President Obama faults himself for not selling health law

[cal04]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100922/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_health_overhaul

Blaming himself for coolness to his health care overhaul, President Barack Obama is seeking to reintroduce the law to voters who don't much like or understand it six months after he signed it.

(snip)
"We just got to give people some basic peace of mind," the president said,

"I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Norma Byrne of Vineland, N.J., told the president, explaining she was benefiting from the law's provisions that are closing a Medicare coverage gap for prescription drugs.

(snip)
Obama ruefully told his listeners, "Sometimes I fault myself for not being able to make the case more clearly to the country."

Still, he took on Republicans who want to repeal the law, daring them to tell that to a cancer patient covered by a new high-risk pool, or a parent whose child was able to get insurance despite a pre-existing health condition.

"It makes sense in terms of politics and polls," Obama said of the GOP position. "It doesn't make sense in terms of actually making people's lives better."

[dennis4868]

1. Mr. President....

Repubs = party BEFORE country!

[OwnedByFerrets]

2. Little late for regrets

[karynnj]

5. Not really - if he really means it and uses his position to show types of people helped

- and there are many - he can change opinions. The Democrats can then USE Obama speaking to real people - seniors with coverage of some of the donut hole and new preventive care that is free - 22 - 25 year olds no longer losing insurance as they graduate from college because they stay on their parents plan.

Not even thinking of others, these people, who are PROVABLY helped, likely are a large part of the population.

- ALL people over 65
- Many 22 - 25 year olds, who haven't found jobs with benefits
- Many parents of those kids, who would possibly have helped pay

[MadMaddie]

14. He didn't have anything else to do

At least he owns it and is not running away from it. Would you prefer someone that doesn't accept responsibility....maybe like Junior?

[old mark]

3. I am glad he is finally seeing this, but it should have been obvious from the first...

The administration needs some salesmanship, and has to stand up and tell people what they are doing - people don't automatically get it, especially when millions are spend to lie to them...


mark

[elleng]

4. Segment on NewsHour now.

[woo me with science]

6. Hard to sell crap. nt

[OhioBlue]

8. covering people with pre-existing conditions

eliminating caps
closing the doughnut hole
covering preventative health care procedures
expanding coverage for young adults
eliminating the ability for insurers to drop a client when they get sick

all of that is crap?????

tell that to the millions that are benefiting from it.

tell that to my cousin that is 21 and cannot find a job with benefits.
tell that to my friend that has cancer and is sure to go over her current $1mil cap
tell that to my father in law with emphysema waiting on a lung transplant.

it isn't perfect... but it isn't "crap".

[woo me with science]

12. Cost controls should have been number one on the list.

This debacle was sold to us initially as a way of addressing the problem of escalating costs that put the benefits you describe out of the reach of people who are "insured" but cannot afford to use their insurance. That is why you see people on these boards continually insisting that this legislation be referred to as a "health insurance" bill rather than a health care bill. They are speaking from experience.

Talk to the people whose premiums are increasing by 20, 30 percent each year and whose deductibles are increasing to ridiculous amounts.

None of the benefits you describe will help anyone when they cannot afford to USE their insurance, and when spiraling costs, which this garbage legislation was supposed to address, make the entire system collapse on itself.

All you have done is mandate that people buy a product that they increasingly cannot afford and that increasingly provides fewer services for higher premiums. The cost trends as they exist now spell disaster for an aging population.

This legislation does not even begin to solve the root problems of our health insurance system. It does not even try.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

7. Good products have a tendancy to sell themselves...

If people aren't buying into this crap it's probably not best to ram it down their throats.

[OhioBlue]

9. bull shit.

not in today's age. good products do not sell themselves.

it is all in the marketing/framing/propagandizing, etc.

Marketing has become a science in business, politics, non-profits, etc.

You can have the best idea, the best product or the best cause EVER... and it won't be supported unless it is marketed via traditional means, social networking, creating a "buzz".. or whatever.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

11. So do you think the Health Care Bill is great... we just need to get the word out?

The bill is a watered down piece of shit.
After Obama gets done dancing it'll just be a well-polished piece of shit.

[quakerboy]

10. So will he take that realization

and change the way he operates? What does this mean for his other agenda items? Or does it only apply to Health care.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

13. The Angry Left -- right yet again.

Should have listened to us and used the bully pulpit, O, to clearly define the public option message and make opposition so unpopular that no one dare. Unfuckingbelievable that he's saying this now.

LOL...some chess game.

[slay]

15. Yep

When single-payer was basically a banned word right before and during all the health care "negotiations" i knew we were fucked. And then to not even get at LEAST a public option was just criminal. I wonder quite often if the Dems really even want to win - for us that is - they win for the corporations all the time. :grr:

[WorseBeforeBetter]

17. Obama admits he didn't do enough...

and the true believers are still defending him on this issue. It's mind-boggling.

Don't do us any favors!

[vaberella]

16. I'm so shocked by how manyh people on this site felt it was only the President's doing.

Where were are our democratic speakers pushing it. There were only two and from Florida. No one else was pushing it properly. Okay and Bernie Frank. Everyone else sat on their ass more often. I don't know how much more he could have done but this man likes masochism.

[Enrique]

18. in public he blames himself

at fundraisers at Richie Rich's house he blames his base for being to stupid to appreciate how great the reform is.