I heard nothing which promises universal healthcare, but may have missed the really important announcement. Heard that costs must be cut; nothing about care must be for all at affordable cost.

When Andrea Mitchell discussed this with Peter Orzag post-pronouncement, I heard nothing which means health care for all those who can't afford it now or for those who are going to lose their insurance.

Damn, what Dems are these?

But --ta dah!-- Big Insurance, Big Pharma did pledge to reduce medical costs by $2 Trillion over the next 10 years. Orzag replied to questins about enforcement of these pledges by saying --get this-- that people like Mitchell, the MCMers and Versailles courtiers, would subject the pledgers to public shame if they renege or fail.

Which has worked so well with the Big Bankster Boiz!

Sounds like a Get Less Care and Die Plan. Similar to Eat Shit and Die.

Please tell me I've missed the good stuff.

I think that this first round of H1N1 shows how essential universal national health care will be.

Otherwise, how will universal vaccines be made available? Who gets the hospital with intensive care, and who gets to die on the floor at home? How many poor communities will be decimated by a real virulent epidemic?

Oh...Wait...decimating the poor. I sense the corporatocracy may not have their welfare as the top priority.
Roadmaster, Banned in Milw | 05.11.09 - 12:40 pm

Ya think?

I feel like I've been kicked in the solar plexus.

From WH site

I just concluded a extraordinarily productive meeting with organizations and associations that are going to be essential to the work of health care reform in this country -- groups that represent everyone from union members to insurance companies, from doctors and hospitals to pharmaceutical companies. It was a meeting that focused largely on one of the central challenges that we must confront as we seek to achieve comprehensive reform and lay a new foundation for our economy -- and that is, the spiraling cost of health care in this country.

They're here because they recognize one clear, indisputable fact: When it comes to health care spending, we are on an unsustainable course that threatens the financial stability of families, businesses and government itself.

Uh, among those at the meeting, what about representatives of the public? Congress? Single payer? Medicare for All?

Obama then reviews problems of high healthcare costs: personal bankruptcies, uninsured, small and large businesses' costs, Federal budget problems caused by Medicare and Medicaid. Bet they're on the table, eh?

We, as a nation, are now spending a far larger share of our national wealth on health care than we were a generation ago. At the rate we're going, we are expected to spend one fifth of our economy on health care within a decade. And yet we're getting less for our money. In fact, we're spending more on health care than any other nation on Earth, even though millions of Americans don't have the affordable, quality care they deserve, and nearly 46 million Americans don't have any health insurance at all.

SNIP

...what's brought us all together today is a recognition that we can't continue down the same dangerous road we've been traveling for so many years; that costs are out of control; and that reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait. It's a recognition that the fictional television couple, Harry and Louise, who became the iconic faces of those who opposed health care reform in the '90s, desperately need health care reform in 2009. And so does America.

And that's why these groups are voluntarily coming together to make an unprecedented commitment. Over the next 10 years -- from 2010 to 2019 -- they are pledging to cut the rate of growth of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage points each year -- an amount that's equal to over $2 trillion. Two trillion dollars.

Obama then brings the discussion back to his vaunted "average $2500 saving per year" for families. So, individuals will save, what, about $4-500/year??

Let's see: My insurance in NJ, same for young as old, sick as well, costs $20,140/year. I doubled my copay to get it down to $12,500/year. Of course, a good portion of my "savings" are already budgeted for in higher copays, and FSM forfend I have to be hospitalized or have many lab tests.

Hillary promised a public plan, as did Obama. Think he'll put any effort into that?

Their efforts will help us take the next and most important step -- comprehensive health care reform -- so that we can do what I pledged to do as a candidate and save a typical family an average of $2,500 on their health care costs in the coming years. Let me repeat that point. What they're doing is complementary to and is going to be completely compatible with a strong, aggressive effort to move health care reform through here in Washington with an ultimate result of saving health care costs for families, businesses and the government. That's how we can finally make health care affordable, while putting more money into the pockets of hardworking families each month. These savings can be achieved by standardizing quality care, incentivizing efficiency, investing in proven ways not only to treat illness but to prevent them.

We've already begun making a down payment on that kind of comprehensive reform. We're extending quality health care to millions of children of working families who lack coverage, which means we're going to be preventing long-term problems that are even more expensive to treat down the road. We're providing a COBRA subsidy to make health care affordable for 7 million Americans who lose their jobs. And because much of every health care dollar is spent on billing, overhead, and administration, we are computerizing medical records in a way that will protect our privacy, and that's a step that will not only eliminate waste and reduce medical errors that cost lives, but also let doctors spend less time doing administrative work and more time caring for patients.

I think that Obama here is saying that the 30-31% of every healthcare dollar paid to Big Insurers is goind to reduced --substantially??-- by digitized medical records and improved billing. WTF!?!

...I'm also committed to ensuring that whatever plan we design upholds three basic principles: First, the rising cost of health care must be brought down; second, Americans must have the freedom to keep whatever doctor and health care plan they have, or to choose a new doctor or health care plan if they want it; and third, all Americans must have quality, affordable health care.

These are principles that I expect to see upheld in any comprehensive health care reform bill that's sent to my desk -- I mentioned it to the groups that were here today. ,,,,

OK, he mentioned it to Big Insurers. Make you feel better?

Who expects to see the affordable part of his third point enacted? Especially without a public plan? Most especialy without single payer?

these big companies weren't gung-ho to to get their costs down until now? No one in the media is asking that question. Why isn't anyone asking if this offer is, in essence, a bribe to keep the big insurers at the table and the single-payer advocates out in the hallway, forever to be denied entrance even into the room?

Is Medicare invisible? Why isn't anyone in the media mentioning the success of single-payer Medicare, with doctor choice and low administrative costs?

Why isn't anyone asking how reduced costs will get more people insured?

Why isn't anyone challenging the statement that we are spending more on health care than any other nation - we are not spending that money on CARE - and why does Obama say these things as if he actually believes them?

Why isn't anyone asking whether reduced costs will also equal more and better coverage, or just a fatter bottom line for the companies?

See, in my cynical mind, I think reduced costs translate to reduced care and more gate-keeping.

I see Obama mentioned his good friends Harry and Louise - does he think we've forgotten Obama's scary healh care ads from the primaries? Why do we have to keep being treated as if we were stupid?

And am I the only one who thinks that when he talks about the "dangerous road we're on," he's also got Social Security on the brain?

Sorry for the dis-jointedness of my comments, but I'm too angry to put it all together in a more cohesive comment.

that's why I will not rest until the dream of health care reform is finally achieved in the United States of America.

Because, that's always been our national dream, to have health care reform, right?

And that's why I was committed to health care reform as a presidential candidate

I clearly remember you being for universal health care, which wasn't single payer (you wanted full coverage), but now you're walking this ever further back? Tell me lies; tell me more sweet little lies, Barack.

May the Congress of the United States of America be swift and force your hand before you have a chance to help Big Insurance implement these, er..."savings".