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EXCERPTS OF THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS TO A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS TONIGHT:
I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. It has now been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first called for health care reform. And ever since, nearly every President and Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, has attempted to meet this challenge in some way. A bill for comprehensive health reform was first introduced by John Dingell Sr. in 1943. Sixty-five years later, his son continues to introduce that same bill at the beginning of each session.
Our collective failure to meet this challenge – year after year, decade after decade – has led us to a breaking point. Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy. These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans. Some can't get insurance on the job. Others are self-employed, and can't afford it, since buying insurance on your own costs you three times as much as the coverage you get from your employer. Many other Americans who are willing and able to pay are still denied insurance due to previous illnesses or conditions that insurance companies decide are too risky or expensive to cover......
Originally posted by redhead57
They do need to fix the system but heaven only knows how.
Originally posted by Hastobemoretolife
So anybody want to take a wager on how much his approval ratings drop after tonight's speech? I'm going to wager a point and a half.
Originally posted by patent98310
wow you guys...
Personally i liked the attitude in which he addressed this issue.
Maybe the bill isn't so well put together yet, but you got to admit this is one thing Obama is right to want to change.
Now minus the name calling (socialist, fascist, yada yada) really look at this in full spectrum and ignore the needless arguments designed to confuse you.
The mechanism here is basically the same as the one used for mortgage-backed securities. Wall Street buys up life policies from elderly or ill people, who sell them for up-front cash that can be enjoyed before actual death (similar to those brokered arrangements with terminally ill HIV patients that received so much attention in the late eighties). They then take those policies and dump them into a securitized pool, where they can then be packaged as bonds and sold to investors who would get paid off when the policyholders die. ATS
He should also not push to hard.
Originally posted by Mak Manto
No, you see, that's where you're wrong.
Opponents are pushing as hard as they want. Why is he not allowed to? Is this not a democracy where free speech is allowed?
If opponents will call his plan bad, be prepared.
It's just as fair.