Statement from President Barack Obama on health care

Statement from President Barack Obama on health care

For the first time in our nation's history, Congress has passed comprehensive health care reform. America waited a hundred years and fought for decades to reach this moment. Tonight, thanks to you, we are finally here.

Consider the staggering scope of what you have just accomplished:

Because of you, every American will finally be guaranteed high quality, affordable health care coverage.

Every American will be covered under the toughest patient protections in history. Arbitrary premium hikes, insurance cancellations, and discrimination against pre-existing conditions will now be gone forever.

And we'll finally start reducing the cost of care -- creating millions of jobs, preventing families and businesses from plunging into bankruptcy, and removing over a trillion dollars of debt from the backs of our children.

But the victory that matters most tonight goes beyond the laws and far past the numbers.

It is the peace of mind enjoyed by every American, no longer one injury or illness away from catastrophe.

It is the workers and entrepreneurs who are now freed to pursue their slice of the American dream without fear of losing coverage or facing a crippling bill.

And it is the immeasurable joy of families in every part of this great nation, living happier, healthier lives together because they can finally receive the vital care they need.

This is what change looks like.

My gratitude tonight is profound. I am thankful for those in past generations whose heroic efforts brought this great goal within reach for our times. I am thankful for the members of Congress whose months of effort and brave votes made it possible to take this final step. But most of all, I am thankful for you.

This day is not the end of this journey. Much hard work remains, and we have a solemn responsibility to do it right. But we can face that work together with the confidence of those who have moved mountains.

Our journey began three years ago, driven by a shared belief that fundamental change is indeed still possible. We have worked hard together every day since to deliver on that belief.

We have shared moments of tremendous hope, and we've faced setbacks and doubt. We have all been forced to ask if our politics had simply become too polarized and too short-sighted to meet the pressing challenges of our time. This struggle became a test of whether the American people could still rally together when the cause was right -- and actually create the change we believe in.

Tonight, thanks to your mighty efforts, the answer is indisputable: Yes we can.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

Public loses in Baucus health care plan; the only winner is the insurance lobby

So let me get this straight. President Barack Obama makes a clarion call to reform healthcare so that the 30 million Americans (not including the 12 million "non-Americans" living in America) can have affordable and fair health insurance, and what does the Democratic Party leadership in the Senate do?

They pass a "health care" plan that is touted for doing one major thing: require every American to purchase health care.

Thanks Senator Max Baucus. That's the problem. I've been hesitating to purchase healthcare insurance because I "can't afford it." I've paid into the healthcare insurance industry for 30 years and now that I am working as a freelance journalist with no permanent or fulltime employer, the reason I don't have health insurance is because I don't want to buy it?

Are you nuts?

Do you really think that the majority of the 30 million Americans who don't have insurance, don't have insurance because they can't afford to purchase it or because they don't want to purchase it?

Most Americans who don't have insurance, don't have insurance because the greedy robber barons in the insurance industry, who line the back pockets of most of our politicians in Washington DC with campaign cash payola, won't give us the insurance coverage we need. What they offer us to pay for is worthless. And ironically, thanks to you, the insurance industry is exactly the ones who will be benefiting from this stupid, worthless bill that is so far from reform it is pathetic.

This isn't reform. This is just another typically tepid Washington bureaucratic response to the real needs of Americans.

I can't get health care insurance because every time I try to purchase it, the health care insurance giants won't give it to me. They eliminate everything they can from the policy so what is left to purchase is not health care insurance but a profit machine for the insurance industry. I can't get insurance because the insurance industry has denied everything that I am likely to need in a policy. I don't have health care insurance because the policy I CAN afford doesn't include coverage for any ailment that is any way related to BREATHING!

And what's worse, the state laws which define the rules which prohibit an insurance carrier from denying coverage to someone who had fulltime healthcare with full coverage is NOT ENFORCED.

No coverage for anything related to breathing because of asthma care received eight years ago from a doctor; no coverage for anything related to heart related issues because I had a heart checkup (which everyone over 50 should get) five years ago.

I had fulltime coverage through a newspaper from Humana. Then, when I shifted to self-employment, Humana denied me coverage for everything they were covering me with. The options were: Pay three times my monthly insurance to COBRA (appropriate predator name by the way) for ONLY 16 months; take the worthless policy Humana did offer which eliminates almost everything; or don't waste my money on garbage!

What did they offer? An empty shell of coverage! It costs me $2,500 in deductibles (compared to $50o before) upfront, plus $700 a month ($8,400). That doesn't include the $500 deductible on prescription drugs which has a list a mile long of things they WON'T pay for even if I do pay the deductible. So add it up, Senator Baucus and the rest of you losers in Washington DC. I have to spend $11,400 before I get even one minute of major health care coverage. So what's the point?

Maybe you all can't add that up because you are busy adding up the cash you all expect from the health insurance lobby coming your way in gratitude because the ONLY winners in this lousy healthcare reform bill sponsored by Sen. Max Baucus is the health industry robber barons.

Then again, why would you all really care in Washington DC? You get a gold-plated, taxpayer funded PUBLIC OPTION-like health care plan that is better than anything anyone else gets in this country.

Thanks but no thanks. You are not forcing me to purchase junk. With no public option, I'd rather go down fighting!

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com