Posted on 02/05/2010 8:44:55 AM PST by bestintxas
President Obama called Thursday for high-level talks with Republicans to work out a compromise on health care legislation, then putting the resulting bill to a vote in Congress.
"If Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, after all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," Obama said. "That's how democracy works."
Obama's comments were the first clear signal from the White House or Democrats in Congress on how they would proceed on a top legislative priority after losing their 60-seat super-majority in the Senate.
Republican Scott Brown was sworn in as the new U.S. senator from Massachusetts earlier Thursday, leaving the Democrats one vote shy of being able to overcome GOP filibusters of health care reform and other major initiatives.
Asked at a party fund-raising event about the Democratic strategy for health care reform going forward, Obama said Democratic leaders in the House and Senate were working out differences in the separate health care bills passed by each chamber last year.
Once that was finished, Obama said, the next step would be "to call on our Republican friends to present their ideas."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
“President Obama called Thursday for high-level talks with Republicans to work out a compromise on health care legislation”
Danger! Danger! Will Robinson.
Don’t let the Kenyan off the mat!
IMO, there has to be some provision made for pre-existing conditions. I do not think that someone should be able to purchase insurance to pay for the cancer they were just diagnosed with. However, what is that uninsured cancer patient to do, since they will NEVER be able to purchase any kind of health insurance again.
Maybe it should function like a life insurance policy’s suicide clause - your pre-existing condition isn’t covered for the first two years of continuous coverage, for instance. This would allow anyone to purchase insurance, while preventing people from only purchasing it when they need it.
It might also make sense to place these people into catastrophic-only policies for that first two year period, so that they only get coverage after they pay a high deductible first.
However it’s done, there has to be some way offered to the “uninsurable” to move them into the ranks of the insured.
In New Jersey, if you are a high-risk driver, you are placed into what is called the “High Risk Pool”. All insurance companies must accept a specified portion of drivers from that pool, and the state sets the cost of insurance for that pool high enough that nobody wants to be in it.
Maybe something similar could be worked out for pre-existing conditions. If somebody doesn’t buy insurance until they are sick, they get stuck with a huge (I mean really, really huge) premium, limiited care and high deductible. I could live with that.
I tend to agree. There are those, though, who are not really “unhealthy” as we might define it. I have high cholesterol, for instance. I was denied for personal health insurance here in Florida a few years ago. I’m not a heavy user of healthcare services, but I was considered too big a risk. I later got a job with benefits, partially for that reason. With medication, my cholesterol is under control. I don’t think it was really appropriate to consider me uninsurable because of that one risk factor, nor do I think that they should have insured me at the same rates as everyone else.
First he didn’t want to hear a lot from the people who caused the problems, now that he doesn’t have the votes he is sucking them in to his plan.
he will tell them, give me ideas, he will putthem in his package then tell them to voe for it. Combined with some back room deals, the RINO’s will fall.
here we go .. the GOP needs to stand firm and not fail us now.
But i have doubts especially with people like Olympia Snow.
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