Obama’s Healthcare Plan; Short on Details

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u29035694

Kind of sounds like he is bowing to the insurance industry to me. It would be much easier for the government to provide insurance then it would be to regulate and try to control costs within the insurance industry. They are setup to make a profit, and they are not going to budge on that. What do you think?

“Even as we rescue this economy from a full-blown crisis, we must rebuild it stronger than before — and health insurance reform is central to that effort,” Obama said.

“If we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit. If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket,” he said.

As he laid out the list of benefits that health care reform offers, he dropped a direct reference to a government-funded public health insurance option.

Until now, Obama has consistently touted the government-funded public option as competition for private insurers in expanding access to health coverage.

It was unclear if Obama changed the wording to avoid a label opposed by Republican supporters, or if he was signaling a policy shift toward a compromise being negotiated by the Senate Finance Committee to have health insurance cooperatives rather than a government-funded public option.

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa told CNN on Wednesday that the Finance Committee was not considering a public option.

Later in the news conference, Obama responded to a question about the public option by saying it was intended to “keep the insurance companies honest.”

One more reason we need socialized medicine

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So Avera now is asking there employees to help pay for other people’s healthcare?

Fred Slunecka, Avera McKennan regional president, and other top managers will take a 6 percent pay cut. Other managers will take a 5 percent cut. Other employees will see a 4.75 percent reduction. Employees also will lose five days of paid vacation.

But doctors will have no paycut? How is that across the board? Sacrifice is sacrifice isn’t it? So the receptionists and janitors have to take a cut but not the highest paid employees? The doctors? Typical.

So far, the reductions do not include physicians,

Avera McKennan had a record number of patients this past year, according to Krebs. But accompanying that was a sharp increase in the number of people who sought treatment who were unable to pay for it.

How is this fair to the employees who work hard? I think it is a combination of increased needy patients and Avera trying to keep up with Sanford’s expansion and using the recession as an excuse.

“Our main project is the Avera Cancer Institute,” he said. “It’s a $90 million facility. It is still scheduled to open in fall of 2010.”

Funny, Munson mentioned on Inside Keloland Sunday that the Healthcare industry is doing great in Sioux Falls. Must not have gotten the memo. A hiring freeze and a paycut at one of the top hospitals in the state isn’t exactly ‘doing great’.