Obama discussing Consumer-Directed Health Plans with Republican John Barrasso, a physician:
Obama: “Would you be satisfied if every member of Congress just had catastrophic care–you think we’d be better health care purchasers? I mean, is that a change you think we should make?”
Barrasso: “I think actually we would. We’d really focus on it. We’d have more, as you say, skin in the game. And especially if they had a savings account–a health savings account–they could put their money into that, and they’d be spending the money out of that.”
Obama: “Would you feel the same way if you were making $40,000? Or if that was your income. Because that’s the reality for a lot of folks.”
Health Affairs has a good halftime report from the Healthcare Summit, summarizing the jabs and parries between Democrats and Republicans on their healthcare ideas. Read it here. Too bad they left the best (and really only) question until last — it’s long past time to answer it and get out of the dead ends and diversions in the healthcare reform debate.
This Thursday, the Healthcare Summit will finally kick off. What will happen during the course of this none-too-historic event? You may be surprised to feel like you’re watching soap opera re-runs. And no, I’m not just referring to the fact that there was another healthcare summit held just about a year ago.
Just in time to meet the 72-hour window for Thursday’s Healthcare Summit, Obama’s healthcare proposal is out. Notice it’s not called a “plan”. There’s a reason for that. The one word that comes to mind having browsed through it is “reactive”, and reacting is not planning. Nonetheless, here’s what’s in it, including a link so you can thumb through the 11-page document yourself.
President Obama got 2 things very right in his brief discussion of healthcare last night. He also got quite a few wrong. While healthcare wasn’t the main focus of his State of the Union Address by a long shot, he made an effort to soothe frayed nerves with the usual awe-inspiring oratorical skill. It was just the content that fell short.
