Weekly remarks: Tom Price, Obama on healthcare, of course

Well, you'll never guess what the Democratic and Republican weekly remarks concern this week: Healthcare.

For a change.

Not.

With Congress in recess, the president out of town on a 10-day vacation and Vice President Joe Biden taking another weekend off, through the magic of technology we bring you the two parties' weekly statements anyway.

It won't surprise many that the Republican Rep. Tom Price, an M.D., argues for reform but against the president's one-size-fits-all plan. Price says Washington is incapable of addressing the individual, personalized needs best handled between patient and doctor. He calls the president's plan a "1,000 page expression... that Washington knows best when it comes to your family's healthcare."

Price also warns that despite the president's oft-stated claims, there are no guarantees under some of the reforms that people can keep their private insurance if desired.

Surprisingly, as he did in Thursday's radio interview as chronicled on The Ticket, the president chooses again to play defense, attempting to debunk what he says is misinformation and myths abroad in the land on his incomplete plans.

He says, for instance, there are no "death panels," no change in federal funding of abortions, and he tries to explain the so-called public option -- a government insurance plan -- that the president's declining poll numbers (also detailed here) show is scaring off so many seniors and political independents.

And he warns that inaction is unacceptable and will bring more of the same.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Weekly Republican Remarks by Rep. Tom Price of Georgia provided by the Republican National Committee

Hello, I’m Congressman Tom Price. And I have the privilege of representing the Sixth District of Georgia. (Just north of Atlanta)  Before coming to Congress I was a physician, taking care of patients on the north side of Atlanta for more than 20 years.

Right now, Americans from coast to coast are debating the monumental task of reforming our health system.  Folks of every political persuasion understand the imperative of reform. But they want reform that....

...keeps what’s good with our current system – and fixes what’s not working – without destroying our quality of care.

The status quo in American health care is clearly unacceptable. Rising costs, shrinking access, and third-party decision making are driving patients away from their doctors and the desired care that they seek.  The challenge, however, is providing Americans more accessible and affordable care without impairing the quality, innovation, and choices that define American medicine. And this is simply impossible with the one-size-fits-all approach taken by the President and Democrats in charge of Congress.

Experience tells me that as a doctor, no two patients are exactly alike. While the same diagnosis can be reached for two people, the proper treatment for each may be completely different, based on a countless number of factors that only a patient, their family and a caring and compassionate physician truly understand. 

Having navigated federal health care programs for two decades, I can tell you that Washington is incapable of processing the personal and unique circumstances that patients and doctors face each and every day.  That is why a positive solution will put power in the hands of patients, not insurance companies or the government.

Unfortunately, the plan being promoted by the White House would give Washington the power to make highly personal medical decisions on behalf of patients – on behalf of you.

Now whether it’s the government choosing what should be in your family’s health care plan, or a bureaucratic board deciding what treatments are appropriate and who should receive them, the President’s plan is a 1,000-page expression supporting the notion that Washington knows best when it comes to your family’s health care.  And that’s simply not true.

As opposition to the Democrats’ government-run health plan is mounting, the President has said he’d like to stamp out some of the disinformation floating around out there.

On the stump, the President regularly tells Americans that ‘if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.’  But if you read the bill, that just isn’t so. For starters, within five years, every health care plan will have to meet a new federal definition for coverage – one that your current plan might not match, even if you like it.

What’s more, experts agree that under the House bill, millions of Americans will be forced off their personal, private coverage and shuffled onto the government plan.

Now the President has also said that he thinks the government should compete with your current health care plan.  But we all know that when the government is setting the rules and is backed by tax dollars, it will destroy – not compete with – the private sector. The reality is, whether or not you get to keep your plan, or your doctor, is very much in question under the President’s proposal.

But perhaps the most striking misinformation the President has put forth is that there are only two options out there for America – that it’s his way or the highway. That it’s either the government running the show – or insurance companies. The truth is there is a third way – a better way, a patient-centered way to reform health care. 

Rather than allowing insurance companies or the government to call the shots, Republicans want to put patients in charge of their family’s health care. We have plans to increase coverage and lower costs without putting a bureaucrat between you and your doctor. We believe that what’s good for patients is good for American health care.

If anything has been learned from the debate in August, it’s that the American people think that we can do better. They seek reform, but they reject a government-centered approach. With people on the left, and the right, and everywhere in between dissatisfied with the process, it’s time that we start over to create a truly bipartisan solution that puts patients in charge. 

Honoring the transparency promised the American people, and the principles of quality care we all hold dear, we can create a patient-centered proposal that all may support. We look forward to working with the President, and on behalf of the American people, to make patient-centered health reform a reality. I’m Congressman Tom Price. Thanks so much for listening.   ###

Weekly Remarks by Democrat President Obama as provided by the White House

Each and every day in this country, Americans are grappling with health care premiums that are growing three times the rate of wages and insurance company policies that limit coverage and raise out-of-pocket costs. Thousands are losing their insurance coverage each day.

Without real reform, the burdens on America’s families and businesses will continue to multiply. We’ve had a vigorous debate about health insurance reform, and rightly so. This is an issue of vital concern to every American, and I’m glad that so many are engaged.

But it also should be an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are.

So today, I want to spend a few minutes debunking some of the more outrageous myths circulating on the internet, on cable TV, and repeated at some town halls across this country.

Let’s start with the false claim that illegal immigrants will get health insurance under reform. That’s not true.  Illegal immigrants would not be covered. That idea has never even been on the table. Some are also saying that coverage for abortions would be mandated under reform. Also false.

When it comes to the current ban on using tax dollars for abortions, nothing will change under reform. And as every credible person who has looked into it has said, there are no so-called “death panels” – an offensive notion to me and to the American people. These are phony claims meant to divide us.

And we’ve all heard the charge that reform will somehow bring about a government takeover of health care. I know that sounds scary to many folks. It sounds scary to me, too. But here’s the thing: it’s not true. I no sooner want government to get between you and your doctor than I want insurance companies to make arbitrary decisions about what medical care is best for you, as they do today. As I’ve said from the beginning, under the reform we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period.

Now, the source of a lot of these fears about government-run health care is confusion over what’s called the public option. This is one idea among many to provide more competition and choice, especially in the many places around the country where just one insurer thoroughly dominates the marketplace. This alternative would have to operate as any other insurer, on the basis of the premiums it collects. And let me repeat – it would be just an option; those who prefer their private insurer would be under no obligation to shift to a public plan.

The insurance companies and their allies don’t like this idea, or any that would promote greater competition.  I get that.  And I expect there will be a lot of discussion about it when Congress returns.

But this one aspect of the health care debate shouldn’t overshadow the other important steps we can and must take to reduce the increasing burdens families and businesses face.

So let me stress them again: If you don’t have insurance, you will finally have access to quality coverage you can afford. If you do have coverage, you will benefit from more security and more stability when it comes to your insurance. If you move, lose your job, or change jobs, you will not have to worry about losing health coverage. And we will set up tough consumer protections that will hold insurance companies accountable and stop them from exploiting you with unfair practices.

We’ll prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage because of a person’s medical history. They will not be able to drop your coverage if you get sick. They will not be able to water down your coverage when you need it most.  They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. We’ll place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because no one in America should go broke because they get sick.

And we will require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer on the front end. That makes sense, it saves lives, and it will also save money over the long-run.  Taken together, the reforms we’re seeking will help bring down skyrocketing costs, which will mean real savings for families, businesses, and government.

We know what a failure to act would bring: More of the same. More of the same exploding costs. More of the same diminished coverage. If we fail to act, the crisis will grow. More families will go without coverage. More businesses will be forced to drop or water down their plans.

So we can push off the day of reckoning and fail to deal with the flaws in the system, just as Washington has done, year after year, decade after decade. Or we can take steps that will provide every American family and business a measure of security and stability they lack today.

It has never been easy, moving this nation forward. There are always those who oppose it, and those who use fear to block change. But what has always distinguished America is that when all the arguments have been heard, and all the concerns have been voiced, and the time comes to do what must be done, we rise above our differences, grasp each others’ hands, and march forward as one nation and one people, some of us Democrats, some of us Republicans, all of us Americans.

This is our chance to march forward. I cannot promise you that the reforms we seek will be perfect or make a difference overnight. But I can promise you this: if we pass health insurance reform, we will look back many years from now and say, this was the moment we summoned what’s best in each of us to make life better for all of us.

This was the moment when we built a health care system worthy of the nation and the people we love. This was the moment we earned our place alongside the greatest generations. And that is what our generation of Americans is called to do right now.   ###

Photo credits: From top, Associated Press; Office of Rep. Tom Price; Ron Edmonds / Associated Press

Comments

[medsearch]

Obamacare will cost this nation thousands of jobs. In my industry, medical device sales, we have already lost 20,000 medical sales jobs in anticipation of reform. It will get much worse!

Learn more about how health care reform will impact jobs in medical sales at our blog. Visit http://www.gorillamedicalsales.com/blog

[John Lynch]

What I find peculiar is Dr. Price's idea that, under the proposed reform, he gives the impression that a health auditor will be sitting in the examining room directing the physician. The vast majority of clients would see NO difference in their medical care. Insurance companies enforce "usual and customary" medical procedures now; and many companies "underwrite at time of claim". In other words, you thought you were covered...but now you're not. In addition, if a client wishes to buy a "Cadillac plan", he or she is welcome to do so. Nothing in the proposal forbids this. Wrapping himself in the flag of client idividuation is an interesting stance. Since little will change under reformed healthcare, presumably, Dr. Price will practice no longer

[joetheinformed]

"Unfortunately, the plan being promoted by the White House would give Washington the power to make highly personal medical decisions on behalf of patients – on behalf of you."

Why are poiticians so vague with their statements. If Rep. Tom Price reads this, could you give me "DETAILED" information about how Washington will make highly personal medical decisions on behalf of me with the plan? I want word for word specifics from the actual bill. And I hope you don't mean death panels, because that has been rebuked numerous times and I have already read that in the bill. I mean specifics from the bill that SAY personal decisions would be made for me. Thank you sir.

[notmd]

the health care system didn't all of a sudden have a heart attack...the signs leading up to the current condition were evident to all clincians working in the system...but who was going to rock the boat that caught the fish?..we are all accountabile for the current situation and need to support our President in moving forward..

[Poverty incentives]

The problem with not first securing our southern border before passing Healthcare Reform is the incentive given for illegal aliens to further flood our border states, giving birth to millions more fully entitled anchor babies, who currently account for a huge chunk of CA's uninsured, impoverished American citizens.

In recent decades, CA has acquired a huge population of unskilled immigrants, the majority of whom initially entered illegally, but never rose above poverty levels, and further account for a large percentage of our uninsured.

CA is carrying 32% of the nations Welfare, while we account for only 17.5% of the nation's people. We are being smothered by poverty and violent gangs. Our prisons are bulging at the seams, carrying more criminals than the rest of the nation.

Our public schools are failing the majority of the 1/2 of the children enrolled, who are living at, or below poverty. The majority of these children descend from families that are either here illegally,or were at one point. Each successive generation of high school drop outs further deepens our uninsured, and our inability to turn the tables on poverty and crime.

Eighty hospitals, and many more emergency rooms have closed in So. California in the last ten years, mostly due to: illegal aliens and their foreign born children; illegal aliens' American born anchor children; high school drop-outs; those who choose not to purchase insurance, while sending billions of their US earned dollars back to their home countries. For Mexico alone, we are their 2nd largest source of income.

CA has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Despite this, thousands of illegals are crossing our border every day.

What a grand incentive this bill will give illegals to further flood, and destroy our economy and lives.

We need Health Care. But, we also need jobs, and a future. I'll gladly give up my life to cancer now, if there's a chance, however remote at this point, that my children, and grandchildren might have a future in the US.

[Brittanicus]

Even though the Democrats have stated that illegal immigrants, will not have access to Americans health care, it can easily be compromised by fraudulent use of stolen ID. BUT WE ALL SEEM TO FORGET, THAT IF THE DEMOCRATS PASS A PATH TO CITIZENSHIP--OR BLANKET AMNESTY. AS NEW CITIZENS ALONG WITH THEIR FAMILIES THEY CAN SPONSOR THE OUTER CIRCLE OF FAMILY MEMBERS THEY THEN WILL BE ABLE TO CONVENIENTLY ACCESS--HEALTH CARE--WITH NO RESTRAINTS?
Everybody in the workplace must be carefully vetted for inconsistencies with a progressively upgraded E-Verify. Even without stealing into the reformed health care system by federal law the taxpayers must support illegal immigrants for emergency medical services. Foreign nationals use this mandatory law, as an excuse for any kind of minor injury or illness.

The travesty that drives the faltering health care system is of course money. Everyday our televisions are monotonously inundated with adverts about new drugs and medicine. Personally I'm sick of the continuous kaleidescope of ads, trying to program our brains to buy another boring antihistamine? We should also question the majority of Republicans, why there are rumors of a dark conspiracy? Could it be that that these people have a cemented interest in killing any type of reform? How many of these politicians have secret stocks in multi-bed hospitals, greedy profiteering insurance firms or the pharmaceutical industry. THE QUESTION THAT MUST BE ASKED IS, WHO HAS VOTED AGAINST A PUBLIC OPTION? WHICH POLITICIANS HAVE A FINANCIAL STAKE IN KILLING ANY REFORM? IS THERE INFORMATION THAT ANSWERS THESE QUESTIONS? My health care experience was mainly in England and Australia and prior to the mass immigration invasion was positively first class.

Of course the status quo doesn't want any change in the trillion dollar medical complex, because it could strictly confine a multitude of new common sense laws? Sadly, I have listened to lies sprouting from the special interest lobby over the airwaves for weeks. Trouble is, a majority of the American people believe this tripe that we are constantly bombarded with?

We are still conveying many entitlement programs to illegal aliens and their families, with extorted taxes.We have always been the recipients of business welfare and likely always will be, because the pariah businesses that hire illegals, never pay anything to their support. GET RAW ANSWERS AT NUMBERSUSA Tell those in WASHINGTON no more AMNESTIES. USE ATTRITION TO DEPORT THEM THROUGH E-VERIFY, 287 G, NO MATCH SOCIAL SECURITY LETTERS AND LIGHTENING ICE RAIDS. CONTACT YOUR POLITICIAN 202-224-3121 AND DEMAND NO WEAKENING OF CURRENT LAWS?

[Charles Henry]

I think it's becoming clear that the debate about heath care is not about health care at all. The Republican party must prevent a victory by President Obama at all costs. The Democratic party needs a victory to prove that the Democrats, lead by President Obama, can govern. If we - I'm a Democrat - fail to deliver a decent health care bill, we are done for at least the next generation, and we will deserve it. The Republicans understand this in spades. I don't know if the Democrats have figured this out yet.

It's worth pointing out that Medicare was resisted by the Republican party with much the same arguments they are using now. Fellow Seniors: Imagine life without Medicare. I predict that twenty years for now, the idea that we should return to what we have now will be equally unthinkable.

[larrysteve]

The competitive free market does not always
deliver the most services for the least price.
Consider our gov't owned Post Office.

If you mail a 1 lb box to the East coast you can choose from
for-profit UPS $8.27 (5 days), or FedEx
$7.44 (4 days). Our socialized USPS price? $4.95 (2 days!!! ).

Oh, and USPS provides the box for free too.

But wait, there's more.

If your package is a mere 10 oz the FedEx and UPS prices
remain the same but the USPS price falls to $2.41. That's what happens when you take the profit out of what should be a public service.

Anybody want to hazard a guess what a postage stamp would cost if UPS or FedEx were in charge of our mail? (Hint: a LOT more than the current $.42).

Support the public option. Get more, Pay less.

[Narayan]

"Price says Washington is incapable of addressing the individual, personalized needs best handled between patient and doctor".

Has anyone heard something called "Pre approval" ?. Who does Price thinks makes a decision on pre approval? God?. Republicans keeps saying that government supported option will make the bureaucrat in charge of your health decision. I guess that aperson from insurance company with incentive plan has your best interest.

Don't be disappointed if you donot get the preapproval for a procedure your doctor recommends, like I was. You can always pay out of your own pocket and be happy that republican managed to kill reforms.

[darkeyes9090]

What has amazed me is that this issue seems to be decided by a minority of people who are basing their opposition to unfounded speculation. The rest of us will suffer. Yes, let's do it all slower, while many suffer and die. I am feeling like the gov't is too crooked, too controlled by big business, too filled with rather ignorant people to have any hope for the people of this country to achieve a better life for themselves. I give up. I also blame the media. Look at the coverage and language used by the networks, and other media. I give up. I think that is what the gov't wants. For us to just give up in trying to change things for us, and just be good consumers to whatever they are selling while they become rich off of it. Look around us, how is that working.