New Health Care Reform Live on CNN (updated)

[DOquestions]

http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream1&iref=lb100

Nurses want extended education and practice rights, according to a nurse representative in congress. Obama didn't really agree with what the rep was saying, but he does recognize the issue of bringing in foreign nurses instead of training Americans to be nurses. I can tell Obama was able to read through the propaganda.

The AMA wants insurance coverage for all. I don't think the AMA is going to get what they want based on what Obama was saying.

Obama wants everyone to focus on evidence to make the right choices. So whatever the evidence shows is what you can expert for a new health care reform.

You can expect expanding coverage. How? I don't know.

You can expect a focus on access to doctors (for citizens) and cutting costs.

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[mry1010]

Liked how Obama seemed to be keeping an open mind to a wide variety of expects in the health field about this important topic. Hopefully doctors get the say they deserve in this process.

 

[melanoleuca]

Liked how Obama seemed to be keeping an open mind to a wide variety of expects in the health field about this important topic. Hopefully doctors get the say they deserve in this process.

Oh man. You just don't get it. President Hopey-Changey doesn't give a rat's ass about doctors or anybody else that is not now in or will be in his Axis of Dependency.

And the idea that he is keeping an "Open Mind" is ridiculous. Mr. Obama knows what he wants to do and all of these summits, discussions, and conclaves with a Variety of Experts in the Health Field are just window dressing and smoke being blown up your ass.

So sorry. The people with the least input into whatever abortion is presented to us as health care reform will be physicians.

 

[BluntSurgeon]

Is AMA's presence the only physician representation? Last time I checked a dwindling number of physicians are joining the AMA and the entire body seems to have it's own agenda separate from that of the practicing physician. What do I know though, somebody school me.

 

[BluntSurgeon]

Oh man. You just don't get it. President Hopey-Changey doesn't give a rat's ass about doctors or anybody else that is not now or will be in his Axis of Dependency.

This is basically what I wanted to say but I didn't want to deal with the legion of hopey-changers that inhabit this message board. VZE looking at you.

 

[DOquestions]

Is AMA's presence the only physician representation? Last time I checked a dwindling number of physicians are joining the AMA and the entire body seems to have it's own agenda separate from that of the practicing physician. What do I know though, somebody school me.

No, the AMA is not the only one there. I don't know how many doctors were there and I'm not going to guess either.

 

[DOquestions]

This is basically what I wanted to say but I didn't want to deal with the legion of hopey-changers that inhabit this message board. VZE looking at you.

You will see change. If there is no change, the states go broke.

 

[mry1010]

I'm not so sure that it was just blowing smoke up people's ass. You may be right and I certainly am not a mind reader, but with the stimulus bill he laid out his plan from the start and was fairly clear that he knew exactly what he intended to do. In his speech today he did not give a clear plan of action except that he wanted to expand coverage and stated that he wanted all parties involved to work together on this. Again, you will call BS on that but I'd like to hope that is how he actually plans on doing things.

 

[melanoleuca]

I'm not so sure that it was just blowing smoke up people's ass. You may be right and I certainly am not a mind reader, but with the stimulus bill he laid out his plan from the start and was fairly clear that he knew exactly what he intended to do. In his speech today he did not give a clear plan of action except that he wanted to expand coverage and stated that he wanted all parties involved to work together on this. Again, you will call BS on that but I'd like to hope that is how he actually plans on doing things.

Dude. Come on. Don't drink the Koolaid. The stimulus bill was mostly pork and political payback and I guarantee to you that nobody, not even Mr. Hopey-Changey, knew what was in it.

Your default position needs to be one of the profound skepticism with a healthy dose of cynicism.

 

[captain bhangra]

Dude. Come on. Don't drink the Koolaid. The stimulus bill was mostly pork and political payback and I guarantee to you that nobody, not even Mr. Hopey-Changey, knew what was in it.

it wasnt mostly pork, thats just whats been going on around conservative news channels. yes there was a lot of pork, but if you actually look at how much it is of the total stimulus its almost negligible.

 

[mry1010]

So you're asserting that the stimulus bill was ENTIRELY political payback and that Obama just felt like spending an exorbitant amount of money for absolutely no reason? Let me guess, you favor allowing the free market to work itself out? We did that for the last 8 years, how'd it work?
If not then I'm open to other suggestions, but being a critic is easy so I hope you have some proposal to fix the mess THAT WAS LEFT FOR HIM with a strategy other than letting things resolve themselves without intervention.

Also, my remark about the stimulus bill was meant to illustrate that he does not seem to have a definitive plan regarding health care and appears to be open to ideas. You might agree that this is a good thing?

 

[niranjan162]

I'm not so sure that it was just blowing smoke up people's ass. You may be right and I certainly am not a mind reader, but with the stimulus bill he laid out his plan from the start and was fairly clear that he knew exactly what he intended to do. In his speech today he did not give a clear plan of action except that he wanted to expand coverage and stated that he wanted all parties involved to work together on this. Again, you will call BS on that but I'd like to hope that is how he actually plans on doing things.

Obama's being real shady though. The stimulus bill was 1200 pages and wasnt finished until 6 hours before the vote to pass it...I wonder how many people had time to read the whole thing?

Plus he said healthcare reform would cost 634 billion, thats a pretty specific number, he also wouldnt discuss what he planned to do with this money until this committee, something is not adding up here.

Sounds like hes got it planned out already and that this is more of a formality.

 

[DOquestions]

Obama's being real shady though. The stimulus bill was 1200 pages and wasnt finished until 6 hours before the vote to pass it...I wonder how many people had time to read the whole thing?

Plus he said healthcare reform would cost 634 billion, thats a pretty specific number, he also wouldnt discuss what he planned to do with this money until this committee, something is not adding up here.

Sounds like hes got it planned out already and that this is more of a formality.

Yes Obama already has a plan. That should not be a surprise at all. He just wants to work along with other groups to put together the best plan possible. And yes he already has guidelines and will provide notes for what he things can or should not be done.

 

[Gut Shot]

Plus he said healthcare reform would cost 634 billion, thats a pretty specific number,

Not quite, he asked Congress for $634 billion over ten years to provide a "reserve fund" for reform efforts. The ultimate tally isn't known, and won't be for some time.

 

[atl27]

The biggest "change" doctors will likely see from this reform will be decreased reimbursments as well as higher taxes.

 

[Gut Shot]

The biggest "change" doctors will likely see from this reform will be decreased reimbursments as well as higher taxes.

It's not so simple. Obama's budget was the first that did not assume draconian cuts in Medicare. Expanding coverage would also decrease the amount of unreimbursed care that physicians and hospitals hand out, which is substantial. The net result remains to be seen.

On the issue of taxes, unless you end up making a ****-ton of money (I'm guessing >600K), the proposed reforms would have a very modest impact on the average physician's pay. I dare say many would come out ahead, as they make less than 250K and would benefit from the lower taxes for this group.

 

[glypha1104]

So you're asserting that the stimulus bill was ENTIRELY political payback and that Obama just felt like spending an exorbitant amount of money for absolutely no reason? Let me guess, you favor allowing the free market to work itself out? We did that for the last 8 years, how'd it work?
If not then I'm open to other suggestions, but being a critic is easy so I hope you have some proposal to fix the mess THAT WAS LEFT FOR HIM with a strategy other than letting things resolve themselves without intervention.

Also, my remark about the stimulus bill was meant to illustrate that he does not seem to have a definitive plan regarding health care and appears to be open to ideas. You might agree that this is a good thing?

Isn't the problem partly that we like the prosperity of capitalism, but dislike the downsides of it. Everyone from the average Joe to the wall st. CEO's to the republicans and democrats were basking in the good-times, but when we realized that we had a huge bubble and bad investments were made, everyone from wall st. to main st. runs to the government saying save me and bail me out. Finally, we have a very distorted market in this country due to our horrendous monetary policy. Greenspan and Bernanke kept the interest rate way to low which flooded the market with way too much cash. They allowed for too much easy credit to be available, blowing up an enormous asset bubble.

Also one small point of information... WE ARE FLAT BROKE. We have trillions of other unfunded liabilities (i.e. Medicare and Social Security).