Those screaming we got ripped off or that Obama isn't keeping his pledge, need to do a little more reading and stop listening to the drama of Dennis Kucinich.
Obama never promised Single Payer and you should not expect that we are going there.
What he did promise he's started working on. And if you took the time to read Obama's own remarks on this, you'd know that this was a great first step.
From Whitehouse.Gov:
In short, the coalition has agreed to reduce the annual health care spending growth rate by 1.5 percentage points for the next 10 years, a change that could result in savings of roughly $2,500 for American families. Some of the changes the coalition is working on, explained fully in the fact sheet, include:
· Improving Care after Hospitalizations and Reduce Hospital Readmission Rates.
· Reducing Medicare Overpayments to Private Insurers through Competitive Payments.
· Reducing Drug Prices.
· Improving Medicare and Medicaid Payment Accuracy.
· Expanding the Hospital Quality Improvement Program.
The President closed his remarks making clear that
this was just the beginning, and certainly no stopgap measure:
"So the steps that are being announced today are significant. But the only way these steps will have an enduring impact is if they are taken not in isolation, but as part of a broader effort to reform our entire health care system." And while so much debate over politics and policy can get lost in the mire of facts and figured, the President made clear that his focus is squarely on one thing:
Ultimately, the debate about reducing costs -- and the larger debate about health care reform itself -- is not just about numbers; it's not just about forms or systems; it's about our own lives and the lives of our loved ones. And I understand that. As I've mentioned before during the course of the campaign, my mother passed away from ovarian cancer a little over a decade ago. And in the last weeks of her life, when she was coming to grips with her own mortality and showing extraordinary courage just to get through each day, she was spending too much time worrying about whether her health insurance would cover her bills. So I know what it's like to see a loved one who is suffering, but also having to deal with a broken health care system. I know that pain is shared by millions of Americans all across this country.
But go ahead. Complain that he's saving families real dollars each year. That's your right.
And remember, SEIU was there at those meetings representing labor and to a larger extent, the progressives here who are complaining the loudest. I know many of you who have been screaming SEIU and EMFA are also the ones screaming about this issue. You may want to take it up with your representatives who were in attendance. I think they'll be telling you the same thing: this is just the beginning.
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