Obama holding health-care meeting in N.Va. today
Published: July 1, 2009
ANNANDALE -- President Barack Obama will hold another town hall-style session on health care today.
The online event will be held at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale starting at 1:15 p.m.
In addition to questions from those in the school's auditorium, questions also will come via Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marilyn Tavenner will join the president at the forum.
The event will be moderated by the president's senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett.
-- The Associated Press
Reader Reactions
drhoagie: At the risk of betraying my cynicism, I don’t buy the liberal or conservative labels any more when it comes to the vast majority of people in Congress. Most deserve one common label - ‘self-serving’. They hide behind labels to get votes and money, then do what they please for themselves.
Dave: I will yield somewhat. There are Democrats and there are Republicans. There are liberals and there are Conservatives.
The liberals are the ones always willing to take from us to give to others.
They do a great job in creating an illusion they take from the rich to give to the poor.
In reality, they mostly take from the working poor to give to rich contributors.
Both liberal Democrats and liberal Republicans. But mostly Democrats.
drhoagie: You are half-right. Don’t leave the Republicans out of it. Some obscure allusion to the crisis in tort litigation by some Republican Congressman or Senator is not enough. If anyone is serious, this issue should be front and center, but it’s not - by either party. They have both sold out.
As long as we have the specter of a diabetes patient having the wrong foot amputated, the public is not going waive civil liability, no matter how much doctors whine. The AMA is supposed to be a self-policing organization. If they did their job and got rid of marginal doctors, we would not hear these horor stories.
One thing is for sure: The leading contributor of high health costs, the American Bar Association (Big Law), will NOT have their hands tied with any new health care legislation passed by a Democrat Congress and a Democrat president. They most likely will profit. Just as the Democrat friendly UAW (Big Labor) profited from the Big Government confiscation of GM.
The ABA were MAJOR contributors to the Obama campaign and have traditionally been HUGE contributors to Democrats.
fedup.. what about afghanistan?.. Obama feels we need to be there? This isn’t a “we spend so much money on military”.. could save people issue. This is a what level of health care are people “entitled” to? What they can afford? What they need? What they want? (all different levels)
A lot of people want a healthcare plan where they can go see a doctor for every little sniffle, ache and pain. Others only want to pay for a plan that will help them if they have a catastrophic health issue/accident.
Whenever I have to go to the doctor, I have to keep in mind that they are “practicing” medicine.. haven’t gotten it fine tuned yet..lol. If we have people going in for physicals every 6 months.. you will have so many unnecessary procedures and prescriptions written it will make your head spin. Doctors are afraid to NOT prescribe fancy tests because they don’t want to get sued. Example.. my 11 yo step daughter said her chest ached.. so in she goes for an expensive (thousands of dollars worth of testing) MRI because the doctor can’t take the chance that this perfectly healthy, active, high energy child will drop dead from some unseen issue.
I think people somehow think that if they get this insurance that they will get the best of everything.. I imagine, that more people will just get a lower level of care as resources are stretched thinner since people won’t have the “economic” limiter to going to the doctor (ie gee.. it’s only a cold.. I will see if I get better and I really can’t afford to pay for the visit vs. sniff.. off to the doctor I go since it isn’t costing me anything).
BTW, it’s not only wealthy people that get good healthcare. As a poor college student I got excellent access to care at planned parenthood. There are free clinics.. and if it is an emergency you can go to the emergency room.. you won’t be turned away. Finally, if a family does end up racking up catastrophic bills due to a tragic situation, they can file for bankruptcy to have the debt reduced/erased.. I know it sounds bad, but unfortunately, there are tragedies that can happen in so many ways.. the main wage earner of a family could die.. that is a hardship.. You can lose a job.. that is a hardship.. You can get cancer.. that is a hardship.. at what point do we expect the government to “fix” every tragedy that happens? They can’t afford to.. why is the tragedy of a family who has a cancer patient with high bills any more worthy of help than someone who’s home burned to the ground w/out insurance? The government shouldn’t necessarily step in and rebuild their house should they? Sort of like the katrina “victims” these people lived for years off the governemnt housing.. why was their need more important than someone else who lost a home due to a flood/fire that just wasn’t part of this “disaster?“
Central Virginia has her share of president haters out there.
If legally elected president Obama were really so dangerous how did Cheney let him get elected? We’re all Americans and we are all getting ripped off by health insurers. If they spent half the money they spend ferreting out preexisting conditions and just GAVE OUT PHYSICALS to every American every six months.
But the insurance company and doctor shills are out there in full force crafting the message that change is bad. Too many deaths over this ridiculous insurance scam—victims of the culture wars.
Remember fifteen years ago when all the ER jokes with sad endings were out there with the “blame Hillary” theme? Here in the USA you can’t convince me that only the wealthy deserve good medical care.
Of course we can pay for it. Stop burning money in Iraq. Why do Republicans want to kill poor people?
I haven’t had a physical exam since I was inducted into the Army 41 years ago. I have Blue Cross major medical with a high deductible. If I have an ailment, I go to Patient First. If I am developing any preventable diseases, I don’t know about it. All those fancy medical tests don’t exist in my world.
So far I’ve only been to the ER once, but we’ve got to get people like me back into doctor’s offices if we want to bring down costs.
Politics aside…Ask yourself a simple question - How can the US possibly pay for a national healthcare program when similar attempts have failed in California and Massachusettes? There simply isn’t enough money to go around. Significant national revenue (TAXES) will have to be generated. That means an additional tax wherever it can be realized.
At least the Obama administration is asking for our opinion rather than stealing our opinions by eavesdropping on our calls and calling it the Patriot Act like the previous administration.
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