Obama just talked about his mother, who died of cancer, and her difficulty getting insurance.

These teabaggers sure are determined to keep their health care costs sky high and make sure insurance is as inaccessible as possible! Good job!

“It’s important we talk to each other — not over each other.”

Ooooooh, all alpha dog. Admonishing the crowd to behave in advance of taking questions.

“People who want to keep thing the way they are will try and scare the heck out of people.”

The funny thing about these teabaggers is their lack of sense of irony. They are out protesting against Obama for being a Hitler-like dicatator. Funny that. If he truly were, these people would be disappearing off the face of the earth by the thousands. Don’t they understand that the very fact that they are allowed to demonstrate against him peacably is prima facie evidence that he (and Dems) are not what they are accusing them of being? I know, it’s rhetorical. :)

“What’s truly risky is if we do nothing. We will continue to see 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance every day…”

back in campaign mode I see.

I can’t understand why anyone wants the status quo. My premium has gone up 60% in 4 years. I can’t afford the status quo. Who is it that thinks they can?

OMG, Obama just said he wants to hear from people who disagree with him!!! What a dictator!

I’d go up to a Birth/Deather and ask them a simple question: “Is there *any* negative rumor about President Obama that you *wouldn’t* just immediately accept and believe as true or good enough to be true?” You might follow that up with “How is that any different from when liberals were accused of suffering from ‘Bush Derangement Syndrome’?”

These idiots are in that zone where you take your cognitive dissonance and wave it away by suggesting that your masters have everything figured out and you’re there because of your faith that you and your “side” are 100% right and righteous! You can’t argue with them. But you just *might* be able to temporarily shame them by pointing out the bottomlessness of their credulity and double-standard.

Obama’s taking questions now.

First question is: if Republicans refuse to participate in a reasonable way, isn’t it time just to pass reform without them?

Obama is saying keep public option available.

I thought that first question was excellent. Obama so far is dodging the actual question

Not much clapping after the public option speech.

Ah, now he’s doing shout outs to spcifics GOP senators that he is wooing

Whats his answer to this?

This seems like typical Obama. He talks a good game but legislates like the conservative corporatist he is. Healthcare is a very serious problem why then is there so little reform in his reform?

BIG dodge on bi partisanship.

he’s also pointing out that the fiscal scolds can’t have it both ways. Health care reform is necessary to get the deficit under control.

There’s got to have been some focus groups on this.

Obama now debunking “death panels” — “pulling the plug on Grandma.”

oh boy pull the plug on grandma. Gonna regret those words.

He won’t make any news in his answers; attending a town hall is the news today. Don’t want to step on that by making real news. Thus, platitudes.

and he’s not in favor of death. BIG BIG news.

That was sarcasm, no?! ]-)

Medicare advantage $177B giveaway to insurance companies.

I guess his modus operandii is to difuse the childish heat by staying cool and adult. Hope it works.

Insurance companies rationing care.

Why be bold and demonstrate true leadership when you know in the end you’re going throw the campaign promise and the public option under the bus?

Gee most of you sound as BAD as the reTHUGS what the heck do u want him to say…F**K the reTHUGS on national TV……..This is obvious a townhall to debunk the Palinbots and Beck/Limpballs crowd…but nothing he does will ever be good enough for some. He has disappointed me greatly as a gay man, but he is doing ok right now, at least he is out there trying to stop the bleeding.

If he doesn’t use strong and commanding language in calling out these people for their ignorant hatred and manipulation, it will continue.

I mean, it’ll continue anyway, but if Obama can put a new narrative into the conversation, it might be like when they decided to stop using bikini girls in beer commercials, because the outcry overwhelmed their effect.

Obama needs to cut this Gordian knot!

“We’re not talking about cutting Medicare benefits.”

Republican asks Obama: “I still worry that if we go to a public option that the insurance companies — who can compete with the government — do you still support a universal plan?”

Single payer vs universal distinction being made.

Medicare is single payer plan.

Too disruptive to move to single payer.

We keep dogging Obama because Obama keeps on lying.

We’ll let up on him when he starts keeping a few of the damned campaign promises that he made.

“Private insurers should be able to compete with the government. UPS and FedEx are doing just fine.”

Snark

Mental health care would mean a lot fewer teabaggers.

Obama, I think, will regret saying “…it’s the post office that always has problems.”

Not if the post office get mental health care.

that’s snark?

Aren’t UPS and FEd X engaged in a nasty,public dispute about legislation regarding unions?

BT !

Do we know who will be in the Conference Committee ?

$30-40B per year cost. Obama wants to limit deductions on $250k or more earners to pay this.

Congress has different ideas, being explored.

He said that in the sense of: “it’s the post office that [people say] always has problems.”

My take, anyway.

I think ridicule of tea baggers is (well deserved) snark.

The Post Office also has to go to every single address almost every day and has huge volume of items of all kinds. UPS and FedEx go to only a few houses in the neighborhood.

CIGNA, Aetna, Blue Cross and PhARMA.

$40B, 46M people – means about $1k subsidy per person.

Where are the health care professionals, how are we going to educate them, actually have more care givers…

guidelines for MEDPAC?

People like Beck share much of the blame for this town hall insanity.

Check out Glenn Beck’s logical conclusion that a level playing field in our society will lead to slavery.

I am not making this up. Here is the clip.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2490

Just watched him take a question and explain why a single payer system won’t work in the US. He says it will be too disruptive.

Someone, anyone, needs to please ask him “disruptive to who”? We know he means it will be the end of health insurance companies as we know them but our president is afraid to articulate this simple fact.

So basically we have to live with substandard to no health care because our leaders don’t want to rock the insurance companies boat. Am I wrong about this?

Very” weak “brew from some of those teabags.

eliminate duplication of services to cut medicare costs

I want the Media to put ” Sicko” on national TV prime time I bet that would change the debate more than 10 townhalls by Obama.
And personally I think Obama should do more than 10 town halls.

AIG markets health insurance.

Hmmmm….

Expanding primary care physicians – this should make blue dogs yip with glee. A shortage of primary care physicians is an issue they should care about.

“turned myself in” Obama says distortion…

He’s effectively turning this around, crowd likes him being straight on it.

chastise congress for two systems…

I understand they’ve been looking for a way to expand H1B visas.

Practically speaking, I don’t see how congress would pass a measure that simply cut a huge industry off at the knees. And if a measure is pretty much unattainable, the president does himself no favours by supporting it. Look at the pushback to the weak tea that congress is considering, and imagine what the response would be to legislation to set up a single payer health care system.

In Canada, single payer health was enacted before the growth of the health insurance industry.

heck, they probably write derivatives on those policies too ;-P

has he mentioned “public option?”

The Health Insurance industry has managed to whittle away at our Health Care system in Canada so that more people opt for their supplemental programs.

anyone know how savings to medicare advantage will affect those plans?

that’s the big question – and one I continue to ask of the inside baseball types – with no firm answer to date

usually Conf. Comm. on such a marqee piece of legist. is dominated by the Comm. Chairs involved – Waxman, Rangel, Miller for the House, with Baucus and Kennedy in the Senate. Dodd is highest ranked under Kennedy and should he be unavail. due to his medical treatment, Tom Harkin would be on deck

p.s. did y’all know at least one of the Conf Comm meetings is supposed to be open to the public ? – unless of course the House has already voted to keep it private as they are allowed to do

“health exchanges?”

Pretty early on he mentioned it … just did again.

Someone, anyone, needs to please ask him “disruptive to who”? We know he means it will be the end of health insurance companies as we know them but our president is afraid to articulate this simple fact.

Great Point these are the kind of questions a real debate on health care would ask. But we can’t get our ideas on the news. The GOP can get all kinds of lies on the news though even they they only represent 20% of the public.
Obama is thus stuck fighting strawmen and lies.
Go Left Obama make the GOP answer our questions! Point out the lies and smack them down. Sarah a Living Will is about you deciding ahead of time if after you are brain dead do you want to be kept alive on tubes.
Now Then Sarah! just show me where in the bill does it say we will force people to abort special needs babies?
Where does it say it Sarah Where? I can not believe how irresponsible, immature and in the tank to the insurance industry the Media is to even broadcast Sarah’s Lies.
That is the kind of thing I want to hear from Obama next Town Hall. Its time to stop being nice when they kick you in the crotch!

Yup. There better be a plan for increasing the number of practitioners.

we need a $$$ and Cents explanation of how premiums, costs, co-pay, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums have gone up since 2000, and what that rate of increase looks like in 2018.

that would engage the insured and show folks with insurance why this is so important.

Well I doubt GM and Ford were pleased with having to retool and change production to make war machines in the 40’s but it was told to and they did it.
Some of us believe we are in a similar position today. People dying in the streets doesn’t seem very practical to me, but I’m a simple man.

Exchanges are a marketplace for insurance. Multiple plans offered, possibly including a public option.

If you have insurance through a large company think of it as “open enrollment” with a wider range of options.

He said there’s some money for training more Primary Care physicians in the stimulus act, and more should be part of health care reform.

Insurance and drug thugs are the same as tobbaco.

well.. now’s the right time. I bet there are a lot of well qualified, well-educated 20-24 yr old college and associates’ degree graduates who’ve postponed their plans for graduate training due to the economy and who would love to be able to afford medical school, nursing school, PA training etc.

One of the mantras of the whackjobs is that there will be no choice. Sounds to me like O is making the choice aspect of this front and center.

I’m not talking about what’s right and wrong – I believe that a single-payer, government funded health care is the best option there is – and I benefit from living under one.

But I’m just wondering what is achievable under the current US political system and in the current political climate.

I think he did a good job of giving reasonable answers to the wacky disinformation campaign directed by those getting rich off the status quo. By sounding reasonable, he made the wackjobs seem, well wacky. I didn’t see him roll his eyes or anything, no exaggerated sighs or continual references to “iron-clad lockboxes.” We’ll see how depress treats it.

It’ll take time for them to get trained and into practice, though…

Especially with doctors.

His response to the guy that “turned himself in” was good.

Makes sense.

Given the Insurance industries losses AIG comes to mind another economic crisis happens and all these questions about the health of the insurance industry will all be moot.
If Swine Flu hits us at Plague level strength the idea of private health insurance protecting only the people who can pay is over.
We have many very good possible cards to play in the future.
If anything the GOP should be accepting Obama’s deal with the public option and no deal for the drug industry now.
Before another economic crisis wipes out the insurance industry. Before we get a plague. Or heck befre we get another Katrina the same insurance companies that provide health insurance also insure homes.
And after the economic crisis last year the insurance industry can’t take another big hit a paying off claims on a Katrina or a plague could wipe them out.

Right-wing talking point–Stepford audience.

Andrea Mitchell was moaning about softball questions. For Chrissake, woman, he took everything the crowd gave him and sought out additional questions from those with concerns. WTF, did she not listen to anything that was asked? Maybe she can’t hear anything that isn’t delivered as an insane rant.

I’m curious – what do posters think of the overall effectiveness of this event and O’s performance and explanations? I’m a bit offput by the “folksiness” tone, e.g. he once referred to corporations (as in subsidies to ins. corps.) as “folks who don’t need it (subsidies)”. I’d prefer a stronger, more forceful rhetoric. He sounded better near the end, esp. with drawing the comparison to the healthcare-that-congress-gets.

What’s your take?

yes, absolutely.

There appeared to me to be a lot of different faces on the SS detail.

This is the price we pay for a president without markers to call in. Lyndon Johnson could do this, Obama–not so much.
I know your thinking practically but if a watered down piece meal mess is the best we can do, what’s the point?
The best idea I’ve heard is just expand Medicare for all, just go for it and let the chips fall where they may.

As opposed to the thorough grilling depress gave W in the Iraq war runup.

no doubt. And the incentives will still be skewed towards specialty care for some time even if we do something about it. The anecdote about the diabetic getting early treatment at minimal compensation, or having a foot amputated after they didn’t get early treatment is strong evidence there’s something wrong with how medical care is compensated.

We need surgeons, but we should be paying the Primary Care Physician to make it so we need less surgeons thanks to preventative care. The change in compensation will take time to effect, and in the meantime it will be hard to convince med students to take the PCP path.

I wish he had answered the ‘bully pulpit’ question. I think he ought to be putting public pressure on congress to put up or shut up. Give the public an option or give up your own federally funded plan.

But we can’t get our ideas on the news. The GOP can get all kinds of lies on the news though even they they only represent 20% of the public.

That is so frustrating. Those of us interested in a debate of the real issues are ignored while people peddling out-and-out lies get tons of coverage.

NPR has been very disappointing in recent years, but for two days in a row I’ve heard good coverage of health care issues. Today at lunch in my car, I heard them debunking all the Republican lies. But of course, they aren’t talking about the “real” issues when they spend time on that, but unfortunately (thanks to irresponsible media) those lies need debunking now.

“folks who dont need it” is cringe-worthy as a space-holder for corporations, but Obama, it seemed to me, was already thinking of his main point, and walking back to it — ie, doc and nurse shortages…

Obama isn’t necessarily averse to corporations, ya know… extolled his deal with Big Pharma…

And be labeled an angry black man. Perhaps even militant.

A lot of things like diabetes screening and testing don’t even need to involve a doctor.

Singapore has full healthcare for everyone and private health insurance some people want to pay for a private room that kind of thing it might be less than the ungodly profits they make now but private insurance can have a place and a profit.
Even under full Healthcare for everyone. I don’t see the insurance companies even under Obama’s plan making the profits they used to that is the real issue.
The rest is strawmen unless you worry about insurance claim deniers all being suddenly unemployed.

Deep thought. Why aren’t citizens who have had bad (or no) healthcare experiences not out there protesting the way the wackjobs are (well, w/o the same level of extremeist, neo-nazi tactics)?

Seems to me that a march on Washington of healthcare horror stories might get a little attention from the de-press.

“Expand Medicare” is such a simple, clear slogan. It’s my preference and how could people not understand it? Or make it an option to sign up for at an earlier age.

Expand Medicare!

Expand Medicare!

Expand Medicare!

What Obama did not address the GOP Lies:) If he had addressed them seriously Andrea Mitchell would be crying about the end of Bipartisanship.
I of course would order some pizza to celebrate!

I’ve been wondering this myself. Expand it by age. Expand it by target groups that have particularly dismal health outcomes.

And the infrastructure for Medicare is already in place and appears (at least from this distance) to be working reasonably well.

Yep and a lot of Nurse Practitioners would really make a difference in wait times …

Anyone who listened to the President’s Town Hall meeting today would have to support him on the merits of his argument UNLESS the listener works in the inurance industry or is just plain against anything the President wants to do.

The arguments were well presented. Obama knows what he is talking about. His goals are in line with most of us.

Furthermore, I do feel that once the plan is established, insurance companies will move out of health care and the US will move to a single pay system, which is what I hope will happen.

There ought to be some way of getting an entire audience of people with genuine concerns and holding a respectful, well managed information session. Maybe it would take a room full of secret service agents like today in order to keep it from devolving into an industry-funded free for all, but I can’t help but think that many would come away with honest information and a new perspective on the health plan.

I wonder about the proportion of tv viewers. How many supporters and how many Beckies?

I think people underestimate how effective he is in deflating hostility, or at least providing a very attractive contrast to hostility, while, as usual, he has the good educator’s ability to explain and preside over a classroom. I thought the way he fielded the questions from the self-identified Republican and the guy who so lamely tried to badger him about the White House web site. In the first he clarified terminology clearly (”universal” vs. single payer) and in the second pursued the point (why don’t we get what Congress gets?) to his advantage. He was the same cool, sane, empathetic, responsive guy we saw at the debates. He ended on a nice little crescendo, too. I thought he was great.

That’s a lot like how it works here in Canada – because there are things that are not covered under the health plan.

Typically, a lot of these supplementary plans are offered through employers and include things like mental health services, vision care, dental care, private hospital rooms, massage therapy, etc.

CNN, on the other hand, stated very clearly that the questioners were not prescreened and indicated in their recap that the questioning was tough.

Michael Moore could contact everyone who sent in stories for his film “Sicko” and Obama’s campaign organization could coordinate and raise funds. Harry and Nancy could keep the House and Senate in session so the GOP can’t flee like they did before the Million Man March.
I like it!

Thats what I want here:)

That is great news CNN pointing out no prescreened questions!

One thing he repeatedly and clearly drove home to the audience was what it means to “control costs” — very important, as this talk of cost-cutting is the source of skepticism from the public (I’m talking about the reasonable public). He made it clear that the virtue of a government option is that it promotes real competition and drives down costs through the size of the pool: he did a good job of explaining what an “exchange” (a wonkish and off-putting term) is, for example.

PHEW!…that was close. They told me my Granny had to sit on the very same ‘death panel’ that was goin’ to condem her to death. Sheeeeeit!

I agree completely. I have always thought that a president need first and formost to be an effective educator. We have that with Obama, in spades. It is important to keep him out campaigning like this, on television, throughout the recess.

One thing I wish he would have done however was to tell us more directly what we can do to support him in this. His campaign was so effective in mobilizing supporters before the election – wee need that kind of direction and mobilization now.

Typically, a lot of these supplementary plans are offered through employers and include things like mental health services, vision care, dental care, private hospital rooms, massage therapy, etc.

I’m not familiar with the Canadian system, but that sounds as if it could could get pretty expensive just buying supplemental plans on top of basic insurance which I imagine you pay for with increased taxes.
No dental? That’s too bad.

Nuts are far more motivated than regular folks, even moreso than concerned citizens. For example, think of all of the hard work folks like Gacy and Dahmer did. Trying to out do motivated nuts is like trying to catch bullets with a spider web. They probably wear headphones to get the Beck and Oxymoron crazy fresh, and listen to it at high decibels for that extra high dudgeon foment.

As a US expat with a German spouse, that’s how I understand our health care system works here too, though our supplemental is something we buy at a reasonable price. From afar, the US system really looks broken to me. I’ve seen bits of Sicko and think it should be required viewing for all.

And now that I think about it – people who live under a system where costs are controlled by denying access to services, might well think that the new system will work in the same way.

That’s Oxymoran, Oilfieldguy!

I am sorry Mr. President; You continue to use the word “reform” and “insurance”. You will never be able to keep an insurance company honest any more than you can Don Corleone and his pals.
We do not care about insurance reform except to view the criminal trials for price fixing, gouging, dumping the sick, dumping people on skid row, etc..
But using anything but “health care for all”, you confuse people. “Free Medicare for everyone” would not confuse any of the ignorant people in this country. It would however cause your opponents heads to explode.
Why not give it a try and find out if the U.S. Public is behind you?

thanks.

A lot of people don’t have supplemental – I just pay for services as I use them.

And remember that what we pay in additional taxes is way, way less than a typical American would pay for health insurance if purchased privately, or in lost wages and other benefits when employers have to pay for insurance.

That’s what I thought when I first heard the phrase! And as a fully insured member of the middle of the class, even if a little more politically engaged than average, I’m an important target. So I was very pleased to hear at how much of this town hall he devoted to explaining how the federal government can bargain for the public. Now, I don’t want to sugar coat it — maybe it was my imagination, but I think I sensed a little overcompensating bluff and bluster from Obama when he talked about how he negotiated $80 billion in savings from the drug industry — and, in fact, he let on to his regret for this deal with the devil by saying that “we may go back and get even more”.

Yes, the worst moment of the town hall was that thoroughly unfounded and unempirical assertion that because we’ve always done it one way the transition away from that system would be too hard. Politically, yes; as policy, no.

Thanks for the info.
Amazing how little we know about a country that we share a border with. I admit guilt in not seeking that information but our media is really worthless in this respect also. You Canucks would have to start shipping truck loads of the devil weed over the border to get any press in our “media”.

snicker!

New Hampshire, which takes its Town Hall forums seriously, gave the rest of the nation a lesson in civility and decorum. I just hope Obama doesn’t feel the need to go into a real snake pit of yahoos somewhere else.

The private insurers have insisted they are for reform and all that, Harry and Louise are now saying that, but the insurers encourage thugs to disrupt Town Hall discussions. How do you trust such treacherous people to keep their end of any overhaul agreements?

The only encouraging evidence here is the heavily regulated Medigap market, where they do obey themselves.

One of the things I wondered about during the townhall was his assertion that people would no longer be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions or have their coverage evaporate in the middle of an expensive illness. I found myself wondering exactly how that was going to be enforced. Some poor schmoe is already going through medical hell, the insurance company is giving him a paperwork-encrusted version of “Buzz Off!”… will sirens and flashing lights go off? Will the Fairness Police arrive and haul the miscreants away? Or will Schmoe’s grieving relatives maybe win a lawsuit five years after he’s dead and the insurance company will pay a token fine?

Fauxnews was just pushing words to the effect that blaming the media for stirring up the crazies is a loser. “Blaming the media just never works.”

They are also distancing themselves from the now debunked things they have been saying for a month. Looks like Sarah Palin got the “Turn 180″ memo before Fauxnews did.

The Harry and Louise commercials are paid for by big Pharma, in exchange for the deal with Obama. The 80 billion payoff that keeps the government from negotiating drug prices.