drug makers but who is going to do it our political parties that do nothing but suck up to corporate lobbies?” They already are regulated. At the whim (no scientific facts) the head of the FDA drove a multibillion dollar company into bankruptcy. If that isn’t government regulation and control then I surely have no idea what it would be. The FDA years later had to admit after extensive data review that the product was safe and their allegations were unfounded, but by then the company was out of that business and all the work they had invest was lost to them and others had taken over the business they had developed at no cost for the development.
“Why do you continue to support corporate cons that take your money and give you nothing for it?” My experience directly with and that of those around with insurance companies has been good. Those that have/are accepting my money are fulfilling the agreement we have. I have found the insurance companies more willing to change, faster to change, and more interested in providing better/more services than I have found any government agency to do.
As I understand it Canada’s population is 34 million, Australia’s is 22 million, Taiwan’s is 23 million, and the US’s is 305 million. Independent of the size differences and the cultural differences, on a per capita basis which country invests the most in new health care (from medicines to medical devices to personal care)? Who is providing the world with the greatest improvements in health care? Should that cost be paid equally by all the patients around the world or should the US pay what the people around the world don’t pay for? If we stopped paying, would the drug companies pay billion dollars for the development of each new drug? Who would pay?
If there are questons you would like me to address, list them in a stand alone comment (to ensure I don't miss them) and I will make a best effort to give my views.
Problem is every decade or so we bet a Bush or someone clone like person that acts like Bush and deregulates everything.
Its a proven fact worldwide that public health care works and is cheaper to maintain than the American ripoff of insurance companies deciding who will get health care and who will not.
Telling people what they can eat and what they will do is dictatorship. Companies put in exercise gyms and many people use them and many people have priorities that keep them from using them like having children to rush home to after work and other necessary things they need to do.
Health care is not a commodity to be sold on the stock market like consumer goods. People cannot decide if they will get sick and nobody has control over birth defects. Getting sick is not a choice like buying a car and people need to realise we will have affordable health care that the public has a right to. The governments function is to act for the public good and health care is for the public good.