Obama's Thinking 'Evolves' on Health Care Requirements

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

President Discusses Vision on Health Care Reform

Acknowledging that his thinking on the issue has "evolved," President Barack Obama says he could support a law mandating that individuals purchase health care coverage, with fines for those who do not, but he stressed that there must be some kind of waiver for those who are simply unable to afford it.

"People have made some pretty compelling arguments to me that if we want to have a system that drives down costs for everybody, then we've got to have healthier people not opt out of the system," the president said in an exclusive interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer today on "Good Morning America."

During the election campaign, Obama said he was opposed to a federal law mandating the purchase of health care coverage. But earlier this month in a letter to Congressional leaders working on the reform legislation, he said he would consider supporting such a measure, if it has room for exemptions for small businesses and individuals who cannot afford the premiums.

The president would not delve deeply into the nuts and bolts of what he wants included and what he will concede in health care reform legislation, saying it's still early in the process, but he acknowledged that change will not come easily.

"There's a reason why it hasn't been done for 40-50 years," he said. "It's hard." But Obama once again stressed how urgent he believes it is to tackle this issue and said the cost of inaction is too high.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/story?id=7913045&page=1

[villager]

1. My thinking tends to "evolve" about the efficacy of Democratic lawmakers, once they're in office...

n/t

[JeanGrey]

15. no shit

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. It's hard? 'It's hard werk!' Where have I heard that before?

:shrug:

[zipplewrath]

5. Oh God, no.

Somebody has got to get to him and tell him not to use THAT expression.

Challenging, transformative, complex, involved, complicated, or daunting.

But not "hard".

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. Really, anything but THAT expression. I agree!

:wtf:

[quidam56]

3. We must have health care reform this year,

As a former health care giver, I am sad to see what has become of health care in America. Clearly Profit Care comes ahead of Patient Care. We must have public option, so what if it puts the greedy bastards out of business. www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62

[Oregone]

4. Evolution to anything but a real solution like single-payer

[stray cat]

6. It has to be mandate unless we really want to refuse to treat anyone who opts out

I'm not ready to let people die due to lack of treatment if they opt out - but that would be an option if its not mandatory

[Vidar]

7. Another betrayal of our growing underclass.

[msongs]

8. evolved thinking = follow the money nt

[dflprincess]

31. Exactly (eom)

[high density]

9. I'd feel much more comfortable...

...if he would just say he'd veto any "reform" that doesn't include a strong public option. I don't think we should be forcing people to buy a health insurance plan from a private company, since it is clear we cannot count on them to control costs. The amount of premiums and copays already seem to be following exponential curve to infinity under our current system. Health insurance needs to be uncoupled from a job.

[orleans]

10. ugh.

is this as far as we're going to go with this?

"During the election campaign, Obama said he was opposed to a federal law mandating the purchase of health care coverage. But earlier this month in a letter to Congressional leaders working on the reform legislation, he said he would consider supporting such a measure, if it has room for exemptions for small businesses and individuals who cannot afford the premiums."

they're going to make us buy insurance? what a boon to the fucking insurance companies! it's their wet dream come true. now everyone will have to give the insurance companies money! (and that $10,000 deductible? well--too bad for us, right?)

i suspect some people might be able to afford the premiums but not the deductibles.

no one will be better off--people won't be treated early and things will be as bad as they are now.

[pattmarty]

20. Worse than they are now.

[Winterblues]

11. One issue I agreed with the Republicans over was "unfunded mandates"

If the government is going to mandate anything they should provide funding for it. IMO.

[Bonhomme Richard]

12. My thinking has evolved too. Single Payer Now. n/t

[hugo_from_TN]

14. The first civil trial will be interesting.

I have a hard time believing that this would hold up under trial.

[mainer]

16. I'm okay with a mandate, as long as there's a public option

I don't mind being forced to buy health care coverage. But I want to be able to purchase government-run, Medicare-type coverage, at an affordable rate.

Universal mandates are necessary, otherwise the healthy population opts out, leaving only the sick left in the patient pool. That drives up per-patient costs and makes the system unaffordable.

What good would Social Security be if people could opt out? The wealthy and employed would take their money elsewhere, leaving only the poor to rely on-- and fund -- the retirement system.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. Devolved is the word for it

This idea of forcing people to buy for profit health insurance is simply terrible. I mean, in my county unemployment is around 12% right now. Underemployment is higher. Few people I know have health insurance, working or not. They would if they could afford it. But they can not. A mandate will not change that fact.

It is high time for them to start talking numbers, what they expect the struggling citizens of this country to contribute to their corporate owners. People are scared about this. People need time to plan for a huge additional tax. Which is what this would be. A tax to benefit a private sector of business. So they need to start letting people know the price of the shakedown.

[MessiahRp]

21. +10

WTF is wrong with elected Democrats?

This is the problem with you almost needing to be rich to run for office... rich people have absolutely no concept of what regular people struggle with, especially since they likely got rich by keeping you down in the first place. I'm not casting that onto Obama entirely, but let's be fair, he's not exactly Mr. Poor Guy these days.

Rp

[Posteritatis]

23. Yep

Clearly the solution to people not being able to afford something is to require them to pay for it!

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. Fuzzy thinking. They really had to work hard to come up with that 'option', I bet.

:silly:

[eagertolearn]

30. I agree and this is why plans like Wydens won't work.

Insurance rates are too high for even those of us who can afford it so to mandate people buy it at anything close to the current rates is terrible. It just won't happen and the insurance companies (and all the GOP) won't support anything that interfers with a few people making money.

[pattmarty]

18. Just as I thought. This "bill" is going to end up making it worse that it is now.

"Medicare for all", and fuck all the other bullshit "plans".

[Cass]

19. Obama's statement doesn't sit well with me.

he said he would consider supporting such a measure, if it has room for exemptions for small businesses and individuals who cannot afford the premiums.

So, some people will still be denied access to affordable health care, they just won't be penalized for not being able to afford coverage. I don't like this at all. Some people will be left out because of an inability to pay which is the system we have now.

I think these geniuses better come up with a better plan than this because this doesn't cut it.

[Hugin]

22. Now, I have to pay some insurance executive just to be alive?

With fines if I don't?

What a plum deal... For them!

[fascisthunter]

27. the rich have to live somehow

may as well off the dead and dying. :sarcasm:

We live in a very sick country.

[tom_paine]

24. BULLSHIT!

Hopefully, this will not turn out to be the case.

But you just know it will. We will be put further in harness to service the Aristocratic Elite. And fines if we don't play along with their further enslavement of us.

Fuck them all.

[SammyWinstonJack]

26. 'Fuck them all.'

:thumbsup:

[Abq_Sarah]

28. I've got a problem with the government

Determining if we have the ability to pay. They seem to forget citizens can't just snap their fingers and have money raining down on them like the Congress.

[DatManFromNawlins]

29. So Obama is a fascist

Who knew?

[No Elephants]

32. How about the cost of determining if an individual or small business can pay? And, what if you can

pay this week, but lose your job next week?

We have means based testing for Medicare and welfare now. And determining eligibility requires a huge, expensive bureaucracy. Imagine if half the country were applying. And nothing is set up to determine need on the part of a small business. Just figuring out a system for that could take government a few years and lord knows how much money.