10/17/09 President Barack Obama Weekly Radio Address

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17TH, 2009 AT 12:01 AM
Weekly Address: Taking the Insurance Companies on Down the Stretch
Posted by Jesse Lee
As the health insurance reform debate enters into its final stages in Congress, the President denounces the desperate and deceptive last-ditch efforts of the health insurance companies to derail it.

read the transcript

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________
For Immediate Release            October 17, 2009

WEEKLY ADDRESS: President Obama Calls Hails Progress on Health Insurance Reform Despite Defenders of the Status Quo

WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Barack Obama praised the progress that has been made on health insurance reform, and spoke out against those who defend the status quo in order to score political points and protect their profits.  With reform the closest it has ever been to becoming law, the insurance companies are rolling out deceptive ads, paying for misleading studies, and flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists.  Now, Washington needs to serve the American people, not the special interests.

  October 17, 2009 , 10:44 am

The Saturday Word: Health Care Battles

By Janie Lorber

"President Obama defended his health care overhaul against the health insurers with renewed gusto Saturday morning after a week in which insurance companies circulated reports and ran advertisements deeply critical of his plans.

“They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They’re flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they’re funding studies designed to mislead the American people,” Mr. Obama said adding firepower to Congressional Democrats’ already hostile responses. “It’s smoke and mirrors. It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, “Take one of these, and call us in a decade.”

"His comments were the latest sign that the relationship between insurance companies and the administration has deteriorated after months of cooperation.

"On Friday the White House backed away from restrictions laid in September that prohibited insurance companies from warning Medicare recipients of potential cuts to their program in the health care overhaul. The administration also cited one company in particular, Humana, for violating Medicare rules, saying the company had misled its beneficiaries to derail the plan."

Obama Chastises "Dishonest" Health Insurers

By REUTERS

Published: October 17, 2009

 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "U.S. President Barack Obama lashed out on Saturday against the "deceptive and dishonest" efforts of health insurance companies, who he said are trying to kill healthcare reform, no matter the cost to the country.

The Democratic president's push to overhaul the $2.5 trillion (1.528 trillion pound) U.S. healthcare industry, his top domestic policy priority, received a big boost this week when the Senate Finance Committee approved its version of a reform measure with the support of Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.

"Many experts expect some version of a healthcare bill will pass this year, but there are still major disagreements on details including whether the measure will include a government-run insurance program, the "public option."

"For the first time ever, all five committees in Congress responsible for health reform have passed a version of legislation," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "As I speak to you today, we are closer to reforming the health care system than we have ever been in history."

"However, he acknowledged the overhaul still must clear significant hurdles before becoming law. "And there are still those who would try to kill reform at any cost," he said.

"The history is clear: for decades rising health care costs have unleashed havoc on families, businesses and the economy. And for decades, whenever we have tried to reform the system, the insurance companies have done everything in their considerable power to stop us."

BATTLE LEAPED IN INTENSITY THIS WEEK

"The battle over reform between angry Democrats and health insurers leaped in intensity when the industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans issued a report on Monday, on the eve of the finance committee's vote, saying Senate healthcare legislation would lead to increases in annual insurance premiums of as much as $4,000 by 2019.

"Democrats denied the findings, citing a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that said the Finance Committee bill would make health coverage affordable to millions of Americans who do not have it and slow the growth of healthcare costs.

"In fact, the insurance industry is rolling out the big guns and breaking open their massive war chest -- to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo," Obama said.

"They're filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They're flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they're funding studies designed to mislead the American people," he said.

Democratic leaders in Congress began work this week on merging the various committees' proposals on healthcare while keeping party liberals and moderates -- and Snowe -- happy.

"Senate Republicans demanded Democrats allow more time to debate the details of the sweeping plan. Obama has set the end of the year as his goal for passing a measure that would begin to slow increases in healthcare costs, regulate the insurance market and expand health coverage without increasing the federal budget deficit.

"Health insurers' shares dropped this week after news of the finance committee's vote.

"Obama vowed an overhaul will go through.

"Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, 'Take one of these, and call us in a decade.' Well, not this time," Obama said.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

Obama Praises Senate Committee's Health Care Vote

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Published: October 17, 2009 

 

 

 WASHINGTON (AP) -- "Pushing back against his critics, President Barack Obama says overhauling the health care system, while helping millions of people, also will test whether policy makers can ''serve the national interest despite the unrelenting efforts of the special interests.''

"The administration is trying to build momentum for the president's overhaul effort after the Senate Finance Committee voted 14-9 this week for a bill that would extend health care coverage to millions of people. One Republican, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, supported the bill, and the measure faces considerable opposition from the health care industry, labor unions and large business organizations.

''The history is clear: For decades rising health care costs have unleashed havoc on families, businesses and the economy,'' the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. ''And for decades, whenever we have tried to reform the system, the insurance companies have done everything in their considerable power to stop us.''

"The health insurance industry released a study earlier this week concluding that the Finance Committee bill -- one of five competing House and Senate health care measures -- would raise premiums significantly for millions of people who already have health coverage.

"The report drew intense criticism from the White House, congressional Democrats and other advocates of the bill who deemed the study a last-ditch effort to sway public opinion against the measure.

"Obama said he would not abide ''those who would bend the truth or break it to score political points and stop our progress as a country.'' He accused the industry of ''filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads,'' sending money and lobbyists to Capitol Hill and paying for studies ''designed to mislead the American people.''

"The insurance industry responded Saturday, saying it supports a comprehensive, bipartisan overhaul of the system but that separate studies recently found that some of the existing proposals will increase significantly health care costs for families and employers.

''Reform needs to work and deliver on the promise made to the American people that everyone will have quality, affordable coverage,'' Karen Ignagni, president of the industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement.

"The bills moving through Congress generally would require most Americans to buy insurance, provide federal subsidies to help lower-income people afford coverage and help small businesses defray the cost of extending coverage to their workers.

"The measures would bar insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions and limit their ability to charge higher premiums based on age or family size. Expanded coverage would be paid for by cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from future Medicare payments to health care providers. Higher taxes also are included in the bills.

"Republican opponents say the bills will increase costs for patients, further job losses and give the government more of a say in who gets medical care, and what kind.

''Americans inherently know government interference drives costs up, not down,'' Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said in the GOP's weekly message. ''The massive health care plans being crafted behind closed doors in Washington will ultimately allow the government to decide what doctors we can see, what treatments the government thinks you deserve and what medicines you can receive.''

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                          White House Photo, Pete Souza_10-17-09