September 10, 2009
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Good Speech, Mr President!
I really listened to my president’s speech last night as this time the whole subject seems much more personal to me than most of the other issues out there. Here are some of the things he said:
Our collective failure to meet this challenge(for health care reform)– year after year, decade after decade — has led us to the breaking point. Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy. These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans. Some can’t get insurance on the job. Others are self-employed, and can’t afford it, since buying insurance on your own costs you three times as much as the coverage you get from your employer. Many other Americans who are willing and able to pay are still denied insurance due to previous illnesses or conditions that insurance companies decide are too risky or too expensive to cover.
We are the only democracy — the only advanced democracy on Earth — the only wealthy nation — that allows such hardship for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two-year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone.Amen, to that! And another part that made me want to give him a standing ovation in my living room was:
What this plan will do is make the insurance you have work better for you. Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a preexisting condition. (Applause.) As soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it the most. (Applause.) They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or in a lifetime. (Applause.) We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick. (Applause.) And insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies — (applause) — because there’s no reason we shouldn’t be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer before they get worse. That makes sense, it saves money, and it saves lives. (Applause.)
Text of the whole speech can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/obama-health-care-speech_n_281265.html among other places.
He said it will take 4 years to implement all of it and I hope with all my heart that this actually happens. I think 4 years is too much time….a lot can change in that amount of time. But I’m going to try to stay positive and hope it works. We really need this!
Comments (16)
I am with you 100% on this issue. I also thought your previous post discussing the personal side was superb. Applause is justified for this man’s efforts, he is one of the most appealing presidents I’ve watched trying to make any kind of progress in a backward nation, ha. And I start with Truman on that list. It’s understandable from political concerns that they can’t call the Bill the “Israel Success-emulation plan of 2009″, but seriously, probably the main reason I don’t dream of living in the US is because of our near-perfect health-care system, even though I try not to need it.
I thought he delivered a great speech and I was offended when that guy from South Carolina heckled him. At least McCain called him out and the President received a half-hearted apology.
@jsolberg - Thanks for the kind compliment. I agree that there is no reason to move to the US with our current situation. Healthcare is consistently getting worse and more expensive. The doctor’s barely have a say anymore as far as prescriptions and medical tests go. Greg and I have both been told by our insurance company that we have to stop taking certain prescriptions or pay for them ourselves because they are too expensive for the insurance company to pay for. Yeah, those poor guys are going broke because of my brand name cholesterol med!
@godfatherofgreenbay - I heard the guy call him a liar. What a jerk. His name is Joe Wilson from SC. I hear he’s a marked man these days! lol…just kidding. It was a great speech.
I think he will have a difficult bid for re-election. Since it was revealed that he heckled Obama, his opponent raised $200K+ in campaign funds.
And he can’t blame anyone but himself if he does lose.
Do you remember way back in the day when it was considered un-american to disrespect the president?
Sometimes I’m not so sure about what the President is suggesting. Maybe what he is doing is backing everyone against anything having to do with public health into a corner. He is wanting to force insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. To me this sounds like forcing a business to do business against its will with someone. For example, a known shoplifter wants to shop at the store he stole from. The business refuses to allow him entry. A law could be made to force the store to let that person in. Apples? Oranges? Maybe, but the good thing is that we need public health so if there is resistance to creating a law where insurance companies won’t be permitted to deny coverage (and how much coverage? again I ask…) then we must create some kind of a National Health Care Service free (via taxes) to cover those who need coverage beyond what an insurance company is willing to assist in providing, beyond what a patient can afford without going bankrupt.
@POETIC_ISIS - The difference between the pre-existing condition and the shoplifter is that the shoplifter never paid for his purchases to begin with.
Nobody told us that we could buy health insurance but we couldn’t use it. And if we ever did use it, we would be denied coverage if we changed companies or if they could find some kind of loophole to kick us out of the system.
For 6 years I paid around $600 a month for coverage for my husband and myself. We now have separate policies, and we pay even more. And mine is only good for 18 months, after which I will be without insurance unless something changes.
President Obama is only trying to make the insurance companies treat us like people. National healthcare would be excellent, but it’s not going to happen, it seems. Anything he can do to make this awful situation better is great. I applaude him if he can make it happen.
I absolutely hope it gets implemented as well. We need better healthcare in this country – and we need people to stop being so greedy and help others out.
Thanks for posting this! I totally agree with you. and President Obama’s healthcare plan!
I agree with the heart of the issue. I, however, have yet to fully agree with all the proposed aspects of it. I think it still needs a great bit of thinking through and evaluating how things will affect this country in the long run. People treat me like I’m against bettering healthcare because of this, but that’s not the case. I just don’t want to make the rest of the economy worse by an underthought idea. I relate it to the “No Child Left Behind Act” in my head. :/ It’s a great principal, but the way it is being carried out has caused it to gravely fail, you know?
I hope they can find a way to make this idea work well.
Thanks for the post,
~*Akarui Mitsukai*~
Amazing and totally right. We need to stop the insurance companies from screwing us over. We pay them to help us when we need them and when the time comes they like to pull the carpet out from under us and we’re left sitting on our ass.
@joiwinds - I like the reform so I am not opposing it. I would just like to point out that people also disrepsected Bush constantly. I may not have voted for him but I never disrespected him. The same goes for Obama. I may not agree with everything he says but I try to make it clear that it is the policy I don’t like not the man! I think what the senator did was wrong.
(allthough it was so out of place it was slightly commical)
I thought President Obama’s speech was right on target. He laid out the principles of health care reform that our nation has needed for so long.
Unfortunately millions of dollars of policyholders’
premiums that could have been used to provide health care to you
instead go to big public relations firms. These PR firms provide
talking points to conservative talk show hosts, conservative media, and
conservative politicians. They also set up sham “grass roots” groups
(called “astroturf”) to rile up people (often using the internet) and
scare them away from health care reform.
I hope these big corporations don’t kill our chance for a humane program of universal health care!
I completely agree!
@akarui_mitsukai - I agree that not everything in his proposal is going to work for everyone, but anything will be an improvement over the current way insurance companies work, I think. President Obama said it would take 4 years to get all this worked out, so hopefully that will be enough time to iron out all the kinks
.@MangoWOW - AMEN!
@sick_of_dreams - You are right. There were a lot of bad things said about Bush, just because he was republican. Same with Obama, just because he’s democrat. We need to remember that these folks are still human and try to be kind and respectful whether we agree with the policies or not.
@redhairedgrrl - Yep….all those PR firms and lobby groups are not helping the people who are sick right now and going broke or dying because of the ridiculous cost of health care!
@manilajones - thank you!
@joiwinds - I’ll just have to agree to disagree. From what I have reviewed, it seems like the majority will suffer more rather than less, and a larger majority than before. You know? I still agree it needs help… I’m just saying I don’t see a solution yet.
hehe. But yeah. I wish you well! I hope they create the miracle answer to our health problems soon! That would be a huge thing.
<3, ~*Akarui Mitsukai*~