Obama Calls for Universal Health Care

Associated Press ^ | 1/25/07 | NEDRA PICKLER

[Sybeck1]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Every American should have health care coverage within six years, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday as he set an ambitious goal soon after jumping into the 2008 presidential race. "The time has come for universal health care in America," Obama said at a conference of Families USA, a health care advocacy group.

"I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country," the Illinois senator said.

Obama was previewing what is shaping up to be a theme of the 2008 Democratic primary. One of his rivals, 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards, also said as he announced his candidacy last month that he will offer a proposal for universal health care.

Obama said while plans are offered in every campaign season with "much fanfare and promise," they collapse under the weight of Washington politics, leaving citizens to struggle with the skyrocketing costs.

He said it's wrong that 46 million in this country are uninsured when the country spends more than any one else on health care. He said Americans pay $15 billion in taxes to help care for the uninsured.

"We can't afford another disappointing charade in 2008, 2009 and Obama said. "It's not only tiresome, it's wrong."

Obama's call was an echo of a speech he made last April when he said Democrats "need to cling to the core values that make us Democrats, the belief in universal health care, the belief in universal education, and then we should be agnostic in terms of how to achieve those values."

His argument Thursday not only will be considered through the prism of the presidential campaign, but weighed against rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's ill-fated plan to overhaul the health care insurance system when she was first lady.

Another candidate, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, also backs universal health care.

[fanfan]

Oh, you'll love it, just like we do! /sarc

---

Patients Face Long Waits in ERs: Study
Josh Pringle
Thursday, January 25, 2007

Patients can expect to spend between 2.5 and seven hours in Ottawa Hospital emergency departments.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information has released a new report on emergency wait times across Ontario.

The study finds half of the patients visiting ERs within the Champlain Local Health Integration Network will spend a total of 2.5 hours. 10 per cent of patients will complete their visit in about 7.4 hours.

The Champlain Local Health Integration Network includes hospitals in Ottawa, Renfrew County, Prescott and Russell.

The report found that across Ontario, wait times are longest at teaching hospitals, where 90 per cent of patients were seen within nine hours.

http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=1&nid=46555

[Sacajaweau]

"We will take things away from you for the general good".

[Buck W.]

Color me surprised.

[Sword_Svalbardt]

Whatever that word means - yup!

[Sacajaweau]

It's also wrong for people to sit on their butts waiting for hard working Americans to pay for their laziness. New Orleans was a perfect example.

[mewzilla]

chutz·pa

noun Slang. 1. unmitigated effrontery or impudence; gall.
2. audacity; nerve.

Also, chutzpah, hutzpa, hutzpah.

:)

[lilylangtree]

Obama's repackaging the same tired concept that hillbillery tried in the mid-90s that BOMBED

[Joe Boucher]

exactly

[nascarnation]

You are absolutely correct
when I was a child, the doctor came to our house to see us sick kids, driving his black Buick
and my parents were not even middle-middle class

[DustyMoment]

Obama Calls for Universal Health Care

Wow, what a bold and innovative proposition!! Obama is certainly . . . . . really!? It ISN'T his idea!!?? . . . . . . . . . . HillaryCare!!!????



Who knew!!??

[DustyMoment]

Here's your candidate!!

I can't afford either of you, by the way. My taxes are high enough.

[moonman]

"... also backs universal health care"

As does at least one FReeper ... me!

[Big Horn]

The government involvement in medical care has only raised the cost of it for everyone.

[JewishRighter]

Now why would Osama want Americans to have health care at all if he's trying to kill us?

[Ouderkirk]

OK, 46 million uninsured and it takes over 15 billion in taxes to cover that??? Sounds cheap, leave it alone. $15 x 10^9 / $45 x10^6 = $333.33 per person is a good deal.

[JPJones]

Great! My wife needs breast implants!

[CDB]

This when Ford told its shareholders, et al. that it paid $3.1 BILLION last year on health care. Japanese and other Asian car company competitors DON'T. Does Barack Hussein Obama expect ALL American companies to pay for health care, now?

[Ouderkirk]

Your "right" to healthcare at the expense of taxpayers means that they have become rightless serfs, i.e., your slaves. Your right to anything at others' expense means that they become rightless.

[mel]

I know. My friend from Ireland came over and was bragging about how everything was free over there. Then she went back and had some kind of heart trouble and it was going to be a long wait. She wanted to come back to U.S. on next flight. ha ha ha

[mewzilla]

And you can bet these pols won't be lining up to participate in this system.