Showing posts with label healthcare reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthcare reform. Show all posts
Thursday, March 18, 2010
FOX NEWS: As Americans wait for Congress to act on health care, a Fox News poll released Thursday finds 55 percent oppose the reforms being considered, while 35 percent favor them.
As Americans wait for Congress to act on health care, a Fox News poll released Thursday finds 55 percent oppose the reforms being considered, while 35 percent favor them.
In addition, just over half of voters think House Democrats are “changing the rules” to get their bill passed.
About a third of voters (31 percent) think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are “playing by the rules” to get health care through, while 53 percent think they are “changing the rules.” Looking at the results by political party, 53 percent of Democrats think their party is playing by the rules, about one in four think they are changing the rules (27 percent) and the rest are unsure (19 percent). Varying majorities of Republicans (78 percent) and independents (57 percent) think House Democrats are changing the rules to pass the bill.
The level of public support for the health care overhaul has remained fairly steady since last July -- 35 percent favor it now and 36 percent favored it last summer. The number opposed -- 55 percent -- is up from 51 percent in January, and from 47 percent last July. Opposition hit a high of 57 percent in December.
Among partisans, the president’s party faithful are alone in supporting the proposed reforms. Sixty-six percent of Democrats favor them, while 53 percent of independents and 88 percent of Republicans oppose them. >>> Dana Blanton, FOXNews.com | Thursday, March 18, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama postpones Indonesia trip: President Barack Obama has been forced to postpone his much-anticipated trip to Indonesia while wrangling over health care reform continues. >>> | Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Here Obama goes again, wagging his finger as though only he could know what is good for American people. Big daddy knows best. So you listen to me, children!
How do the American people put up with this arrogance? Doesn’t Obama realise that he is supposed to be leading a democracy? Obama seems to have so little political experience. The fact that he came to high office as an empty suit is more and more evident with each passing day.
America’s health system does indeed need reforming, but the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater; rather, the system needs to be controlled better, and it needs a lot of tweaking into shape. But a European healthcare system – a national health care system as there is in Britain or France – probably would not go down well in America. It would probably not sit well with the psyche of the American people, the people living in the ‘land of the free’.
I often wonder whether Obama understands his compatriots very well; he certainly indicates that he is ignorant of their character and ways. In a few words, he doesn’t seem to understand what makes his fellow countrymen tick.
If he rams this legislation through Congress, he will pay a very high price for his folly in future elections. It will ensure that his presidency will be nothing longer than one term. – © Mark
TIMES ONLINE: President Obama declared for the first time today that he is prepared to steamroll his troubled health reform legislation through Congress with only Democratic support, a move Republicans denounced as the “nuclear option”.
Signalling that his patience had now snapped after a year-long fight over health reform, Mr Obama laid the ground for Democrats in Congress to muscle the Bill through using a high-risk legislative maneuvre known as reconciliation, which overrides a Republican filibuster.
Although he did not use the word “reconciliation”, Mr Obama made clear that is the uncompromising route he now intends to take with his top domestic priority. White House aides and top Democrats on Capitol Hill have also stated in recent days that, in the face of unanimous Republican opposition, the legislation will now be forced through.
By using reconciliation, Democrats can get the health reform package through the Senate with a simple majority, rather than needing the Bill to pass the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Mr Obama’s party ceded their 60-stong majority in the upper chamber after losing the late Edward Kennedy’s Massachusetts seat in January.
That shock defeat was in large part due to growing public hostility to Mr Obama’s health reforms, which many see as too expensive at a time of exploding deficits. Forcing the Bill through Congress is, therefore, a high-risk strategy that Republicans vowed to exploit.
In a speech from the White House, Mr Obama conceded the risks involved. “I don’t know how this plays politically, but I know it's right”, he said. >>> Tim Reid, Washington | Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Sunday, February 28, 2010
BBC: Two days after the White House hosted an inconclusive summit on healthcare reform, President Barack Obama has urged Americans to find common ground.
In his weekly radio address, Mr Obama said tens of millions of Americans could not afford to wait another generation for change.
He said it was time to move past the bickering and game-playing which was blocking progress on reform.
The White House said he would announce "the way forward" next week. President Obama urges US healthcare action >>> | Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: It did not take long for the bipartisan health care summit to degenerate into the kind of bickering and points-scoring that has created a crescendo of anger about the conduct of politics in Washington.
President Barack Obama preached that the White House health care summit should not be "political theatre where we're just playing to the camera" or about trading "respective talking points". Then he reminded his 2008 opponent John McCain: "We're not campaigning any more. The election is over."
The barely concealed message was: "I won and you lost, buddy." When Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, grumbled that Democrats had talked for 52 minutes and Republicans just 24, Mr Obama shot back: "I'm the President. I didn't count my time."
From the moment Mr Obama crossed Pennsylvania Avenue to Blair House (which is normally occupied by visiting diplomats) flanked by aides and Secret Service agents, it was clear the President meant business. He looked like an extra from Reservoir Dogs – only the shades were missing.
When the garrulous Vice President Joe Biden was a little tardy is getting to his seat, Mr Obama chided him: "Come on, Biden!" Reprising the message that the voters of Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts had rejected overwhelmingly, Mr Obama made the case that a trillion-dollar overhaul of the American health-care system was essential to rescue the ailing economy.
His opening remarks were a campaign speech in all but name. He had little new to say, evening admitting: "I'm telling you things all of you already know."
There were the customary cloying references to family. "I can certainly remember Malia coming into the kitchen one day and saying, 'I can't breathe, Daddy', and us having to rush her to the emergency room because she had asthma," Mr Obama said. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Thursday, February 25, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Thirteen months into his presidency, Barack Obama invited 40 congressional leaders to an unprecedented meeting today at which he challenged Republicans to forge consensus on an issue that threatens to bankrupt the American economy and derail his ambition of transforming American society.
His challenge on healthcare fell largely on deaf ears, but it brought moments of high drama including a bitter rebuke of Mr Obama’s governing style over the past year from his former opponent, Senator John McCain. Mr Obama responded: “We’re not campaigning, John. The election’s over.”
Six hours of televised debate left uncertain the fate of the most ambitious social legislation in a generation – the reform of a health insurance system that accounts for nearly a sixth of the US gross domestic product. It has become a proxy for an even broader battle between liberals who last year sensed an historic chance reinvent the federal government in favour of the poor, and conservatives determined to bury Mr Obama’s campaign promises of change and render him a one-term president.
The stakes for the President were even higher than for the uninsured. As one commentator from his home town of Chicago put it: “Obama needs a victory… Either that, or he faces irrelevancy and insurrection.” >>> Giles Whittell, Washington | Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama is scaling back his plans for far-reaching legislation in an attempt to save his party from disaster in elections later this year.
After a difficult first year, the president is trying to dissociate himself from complex bills which have been held up by political disputes and tarnished his image as an agent of change.
The shift began as he launched an 11-page plan for health reform, which cherry-picked the best of what has already passed the House of Representatives and the Senate.
A bill to introduce a carbon tax has also been quietly dropped because of fears it would burden business during the recession, while immigration reform designed to offer 12 million illegal immigrants a "path to citizenship" has been put in the legislative deep freeze.
The president will instead concentrate on a modest jobs bill, tax cuts for the middle classes and campaign finance reform.
His biggest legislative push will remain health care, but will involve a new slimmed-down strategy.
The revised plan, costing $950 billion (£610bn) over ten years, is designed to make health insurance more affordable and extend coverage to 30 million more Americans.
It would give the federal government the power to regulate excessive rises in insurance premiums but omits a government-run insurance plan sought by liberal Democrats. It also dropped "backroom" deals for individual senators and their states that did so much to alienate public support.
However it is uncertain that even his scaled-down plan can pass Congress, since Republicans are largely opposed and some Democrats, who were supportive last year, are having second thoughts with midterm elections approaching fast. The president may have to settle for a solution even more modest than his fallback. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Monday, February 22, 2010
Sunday, December 20, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama's goal of health care reform received a key boost when Senate Democrat leaders said they had secured the key 60th vote needed to pass legislation.
The Senate bill is now expected to be put to a vote before Christmas, despite Republican delaying tactics.
Democrats from the Senate and the House of Representatives will then still have to hammer out major differences between their two versions of health reform before a final bill can be delivered to Mr Obama.
The president has made health reform his domestic policy priority and White House aides welcomed reports that there were now 60 supporters for a compromise deal in the Senate.
Mr Obama devoted his weekend radio and Internet address to the issue he campaigned on in 2008.
"Now - for the first time - there is a clear majority in the Senate that's willing to stand up to the insurance lobby and embrace lasting health insurance reforms that have eluded us for generations," he said.
The breakthrough came when Sen Ben Nelson, a socially conservative Democrat, told his party colleagues that he was willing to accept new wording that restricted federal funding for abortion.
It also emerged that he had secured extra federal funding for health programmes in his home state of Nebraska after days of negotiations.
His support appeared to give Senate leader Harry Reid the 60 votes required in the 100-seat chamber to overcome the threat of a Republican filibuster. >>> Philip Sherwell in New York | Saturday, December 19, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama’s Top Ten Foreign Policy Follies: This has hardly been a stellar year for the projection of American global power. Weakness, rather than strength, has been the hallmark of US foreign policy under Barack Obama, from the Iranian nuclear crisis to dithering over the war in Afghanistan. Instead of strong American leadership, the White House has all too often offered humiliating apologies for America’s past and embarrassing gaffes.
Here is a list of the ten biggest foreign policy follies of Barack Obama’s first year in office. I’ve tried to make the list inclusive of all corners of the world, ranging from Tehran to Tokyo to Khartoum, and frankly could easily have expanded it to a top 20 or even top 30 list. There are plenty to choose from, including some of the most cringe worthy moments in modern American history. >>> Nile Gardiner | Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama's hopes of achieving health care reform have been dealt a body blow by Senator Joe Lieberman, once a Democratic vice-presidential candidate but now one of the party's bêtes noire.
The new threat to the centrepiece of his agenda came as Mr Obama's popularity sunk to its lowest level yet with a Rasmussen poll that gave him an approval rating of just 44 per cent – the lowest for any president at this stage of his first term.
Mr Lieberman, who became an Independent in 2006 after he failed to win the Democratic party primary but retained his Connecticut seat in the general election, is part of the Democratic caucus but has consistently opposed his former party at key moments.
His refusal to back the latest draft health care legislation incensed Democratic aides on Capitol Hill because they believed he had agreed to support a delicate compromise that gave the party the 60 votes it needs to prevent a Republican filibuster.
Mr Lieberman said bluntly that Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, had to scrap the proposal to expand the Medicare state health plan to people as young as 55 or he would not vote for it.
"It will add taxpayer costs," he told CBS News. "It will add to the deficit. It's unnecessary." In a subsequent meeting with Mr Reid, he said he would back a Republican filibuster against the bill if it contained the Medicare provision or allowed the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies.
Mr Lieberman's shock move threatened to doom Mr Reid's compromise plan, which had led Democrats to believe that a historic reform – the centrepiece of Mr Obama's agenda – was within their grasp this year.
In an interview recorded before Mr Lieberman's bombshell, Mr Obama had expressed optimism that the crucial breakthrough had been achieved. "I think it's going to pass out of the Senate before Christmas," he told CBS. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, November 08, 2009
THE NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — Handing President Obama a hard-fought victory, the House narrowly approved a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system on Saturday night, advancing legislation that Democrats said could stand as their defining social policy achievement.
After a daylong clash with Republicans over what has been a Democratic goal for decades, lawmakers voted 220 to 215 to approve a plan that would cost $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Democrats said the legislation would provide overdue relief to Americans struggling to buy or hold on to health insurance.
“This is our moment to revolutionize health care in this country,” said Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and one of the chief architects of the bill.
Democrats were forced to make major concessions on insurance coverage for abortions to attract the final votes to secure passage, a wrenching compromise for the numerous abortion-rights advocates in their ranks.
Many of them hope to make changes to the amendment during negotiations with the Senate, which will now become the main battleground in the health care fight as Democrats there ready their own bill for what is likely to be extensive floor debate.
Democrats say the House measure — paid for through new fees and taxes, along with cuts in Medicare — would extend coverage to 36 million people now without insurance while creating a government health insurance program. It would end insurance company practices like not covering pre-existing conditions or dropping people when they become ill.
Republicans condemned the vote and said they would oppose the measure as it proceeds on its legislative route. “This government takeover has got a long way to go before it gets to the president’s desk, and I’ll continue to fight it tooth and nail at every turn,” said Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas. “Health care is too important to get it wrong.” >>> Carl Hulse and Robert Pear | Saturday, November 07, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
LE MONDE: Aucours de l'émission "60 minutes", sur CBS, dimanche 14 septembre [sic], le président des Etats-Unis, Barack Obama, a accusé le camp républicain de s'opposer à son projet de réforme du système de santé, avec comme seul objectif de torpiller sa présidence.
"Je pense qu'actuellement nous en sommes à un point où certains au sein du Parti républicain pensent que la meilleure chose à faire est simplement de tuer la réforme, que c'est là une bonne politique", a affirmé le président lors de cet entretien enregistré vendredi. Le président américain a assuré qu'en dépit de leurs efforts, il avait suffisamment de soutiens pour faire passer une large réforme d'un système qui perd des flots d'argent et laisse des dizaines de millions d'Américains sans assurance-maladie. "Je crois que nous aurons suffisamment de votes pour faire passer non pas juste une quelconque loi sur la santé, mais une bonne loi sur la santé qui aide le peuple américain, réduise les coûts, permette à long terme de contrôler le déficit [du budget]", a-t-il ajouté. >>> LeMonde.fr avec AFP et Reuters | Lundi 14 Septembre 2009
Part 1:
Part 2:
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: On a warm, wet night in Michigan, Jan Crandall stands to attention while Taps is played on the sound system in honour of America’s war dead. Then she explains why she is carrying a placard bearing an astonishingly large number: $11,801,149,166,949.
It is the US national debt — and it is rising by $3.5 billion a day. “We came out tonight because of the excessive spending,” she said. “We don’t like the Government trying to take over everything. We are for healthcare reform, but they are not going about it the right way.” After a pause Mrs Crandall added: “Gee, are we going to talk about Barack Obama? We might get on his hit list.”
A powerful cocktail of hard-headed conservatism and wilful paranoia is driving a quixotic bus convoy from California to Washington, where Mr Obama will try tonight to rebut its claims and regain the initiative in the most important domestic policy speech of his presidency so far.
The Tea Party Express has no leader, no big donors and no formal goal except to “take back our country” from an Administration it believes has fundamentally misunderstood the role of America’s federal Government — and from Republicans who abandoned fiscal restraint to bail out the country’s banks last year.
The convoy consists of two 12-berth coaches built for rock band roadies and a permanent crew of two singers, two speakers and a supporting cast of mild-mannered political consultants from California. It would be no more than a fringe attraction had its members not already wrong-footed the White House in the health reform debate with talking points for hundreds of Republican town hall meetings over the summer. One of the brains behind the movement is Sal Russo, of Russo, Marsh and Associates, a Sacramento campaigning firm, formerly an adviser to Ronald Reagan and Rudy Giuliani.
The Tea Party people are now targeting congressional districts won last year by Democrats that they think can be won back in next year’s midterm elections. The coaches have stopped for four rallies in Michigan in the past two days, including one attended by Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — known to followers of John McCain’s presidential campaign as Joe the Plumber. Yesterday he railed against big government at a meeting in Brighton, and signed copies of his new book, Fighting for the American Dream.
Mr Obama’s version of that dream has always included universal healthcare. His speech tonight to both houses of Congress will be a “very forceful” argument for wholesale reform, aides said, and a reply to a misinformation campaign by opponents that has encouraged conspiracy theories about state-run “death panels” and “population control experiments”.
The President’s problem is that no US legislation this ambitious has ever been passed with a majority of Americans opposed to it. A Gallup poll yesterday showed that only 37 per cent of voters back the Bill now being worked on by the Senate Finance Committee.
Tonight’s speech will, therefore, stop short of demanding the public insurance plan — the “public option” — even though Mr Obama still supports the idea and even though it is considered non-negotiable by about 40 liberal Democrats in the House. >>> Giles Whittell in Jackson, Michigan | Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
NEWSMAX: President Barack Obama's popularity has plummeted to a record low, with just 45 percent of voters now approving of his performance, according to the latest Zogby International poll.
Asked whether they approve or disapprove of the president's job performance, just 45.3 percent of likely voters say they approve. That compares with 50.5 percent who disapprove of the job Obama is doing.
The results are a strong indication that contentious national debate over healthcare reform has taken a major toll on the president's popularity. >>> David A. Patten | Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Obama and officials say it is not 'essential' to the overhaul. Insurance exchanges or cooperatives would be likely to replace it.
Reporting from Washington - The Obama administration signaled Sunday that it was on the verge of abandoning a government-run insurance option in its healthcare overhaul -- a bow to political reality and a big win for insurers.
But some experts said that may not completely relieve pressure on insurers to deliver cost savings.
Both Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Sunday talk shows that a government insurance option was not essential -- one day after President Obama himself said as much.
Private-sector options, such as insurance exchanges or cooperatives, would be likely to replace it. Obama already has proposed forming exchanges -- virtual marketplaces where private insurers would compete for consumers' business. And co-ops would allow consumers to band together to negotiate coverage.
Sebelius told CNN's "State of the Union" that a public option is "not the essential element" of healthcare overhaul, but that lowering insurance costs and preventing insurers from dumping customers for preexisting conditions or for exceeding coverage caps are must-haves.
"I think there will be a competitor to private insurers," she said. "That's really the essential part, is you don't turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing."
Gibbs agreed, describing the "bottom line" for the president: "What we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market."
Obama continues to believe that "the option of a government plan is the best way to provide choice and competition," Gibbs said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
But if there are other means to achieve that, Gibbs said, "the president will be satisfied." >>> Andrew Zajac | Monday, August 17, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The retired coal miner queuing in the midday sun has come to the town hall meeting with heavy political baggage. “I’ll keep my money and guns — you keep the change,” warns the badge pinned to Carl Anderson’s chest. In his hand is a banner that states simply: “Revolution is Brewing.”
He is here to protest against health reform. Mr Anderson, 70, has travelled 65 miles with seven of his friends and family to add his booming voice to the pensioners’ revolt that has shaken America in the past two weeks.
Convinced that President Obama wants to turn the country into a socialist state, starting with a nationalised health service, he hopes to hijack the political agenda.
Arlen Specter, the local Democratic Senator, is about to get an ear-bashing; his fourth in four days. Mr Anderson obliges: “I have no problem with my healthcare,” he says. “We have the best healthcare in the world. If there is anything I need, I get it.”
Mr Obama’s $1 trillion (£600 billion) health reform Bill would end that, he fears. There will be rationing of treatment, and the old will bear the brunt. “They are going to start evaluating people at the age of 55,” Mr Anderson says.
Most of the roughly 1,000 people outside the community hall of Kittanning, a mining town in the Appalachian hills 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, seem to share Mr Anderson’s views, to judge by their banners. “Nobama,” says one, adorned with the skull and crossbones. “Obama lies, grandma dies,” proclaims another. >>> Imre Karacs, Kittanning, Pennsylvania | Saturday, August 15, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: A propaganda war is masking the real problems over health care reform, says Toby Harnden.
If Stephen Hawking had been treated in Britain, he would not have survived to be awarded his Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama yesterday, because the NHS "would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless". That was the thundering verdict of the Investor's Business Daily on our National Health Service and Mr Obama's plans to introduce what Republicans term "socialised medicine".
It was, as scientists sometimes say, a beautiful hypothesis destroyed by a single ugly fact. Professor Hawking, who is completely paralysed by motor neurone disease, has been treated by the NHS throughout his 67 years, and points out indignantly that he would not have lived without its care.
Much of the conservative contribution to the health care debate raging in the United States, which is dominating a long, hot summer, has been as misguided as that newspaper editorial. With the battle lines drawn, and President Obama staking his credibility on achieving a comprehensive reform that delivers health insurance to the tens of millions without it, Democratic members of Congress are facing the wrath and anxiety of their constituents – who are being urged on by opponents of reform.
Sarah Palin, who recently resigned as Alaska's governor but remains the darling of rural conservatives, invoked the spectre of a "death panel" pronouncing on whether her baby Trig, who has Down's syndrome, should be allowed to live.
Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa suggested that this was what happened in Britain. "I've heard several senators say that Ted Kennedy with a brain tumour, being 77 years old … if he were in England, would not be treated… when you get to be 77, your life is considered less valuable under those systems," he said.
In a television ad from the Club for Growth pressure group, a narrator intones portentously as images of Big Ben and the Union flag appear on the screen: "$22,750. In England, government health officials decided that's how much six months of life is worth. Under their socialised system, if a medical treatment costs more, you're out of luck. That's wrong for America." Cue the Statue of Liberty and the Stars and Stripes.
The figure comes from Britain's National Institute for Clinical Evidence, which evaluates treatments in terms of the average increase in life expectancy. If the cost of prolonging someone's life for a year exceeds more than £30,000, then the NHS will not pay for that treatment. In other words, although there are no "death panels", the fundamental point is correct. The NHS does decide that some treatments are too expensive. And if that means you die? Our condolences, says the Government. >>> Toby Harnden | sday, August 12, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Gordon Brown has joined in the Twitter campaign to defend the National Health Service following protests in the United States at Barack Obama's drive to reform the American healthcare system.
The Prime Minister's wife, Sarah, also leapt to the defence of the NHS, after US critics opposed to the President's reforms described the British system as "evil" and "Orwellian."
Many Republicans are opposed to what they term as "socialised" medicine. But Britons living in the US and in this country furious at the attacks have hit back by organising a campaign on the social networking site urging backers of the NHS to send messages of support.
Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, is among those who have taken part, along with thousands of ordinary members of the public.
Such is the popularity of the campaign - called #welovethenhs - that the site crashed yesterday.
Mr Brown used the Downing Street twitter page to add his support. His message said: "PM; NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there."
Mrs Brown added: "#we love the nhs - more than we can say." The Health Secretary twittered: "Andy Burnham: Over the moon about strong support for the NHS - an institution I will defend to my dying day." >>> Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | Thursday, August 13, 2009
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)