Gibson: You went after McCain for his plan of taxing healthcare benefits. Are you still opposed to that idea?
Obama: It would the wrong way to go to eliminate the current exclusion on those benefits. What they’re talking about in Congress is capping that exclusion. I think that’s not the best way to do it. If you eliminate that, employers will stop providing health insurance or you’ll get that money back in credits/wages and have to shop for insurance on your own and the money you’re getting back won’t cover the plan you want. The better way to fund this is the cap of itemized deductions. Congress is debating this now. We’re going to have to compromise.
Q. There are other nations who provide coverage for all of their citizens, better care for less than what we’re spending now. So could we explore making some tough decisions and not spending any new money on healthcare but using the money we’re spending now.
A. We spend 50% more than other countries without better outcomes. Not all are socialized medicine, but essentially all are a single-payer system. For us to completely change our system would be too disruptive in all aspects of care. Healthcare is 1/6 opf our economy. We can build on what works, fix what is broken and still save some money.