In Glenside, PA, President Obama explains why health insurance reform is a necessity and calls on Congress to put aside politics and hold a final up or down vote on reform. March 8, 2010.
Duration : 0:37:13
President Obama calls for the House and Senate to vote on health care reform and says he will do everything in his power to make the case for reform. March 3, 2010.
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Keith Olbermann calls out Sen. John Thune, Sen. John McCain, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans – whom he argues “owns” the insurance industry – as well as a few Democrats, too – specifically the “Blue Dogs” – in a “Special Comment”.
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March 4 (Bloomberg) — Linda Douglass, a White House spokeswoman for health care, talks with Bloombergs Mark Crumpton and Julie Hyman about how legislation overhauling the U.S. health-care system would address increases in health-insurance rates.
President Barack Obama and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius met with executives of the top health insurers after WellPoint Inc., the largest insurance company by membership, proposed a 39 percent rate increase for some policyholders in California. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Moments after a brief speech by President Obama, RNC chairman Michael Steele, in an interview with CNN, says that delaying the vote on the President’s health care reform bill, which he calls “a risky experiment”, is necessary.
“I agree with the President that it’s time to do something different,” Steele said, but “this isn’t the different we want.”
Kyra Phillips says delaying the vote on the bill is not smart, because currently, “It’s costing us up the wazoo.”
“Do you know how much that wazoo is?,” Steele responds.
At the end of the interview, Steele says he’s “happy” with his current medical insurance – then admits he isn’t even sure what his actual insurance plan is! “Blue Cross Blue Shield – I think…”
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After Thursday’s bipartisan health care summit, what’s next? CBS News Chief Political Consultant Marc Ambinder gives his take. Plus; Wyatt Andrews previews his exclusive on disabled veterans being denied benefits.
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Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — Karen Ignagni, president of Americas Health Insurance Plans, talks with Bloombergs Betty Liu and Peter Cook about the outlook for Presidents Barack Obama bipartisan summit on health care.
Ignagni also discusses the role of insurance premiums in the debate. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Residents in California are protesting against Anthem Blue Cross, the largest health care provider in the Golden State, which plans to raise rates for many. Ben Tracy reports from Los Angeles.
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Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) — Herbert Pardes, chief executive officer at New York Presbyterian Hospital, talks about medical malpractice claims and health-care overhaul legislation. (This is an excerpt of the full interview. Source: Bloomberg)
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The GOP propaganda machine is in full spin as operatives and hot talk stations spread lies and hysteria about items said to be found in the current House bill language of the American Affordable Health Care Act.
Talk of genocide on both ends of the life cycle are paraded down the street in a grotesque death march of wing nuts eager to drink any Kool-Aid and any lie to sabotage discussion about actual substance. Scare tactics included outrage over mandated funding for abortions and assisted suicide for those over 65.
Per a recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, the abortion coverage was modified significantly in committee. The Energy and Commerce Committee amendment: Prohibits abortion coverage from being required as part of the essential benefits package; and requires segregation of public subsidy funds from private premium payments for plans that choose to cover abortion services beyond Hyde—which allows coverage for abortion services to save the life of the woman and in cases of rape or incest; and require there be no effect on state or federal laws on abortions. See also the Guttmacher Report of July 22, 2009, that discusses these restrictions in the context of the insurance industry.
The genocide mandate is a considered a wild distortion of the House Bill. All manner of documentation to the contrary, Republicans try to paint a provision for suggested elderly medical counseling every five years as some Soylent Green scenario where seniors are meekly led to assisted suicide chambers.
Snopes, Media Matters, and AARP try to dispel these distorions originally forwarded by wing nut Betsy McCaughey.
Despite the facts, these same talking points of abortion funding and killing Grandpa were rebroadcast all day Friday by the vast right wing echo chamber, including Rush Limbaugh, and by the sick freak, Glenn Beck. //// The blatant and not-so blatant sabotage that’s happening in our country today regarding health care reform is nothing short of criminal. People’s lives are actually at stake and once again, people’s ignorance and lack of education and being informed is about to do us all in… The greed from our health insurance companies shouldn’t be surprising, if you’re paying attention, but it’s still astounding to me. /////////// Obama attacked “bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost,” addressing the so-called “death panels” and that reforms would insure illegal immigrants.
“And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up — under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place,” he said.
The president said he would no longer stand for allowing gross misrepresentations to continue.
“I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than improve it,” Obama said. “I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what’s in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.”
Obama said his plan isn’t intended to put insurance companies out of business, but a not-for-profit option would “keep insurance companies honest” by providing competition.
The public option is a government-funded, government-run health care option, similar to Medicare. Under the plan, people would pay premiums 10 percent to 20 percent less than private insurance.
That leaves the door open for Congress to come up with another option, such as a co-op or a “trigger,” in which a public option would kick in only if insurance companies fail to make reforms within a defined period.
Obama argued that a public plan wouldn’t create unfair competition for insurers because it would rely on premiums it collects rather than public funding, but would save money by avoiding overhead like administrative costs and executive salaries.
And he said his plan won’t add to the deficit because it includes a provision that requires the government to cut spending if health care savings the admnistration promises don’t materializes.
Obama also addressed seniors who have expressed concerns about the quality of care they have enjoyed being eroded by health care reform, which he said has been “subjected to demagoguery and distortion.”
“The only thing this plan would eliminate is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud, as well as unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies — subsidies that do everything to pad their profits and nothing to improve your care,” he said.
Duration : 0:10:56