Sick of hearing only one side in the health care debate!

I am sick of only hearing one side.  This is a speech given today by Obama.  This is a transcipt I copied and pasted straight from CNN website.  The title says it all, "prepared" speech by Obama.  This is a mass distortion of truth as I have ever seen.  The words in black are Obama's and the ones in red are mine.  I hope to recieve many comments and want to see if we can get this stuff out to everyone.

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, August 8th, 2009

On Friday, we received better news than we expected about the state of our economy. We learned that we lost 247,000 jobs in July – some 200,000 fewer jobs lost than in June, and far fewer than the nearly 700,000 a month we were losing at the beginning of the year. Of course, this is little comfort to anyone who saw their job disappear in July, and to the millions of Americans who are looking for work. And I will not rest until anyone who’s looking for work can find a job.

Still, this month’s jobs numbers are a sign that we’ve begun to put the brakes on this recession and that the worst may be behind us. But we must do more than rescue our economy from this immediate crisis; we must rebuild it stronger than before. We must lay a new foundation for future growth and prosperity, and a key pillar of a new foundation is health insurance reform – reform that we are now closer to achieving than ever before.

There are still details to be hammered out. There are still differences to be reconciled. But we are moving toward a broad consensus on reform. Four committees in Congress have produced legislation – an unprecedented level of agreement on a difficult and complex challenge. In addition to the ongoing work in Congress, providers have agreed to bring down costs. Drug companies have agreed to make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors. The AARP supports reform because of the better care it will offer seniors. And the American Nurses Association and the American Medical Association, which represent the millions of nurses and doctors who know our health care system best, all support reform, as well.

Of course they support reform, because they do not see the bottom line, if the government is going to cut costs, where and who is going to suffer.  If they force the insurance companies to lower premiums, the stock market and economy will suffer because of how much money the insurance company will lose out in.  In this market, the insurance companies are one of the few who do well, and they form the rock our economy is built around.  Stable insurance companies afford us the ability to trust that they will be there for us when we need them to be.  What happens, with profits regulated, and your insurance company goes bankrupt right after you had surgery.  That doesn’t happen right now because the companies make enough profit that they rarely go out of business.  Cutting profits, means creating an atmosphere where the companies can and will fail often.

As we draw close to finalizing – and passing – real health insurance reform, the defenders of the status quo and political point-scorers in Washington are growing fiercer in their opposition. In recent days and weeks, some have been using misleading information to defeat what they know is the best chance of reform we have ever had. That is why it is important, especially now, as Senators and Representatives head home and meet with their constituents, for you, the American people, to have all the facts.

Why is it whenever people speak against, or raise red flags to whatever this guy is saying, he uses the politics routine.  This is not about politics, this is about people needing to hear the other side.  Obama is using his ability to give great speeches to mislead the American people. 

So, let me explain what reform will mean for you. And let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid, or bring about a government takeover of health care. That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

What business is going to choose to pay more to keep their current plan, or join in the government plan.  That does not make sense.  If this plan does what it is supposed to do, then the government plan will be the one that most people will end up with, because the people who make the decisions are their employers, who will cut corners to save money.  Once that happens, then more insurance companies will go under again eliminating choices.

And while reform is obviously essential for the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, it will also provide more stability and security to the hundreds of millions who do. Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn’t always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and that insurance companies are held accountable.

The insurance industry is the most regulated industry in the country.  Every rate has to be approved by the government.  The government has regulated them for years.  The insurance companies have to show why any and all rate increases happen.  They have to treat everyone the same, if they do not they can become deregulated and they have to stop selling insurance.  Every word, every sentence in a policy has to be approved the state it is issued in.  If we have been treated unfairly, than who is the one responsible. . . not just the insurance companies.  The government needs to take responsibility and stop pointing the finger at everyone else.

We will require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms, colonoscopies, or eye and foot exams for diabetics, so we can avoid chronic illnesses that cost too many lives and too much money.

Who is going to pay for all of this?  We will in the form of higher premiums, or higher taxes.

We will stop insurance companies from denying coverage because of a person’s medical history. I will never forget watching my own mother, as she fought cancer in her final days, worrying about whether her insurer would claim her illness was a preexisting condition. I have met so many Americans who worry about the same thing. That’s why, under these reforms, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage because of a previous illness or injury. And insurance companies will no longer be allowed to drop or water down coverage for someone who has become seriously ill. Your health insurance ought to be there for you when it counts – and reform will make sure it is.

Insurance companies already have to provide the same coverage to you, no matter how sick you are.  That last line is a scare tactic that he has been accusing the other side of doing.  The first part of this paragraph means he is attacking the foundation of what insurance is: it is covering your risk.  No one thinks that someone who has never had a ticket or accident in 20 years should pay the same amount as the person who drives like she is in the demolition derby all day long.  Risk management is what the industry relies on to keep costs down to allow more people to afford coverage.  Without it, no one will be able to afford it.  Heck if the insurance company knows how much longer someone who flosses everyday will live than someone who doesn’t (6.7 years), than they should charge more and know if someone has had a heart attack recently.

With reform, insurance companies will also have to limit how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses. And we will stop insurance companies from placing arbitrary caps on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime because no one in America should go broke because of illness.

This is stupid.  Again, insurance is about spreading risks.  How much auto insurance do you have?  My guess is that you only have somewhere between $150,000 and $250,000.  What happens if you get sued for more than that, you will have to pay out of your pocket.  Why do we not get more coverage, because it costs us more.  We only pay for the amount of risk we want to have covered.  No one is going broke because their coverages exceeded their cap, they will go broke if they cannot afford their coverage because of this stupid rule.

In the end, the debate about health insurance reform boils down to a choice between two approaches. The first is almost guaranteed to double health costs over the next decade, make millions more Americans uninsured, leave those with insurance vulnerable to arbitrary denials of coverage, and bankrupt state and federal governments. That’s the status quo. That’s the health care system we have right now.

He is halfway right.  One plan will cause all of the things being described here: his.  But he is also right, doing nothing will not work either.  The change that needs to occur is a personal one.  We need to change: eat right, exercise more, eat the food we are supposed to, take control of our own health care and rely on the insurance so much, and start thinking about our health care insurance the same way as we do the other insurances.

So, we can either continue this approach, or we can choose another one – one that will protect people against unfair insurance practices; provide quality, affordable insurance to every American; and bring down rising costs that are swamping families, businesses, and our budgets. That’s the health care system we can bring about with reform.

There are those who are focused on the so-called politics of health care; who are trying to exploit differences or concerns for political gain. That’s to be expected. That’s Washington. But let’s never forget that this isn’t about politics. This is about people’s lives. This is about people’s businesses. This is about America’s future. That’s what is at stake. That’s why health insurance reform is so important. And that’s why we must get this done – and why we will get this done – by the end of this year.