the july 1 health care town hall meeting

The health care changes that Obama called for Wednesday would reshape the nation's medical landscape. He says he wants to cover nearly 50 million uninsured Americans, to persuade doctors to stress quality over quantity of care, to squeeze billions of dollars from spending.

But details on exactly how to do those things were generally lacking in his hour-long town hall forum before a friendly, hand-picked audience in a Washington suburb. The lingering questions underscore the tough negotiations awaiting Congress, the administration and dozens of special interest groups in the coming months. Lawmakers will return to debating the issue when they return from a one-week recess on Monday.

LTRT wrote:

The health care changes that Obama called for Wednesday would reshape the nation's medical landscape. He says he wants to cover nearly 50 million uninsured Americans, to persuade doctors to stress quality over quantity of care, to squeeze billions of dollars from spending.

But details on exactly how to do those things were generally lacking in his hour-long town hall forum before a friendly, hand-picked audience in a Washington suburb. The lingering questions underscore the tough negotiations awaiting Congress, the administration and dozens of special interest groups in the coming months. Lawmakers will return to debating the issue when they return from a one-week recess on Monday.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090702/D995VHDG0.html

The media claim that there are 40 million to 50 million uninsured Americans and use that statistic to bolster calls for universal government-run insurance coverage. The inaccuracy has been repeated by print and broadcast journalists for years, but the true extent of the uninsured “crisis” is much smaller than those reports let on.



Myth: There are between 40 million and 50 million uninsured Americans. President Obama referred to “46 million uninsured Americans” in May 2009.



Fact: Anyone who reports that there are more than 46 million uninsured is exaggerating since the Census Bureau puts the number of uninsured at 45,657,000 people.



Fact: Nearly 10 million (9.7) of the 45.7 million uninsured are “not a citizen.” That makes every media claim of uninsured Americans higher than 35.9 million is wrong.



Myth: The 40 million to 50 million uninsured cannot afford health insurance.



Fact: More than 17 million of the uninsured make at least $50,000 per year (the median household income of $50,233) – 8.4 million make $50,000 to $74,999 per year and 9.1 million make $75,000 or higher. Two economists working at the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that 25 to 75 percent of those who do not purchase health insurance coverage “could afford to do so.”



Myth: The 40 million to 50 million uninsured do not get health care.



Fact: The National Center for Policy Analysis estimates that uninsured people get about $1,500 of free health care per year, or $6,000 per family of four.



Fact: An Urban Institute study found that 25 percent of the uninsured already qualify for government health insurance programs.



Myth: People will remain uninsured without government assistance.



Fact: The Congressional Budget Office says that 45 percent of the uninsured will be insured within four months. CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin also said that the frequent claim of 40+ million Americans lacking insurance is an “incomplete and potentially misleading picture of the uninsured population.”



Fact: Liberal non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation put the number of uninsured Americans who do not qualify for government programs and make less than $50,000 a year between 8.2 million and 13.9 million. (The 8.2 million figure includes only those uninsured for two years or more.)



Fact: CBO analysis found that 36 million people would remain uninsured even if the Senate’s $1.6 trillion health care plan is passed.

Bman wrote:I bet both of you would change your tune if you or one of your loved ones was one of the millions uninsured. I ALWAYS try to put myself in someone else's shoes when I shoot my mouth off ...

Bman wrote:I bet both of you would change your tune if you or one of your loved ones was one of the millions uninsured. I ALWAYS try to put myself in someone else's shoes when I shoot my mouth off ...

LTRT wrote:

Bman wrote:I bet both of you would change your tune if you or one of your loved ones was one of the millions uninsured. I ALWAYS try to put myself in someone else's shoes when I shoot my mouth off ...

First off, all my loved ones are US citizens and secondly my sister is uninsured and she is not jumping up and down for Obamacare.

Bman wrote:

LTRT wrote:

Bman wrote:I bet both of you would change your tune if you or one of your loved ones was one of the millions uninsured. I ALWAYS try to put myself in someone else's shoes when I shoot my mouth off ...

First off, all my loved ones are US citizens and secondly my sister is uninsured and she is not jumping up and down for Obamacare.

Oh ... so she would prefer to have NO insurance and have a broken leg or cancer ... yea, right. You are so full of bullshit it is unbelievable.

Kroman wrote:My opinion is anytime you put yourself in a situation where you rely on the government then you will be disappointed.

floridafun wrote:

Kroman wrote:My opinion is anytime you put yourself in a situation where you rely on the government then you will be disappointed.

so you havent nor do you plan to ever apply for medicare, medicaid, social security, vet benefits if applies, ss disability, national healthcare when it becomes fact..right?

that selling insurance to folks after you help them straighten out their credit problems must be paying off very nicely for you!

floridafun wrote:so in other words you will take what you can get but THATS DIFFERENT..no surprise there.

where i got the insurance thought was that when on the old board thats what you told me. silly me.

floridafun wrote:
where i got the insurance thought was that when on the old board thats what you told me. silly me.

floridafun wrote:soooo what are the opinions on this? is it automatically no because its something obama wants, or does it seem to have some possibilities?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aNIp7tE_btTk

The plan includes a government-run insurance program as an alternative to private coverage, and would cost about $400 billion less than an earlier proposal.

Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said in a letter to members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that the plan would cost $611.4 billion over 10 years, citing an analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO later released a preliminary analysis of the legislation pegging its net cost at about $600 billion. That’s down from an estimate of $1 trillion for a previous draft of the legislation.

For all his involvement over the past few weeks, Obama has suffered several setbacks. House and Senate lawmakers remain at a crossroads over a slew of issues, and public opinion polls show that confidence in Obama's approach to revamping health care has slipped since he took office. As cost estimates balloon, Republican critics have stepped up their attacks. More troublesome for Obama is that conservative and moderate Democrats have balked at the bills under consideration.

Markwes wrote:And now, the rest of the story...

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20090623160905.aspx

meta4 wrote:

Markwes wrote:And now, the rest of the story...

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20090623160905.aspx

You're an intelligent guy. How can you read this summary myth/fact and not do the simple math in your head quick enough to realize these numbers are skewed as well?

I think I got to line 12 and it took me about 1 minute.

meta4 wrote:What do these numbers have to do with REFORMING health care? Not many seem to understand reform is the core issue in the debate. However, every polarized pulpit address focuses on the FEAR over the MONEY that we THINK we MIGHT have to pay.

meta4 wrote:What do these numbers have to do with REFORMING health care? Not many seem to understand reform is the core issue in the debate.

meta4 wrote:However, every polarized pulpit address focuses on the FEAR over the MONEY that we THINK we MIGHT have to pay.

Pluralities now say that the president’s health care plan is a bad idea, and that it will result in the quality of their care getting worse. What’s more, just four in 10 approve of his handling on the issue.

The poll also finds that Obama's overall job-approval rating has dropped to 53 percent. And it shows a public that has grown increasingly concerned about the federal government's spending as the administration defends its $787 billion economic stimulus and supports a $1 trillion-plus health-care bill.