BELGRADE, Montana (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, pushing for healthcare reform during a trip to the West, said on Friday the country was "held hostage" by insurance companies that deny coverage to sick people.
Obama, on a multi-state swing to tamp down vociferous opposition to his top domestic priority, targeted insurance companies for dropping customers who become sick or forcing patients to cover huge costs.
"We are held hostage at any given moment by health insurance companies that deny coverage or drop coverage or charge fees that people can't afford," Obama told a crowd of some 1,000 people in Montana.
A despicable comment worthy of a leftist. I guess the focus group polling told him this was a groups that hatred would work on, I say again, despicable. By the way I wonder how Karen M. Ignagni the Health Insurance Lobbyist who has tried to work with Obama will reply to this one.
We are held hostage by insurance companies and many stakeholders (including physicians) in healthcare. This is not unexpected.
ReplyDeleteAll will have to sacrifice. That is the only way to reduce the 17% of GDP now spent on healthcare. This is 30% more than our next economic competitor.
Adding more money to induce stakeholders to participate in reform is giving-in to the hostage-takers.
Those concerned about our debt, (like Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats) should strenghten the President's hand and not undercut the adminstration by demagogueing reform.
Nonsense, Anon. We should be working to deregulate the industry so we can have some real competition. Here's an easy way to prove that Obama is a moron without implementing any additional government programs:
ReplyDeletehttp://mlawire.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-care-obama-blames-insurance.html
As for the % of GDP, that's a very statist view of things. Do you want the government to decide the % of GDP that should be allocated to food? Housing? Tennis balls? These should be individual decisions made by millions. Some people may want to spend 80% of their income on health care. So what?
We need more freedom, not more government.