Obama on Health Care: "This Year ... This Administration"

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/12/11/obama-on-health-care-quot-this-year-this-administration-quot.aspx

Obama on Health Care: "This Year ... This Administration"


At the Chicago press conference, Obama just gave the clearest signal yet that he intends to make health care reform a top priority.

After running through the litany of familiar problems--rising costs, faltering coverage, poor quality--he vowed to tackle the problem "this year and in this administration." Afterward, he confronted head-on the argument that the rough economy makes this a poor time to try health care reform. He noted that economic insecurity and our health care crisis our inextricably linked. "If we want to overcome our economic challenges, we must deal with our health care challenges."

Once Obama was done speaking, Tom Daschle--now the official appointee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services--took his turn. And his remarks were equally impressive. Calling health care "our largest domestic policy challenge," he said that "Our growing costs are unsustainable and the plight of the uninsured is unconscionable." That may sound like boilerplate, but many health care experts think it's more important to tackle costs before coverage. Daschle's comments are a clear signal he takes both challenges seriously (and, undoubtedly, understands the way they are related.)

One more note: I mentioned briefly, below, the significance of Jeanne Lambrew's appointment. But it goes beyond the fact that she happens to know a heck of a lot about health care. She, too, has a strong commitment to what you might call the "social justice" side of the debate: Making sure everybody has insurance and, more important, good insurance. She also focuses heavily on issues like prevention and public health--which get less attention than simply extending insurance to everybody but may, in the long run, be more important when it comes to actually making all Americans healthy.

More later today, after everybody else is done dissecting Obama's comments on the Blagojevich scandal.

Update: In response to the final question, the only one on health care, he said "the time is now to solve this problem. I met too many families in this campaign, even before the economic downturn, who were desperate." He then mentioned the role health care costs played in personal bankruptcies and employer struggles, and reiterated that "this has to be intimately woven into our economic recovery program. It's not something we can put off because we're in an emergency. This is part of the emergency. We want to make sure the strategy reflects that truth."

--Jonathan Cohn

[DevonRex]

1. That is exactly right. I'd like every American to have the same options

that my husband has as a federal employee and that I have as a federal retiree. I'd also like every American to have the same options we have for our retirement accounts.

The other thing I would like is for the federal government to be the one giving student loans and making the interest off of them, instead of the private sector doing it. The interest rates could be lower and the government would be the one profitting.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. He is so right about this

We are getting swamped with calls at the clinic from folks who are ill and have no money to pay for services (we let them pay it out over time-we don't turn anyone away). Our practice focuses on getting people healthy and then keeping them that way through proper diet (tailored to the individual), supplementation as required, and exercise. So these words are heartening to us.

[nxylas]

3. He'd better hurry up

There's less than three weeks of this year left.

[annabanana]

4. Making sure everybody has health insurance ? Or making sure everybody

has healthcare??

The insurance industry is the very crux of the problem....

[NV Whino]

5. You have hit the nail squarly on the head.

I'm glad Obama is making health care a priority, but I don't expect to see a viable solution "this year," which I'm interpreting to be 2009. We won't have a viable solution until the insurance companies are removed from the equation.

[Lugnut]

6. Exactly!

I have insurance. I want health CARE as ordered by my physician rather than determined by my insurance company.

[babylonsister]

8. Seems if they plan on tackling costs, the insurance industry is bound

up in that. I'm hoping making sure everyone has good health insurance will lead to good healthcare.
I'm glad they're going to be working on this. It's more than anyone has done in quite awhile.

[w00master]

7. This is why Obama is DA MAN!

Obama hit it right on the head. The Healthcare problem is DIRECTLY tied to our economic crisis. Even beyond the individual issues on lack of insurance, etc., the current healthcare problem is an enormous burden on businesses as well. We are ALL in this together and I'm so glad that Obama is taking up the challenge.