Obama urged to overhaul healthcare, stat (Obama sold his soul to special interest groups)

la times ^ | 11/11/2008 | Noam N. Levey

[tobyhill]

Reporting from Washington -- Four leading advocacy groups representing business, labor and retirees are starting a campaign today to press Barack Obama to enact comprehensive healthcare reform, upping the pressure on the president-elect to tackle the issue quickly after he takes office.

In a letter to Obama, the Business Roundtable, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, AARP and the Service Employees International Union urge that a healthcare overhaul be a priority in the administration's first 100 days.

The groups plan to spend nearly $1 million to publicize their cause in newspaper and television advertising in coming weeks.

"What we are doing is reminding not just the president but the Congress as well that . . . this remains one of the most important issues facing the country," said Business Roundtable President John Castellani. "We need to now follow through."

In their letter, the groups link healthcare reform with the nation's bleak economic conditions.

"Addressing skyrocketing healthcare costs is a critical component of stabilizing household, national and global economies," the letter said. "Inaction undermines the economic security of our families; limits the productivity of our workforce; stagnates job creation and wage growth; and threatens to crowd out investments in energy, education and infrastructure."

Obama made healthcare reform a central plank of his presidential campaign, pledging a sweeping effort to expand coverage and lower costs.

[tobyhill]

Obama, almost time to pay your dues and the special interest groups won't let you forget.

[NavVet]

I’ve never understood how making someone else pay for your health care is supposed to lower the cost of health care. It would seem to me it does exactly the opposite.

[yobid]

Likes flys on a cow patty.

[uncbob]

These people aren’t going to like what the future is going to hold for them—the whole medical infrastructure is going to come crashing down

[yobid]

I’ve never understood how making someone else pay for your health care is supposed to lower the cost of health care. It would seem to me it does exactly the opposite.

The democrat agenda is to bankrupt all industries. It's obvious though never reported. The King has no clothes on.

[hometoroost]

It’s a combination of greed, economic illiteracy, desire for the spotlight, and a misguided belief that government knows better what is good for your family than you do.

[Doogle]

$$$$$$$$ beckons

[tobyhill]

***In their letter, the groups link healthcare reform with the nation's bleak economic conditions.***

Yea, and giving away healthcare will really make it better.

[dblshot]

Guy goes over to his buddies house to pick him up for a ball game. His buddy says he needs a shower just wait a few minutes so he sits down on the couch a flicks on a TV. Next thing he knows there is this big Doberman Pincher growling at him on the other side of the coffee table. He sees a jar of jelly beans on the table and flips one to the dog who woofs it down and looks at the guy. So he throws him another jelly bean. This goes on until his buddy comes back and says, Oh I see you met Killer, how’d you get along. Fine he says, good dog. Yep says his buddy, as long as you don't run out of jelly beans.

Obama has a pack circling and guess where he plans on getting jelly beans?

[Pantera]

"The democrat agenda is to bankrupt all industries."

This is what has to be countered with everything. They know that once these things come crashing down, the govt can step in and they will never float back out to the free market. If this happens to industry after industry it is fatal, and probably irreversible without bloodshed.

We badly need state and congressional leaders to stand up for Capitalism and the constitution! We are powerless without aggressive political leaders. Where are they?

[ScottinVA]

“(Obama sold his soul to special interest groups)”

WHAT soul???

[Beagle8U]

“We are powerless without aggressive political leaders. Where are they?”

They are gone, voted out of office by welfare leeches.

When the birds get to vote on the need to keep the feeder full, you will go bankrupt putting in enough seed to satisfy all that will show up.

[VanDeKoik]

“The groups plan to spend nearly $1 million to publicize their cause in newspaper and television advertising in coming weeks. “

That 1 million would have paid for a lot of medical bills.

[Puppage]

I’ve never understood how making someone else pay for your health care

I agree. People pay thousands to keep their cars running without so much as a peep. Yet, when it comes to the up keep of their bodies, they want someone else to pay for it.

[cgk]

What happened to the endless Dem squawking about how we were burdening the future, THE CHILDREN, with this massive deficit and how Bush had squandered some Clinton surplus and he needed to stop spending irresponsibly?

[Peter Horry]

“I’ve never understood how making someone else pay for your health care is supposed to lower the cost of health care. It would seem to me it does exactly the opposite”

The real problem is that the parties determining the cost and extent of medical treatment, the doctor and patient, have little regard for the cost of the treatment. The parties that pays for the treatment, government sources and insurance, have little control over the cost of the treatment. Costs can not be controlled until the party paying for the services determine the services. The best treatment will be if the patient has a significant financial stake in the treatment rendered, the worse case (think socialized medicine) is that a third party (the government) determines treatment and cost.

[Lobbyist]

Here is a link to the position paper written by Hillary and the big O.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/21/2205

“We have visited doctors and hospitals throughout the country and heard firsthand from those who face ever-escalating insurance costs. Indeed, in some specialties, high premiums are forcing physicians to give up performing certain high-risk procedures, leaving patients without access to a full range of medical services. But we have also talked with families who have experienced errors in their care, and it has become clear to us that if we are to find a fair and equitable solution to this complex problem, all parties — physicians, hospitals, insurers, and patients — must work together. Instead of focusing on the few areas of intense disagreement, such as the possibility of mandating caps on the financial damages awarded to patients, we believe that the discussion should center on a more fundamental issue: the need to improve patient safety.”

[KarlInOhio]

Also have more transparency in pricing. If a doctor gives you a prescription he often has no idea what it costs. Could he give you a generic that was 95% as effective (or maybe just as effective, but the drug company changed one atom in the drug molecule to be able to get a new patent on their "improved" drug) for one tenth the cost? If a doctor says you need some treatment, can you find out beforehand what it costs and then make a rational decision with your doctor on whether it is worth the cost?

Also, some prices just make no sense. A few years ago I had a minor medical problem that required some tests and treatment. The test used a multithousand (I guess) piece of equipment, many minutes of the doctor's time and was more invasive. List price was $99. The treatment required one simple medical tool and maybe 30 seconds of the doctor's time, but listed at over $300 because it was officially "surgery" rather than a "test". Other than malpractice liability, I can think of no reason why the treatments cost more than the tests.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Stop thinking. It's the same as those who believe that if insurance companies are forced to provide certain kinds of health care, costs go down.

Last night, a mom told of trying to force health care companies to provide certain services for children with autism.

As a grandmother with a child with autism, I do not automatically believe that it is a given that the more care the better.

Someone has to pay.

[socialismisinsidious]

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