Bush Speech (SotU) to Focus on Health Care Plans

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - If it's your money, you spend it more wisely. That is the idea behind the health care system that President Bush wants to create with a series of initiatives in his State of the Union address.

"The American people are very, very frustrated with the health care system, for good reason," Al Hubbard, the chairman of Bush's National Economic Council, said Wednesday in an interview.

Health insurance premiums are rising faster than inflation. The number of employers offering health coverage is dropping. The ranks of the uninsured are growing. These developments explain why health care is near the top of many Americans' list of worries.

Taming health care costs and energy prices will be priorities for Bush this year, Hubbard said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060119/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_state_of_union

[bullimiami]

1. how will he make this one even worse?

it is already massively exploitive and corrupt.

[CountAllVotes]

2. uh huh

.... more * talk is all ... nothing to read here really ....

[pinerow]

3. Rut-Roh...

I feel a hand on my wallet...:wtf:

[Kahuna]

14. LOL!!!!

:rofl:

[Skip Intro]

15. *but its for your own good, you'll be happier, inaction=disaster, trust us

:sarcasm:

[Gloria]

4. Medical Savings Accounts, a nice tax shelter for those with the

cash to put money into it.....BLAH BLAH BLAH...PUKE!

[leftstreet]

5. Ted Kennedy has a Medicare For All plan

I don't know if the plan is feasible, but I can't believe the Dems didn't get in front of this soon-to-be Bush ploy with a single-payer plan.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0112-37.htm

An essential part of our progressive vision is an America where no citizen of any age fears the cost of health care, and no employer refuses to create new jobs or cuts back on current jobs because of the high cost of providing health insurance.

The answer is Medicare, whose 40th birthday we will celebrate in July. I propose that as a 40th birthday gift to the American people, we expand Medicare over the next decade to cover every citizen - from birth to the end of life.

It's no secret that America is still dearly in love with Medicare. Administrative costs are low. Patients' satisfaction is high. Unlike with many private insurers, they can still choose their doctor and their hospital.

[rodeodance]

7. yeah, they are a day late (like today with lobbyist stuff)

[rodeodance]

6. most arre repeats that stalled in Congress--looky here(cap malpract.)

_...........Additional tax breaks to help people who do not have employer-provided insurance coverage buy their own.

_More portability for health insurance when people switch jobs.

_A way for people to get more information about the price of the care they get and the performance of the doctors they see.

_A switch from paper medical records to more cost-effective, error-reducing electronic records.

_The ability for small businesses to pool the purchasing of health insurance coverage across state lines.

_A cap on malpractice verdicts other than actual economic damages, something Bush has been able to get through the House three years in a row, but not the Senate.............

[HuffleClaw]

8. he's gonna play doctor ???!!!!

and ignore everything else? oh, this really does promise to be a classic.

[rodeodance]

10. here are the Dem comments including Ted Kennedy's

[Nomen Tuum]

9. Wow, can't wait to pick my preacher to pray for me when I'm sick!

Let's see...
Falwell, Robertson, Paul Crouch, Benny Hinn, or the old fart himself Billy Graham?

What a plan!

[Skip Intro]

11. That ought to be rich. He will do himself in with that. NO ONE trusts him.

Not with their health.

That's why the social security "reform" bullshit failed. And I can't imagine anybody that's getting the wonderful new medicare "drug benefit" is happy.

Not even bush's backers (as opposed to his pupeteers) trust him that far.

I can't wait to see this!

[Kahuna]

12. Har! That should cook his goose for good. No way are Americans

going to trust him to reform healthcare after the mess he made of medicare.

[NashVegas]

13. I Understand What They're Trying to Do - And It Won't Work

For the same reason privatized Social Security won't work.

At the top you have a group of people with the mindset to do the research necessary to get the best deal.

In the middle you have a group of people with the mindset to rely on employers (pension plans, 401k) to get them the best deal and seek employment with companies that do that.

At the bottom you have a group of people with the mindset they're helpless & hopeless and they aren't going to get donkey squat, so why bother?



The middle group is losing more and more options each day. Some of them will accept the situation, roll up their sleeves, and do okay, but they'll be running lean and not happy about it. Those who don't do the research will get screwed. There will be people in both camps who will raise hell.

The bottom will just get screwed.

Add to all this the current Medicaid boondoggle and it's going to be a riot. Can't wait to see how the speech will turn out.

[newscott]

16. I'm not religious, but God help us all.

[WePurrsevere]

17. Oh yeah.... He's done such a wonderful job with the Medicare RX plan

that I'm sure Americans will buy this one hook line and sinker as well. :sarcasm: As for raising the amount folks can put into a "health savings plan"... why do I get the feeling that he's still working on ditching Social Security but going at it from a different angle?

I'd trust my cats to set me up a decent health care plan over BushCo or any of the RepubliCONS in office. OTOH, from what I read quickly, Kennedy's idea at least makes some sense, if done right might actually work well.

So much disgusting hypocrisy on the part of Bush and the Republicans when he talks about health care for all Americans as they work to gut Medicaid for the poor and Social Security for seniors and the disabled. :grr:

[pinto]

18. Someone realized health care is the Achilles heel. Campaign speech, I

would guess, if this "float" holds true.

[Earth_First]

19. A message to Al Hubbard: STFU!

WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY KNOW ABOUT HOW FRUSTRATED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE WITH HEALTH CARE!?

WHAT THE FU*K DO YOU KNOW ABOUT DROPPING NEARLY $1000 A MONTH ON HEALTH INSURANCE FOR A FAMILY OF FOUR!?

WHAT THE FU*K DO YOU KNOW ABOUT LAYING AWAKE AT NIGHT IN FEAR OF LOSING YOUR JOB AND WHAT HEALTH CARE OPTIONS YOU MAY HAVE LEFT AT SAID JOB!?

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANY OF THIS?

Don't patronize me into this compassionate b.s. that you know how frustrated myself and my fellow citizens are. You are so far removed from dealing with ANY of it that I am disgusted that you even pretend to know.

[baldguy]

20. Well, he's done such a GREAT job with the Medicare drug benefit!

Be prepared to get half the coverage at twice the price.

[YvonneCa]

21. The Ownership Society....

...privatization.:scared:

[hatrack]

22. One month into the great Medicare Drug Fuckup, and he'll lead with THIS?

He's even stupider than I thought - and I thought he was pretty galactically stupid.

Unbelievable.

[Rose Siding]

23. Malpractice caps and tax cuts.

No thanks.