healthinsurance.org » Obama

Mitt Romney: father of health reform? - GOP front-runner will need to run faster to escape evidence of Affordable Care Act paternity

Steve Anderson — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:13:40 +0000

We always love when politicians make witty jabs and then later get jabbed back. We love it, especially, when they’re jabbing health reform. Mitt Romney’s feeling a return jab right now. The GOP Presidential contender wisecracked in the spring that President Obama was giving Romney way too much credit for helping set the stage for national health [...]

when more is simply more - america's bloated per capita health expenditures are simply the cost of "free" enterprise

Chuck Smith-Dewey — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:07:39 +0000

We Americans pay more dollars, and live shorter lives, than our counterparts in most other modern countries. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in 2008 America spent $7,538 per capita on health care, while the other 33 nations surveyed spent an average of $3,000. The reason is clear: it’s how we pay [...]

repeal effort flies in the face of evidence - vote is more than symbolic: it's a waste of congress's time

Steve Anderson — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:59:06 +0000

There’s no question in our minds that House Republicans will be successful today in voting to repeal health reform legislation. So what happens after the inevitable yelling and the inevitable House vote for repeal? Nothing. The Senate will not vote for repeal and President Obama will certainly veto anything that even smells like repeal. That, [...]

reform repeal would balloon deficit - gop seeks to subvert law that helps self-employed, encourages small business to expand coverage

Chuck Smith-Dewey — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:20:30 +0000

House Republicans took one more step today toward repealing last year’s sweeping health care overhaul, as it approved a rule allowing a repeal bill to proceed to a vote. The vote is purely symbolic because it will never pass the Senate and will never be signed by the President. But since the nonpartisan Congressional Budget [...]

somebody get harry reid some steroids. stat.

Steve Anderson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:30:17 +0000

When the House passed its version of health reform legislation last week, the development may have sent chills down the spines of those who oppose the Democrats’ proposed solutions. But a quick read-through of Suzy Khimm’s piece in The Treatment yesterday should be equally chilling to folks who think the battle over health reform is [...]

‘option’ is not a failure – not yet, anyway.

Steve Anderson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:41:40 +0000

For a political proposal that appeared ready to be staked in the heart by its opponents just weeks ago, the public option looked surprisingly perky this week. In fact, the only thing that now sounds optional about the proposed reform initiative is the abundance of public option options being floated. The perkiness is due, of [...]

Will the real predator please stand up?

Steve Anderson — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:01:16 +0000

A column by Thomas Frank in the Wall Street Journal made us pause and scratch our heads this week because it prompted one of those questions that we think lots of Americans must be asking themselves. The question is simply this: Are President Obama and his Democratic Party up to no good in this health [...]

On health reform, obama is more ‘nixon’ than ‘kennedy’

Chuck Smith-Dewey — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:48:41 +0000

more ‘nixon’ than ‘kennedy’" title="On health reform, obama is
more ‘nixon’ than ‘kennedy’" style="float:right;" />Students of history may get a chuckle when they hear Republicans define Obama’s health care plan as “socialism.” If we look to the past, we see Obama’s plan is pretty much in line with Republican President Richard M. Nixon’s failed efforts in 1974. Like Nixon, Obama seeks to tweak America’s existing private health care system, [...]

centrist president hits it right down the middle

Chuck Smith-Dewey — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:28:40 +0000

When we went to the polls last fall, middle America voted for an end to partisan bickering and for our elected representatives to confront issues together in a practical, common sense way. For better or worse, that’s what we got at the Oval Office: “no drama Obama”. In his address to Congress last week on [...]

we have nothing to fear from health reform – except fear of change itself

Steve Anderson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:18:18 +0000

This morning, I opened my email to find a news item that read “Polls show support slips for Obama’s health plan” – citing a New York Time/CBS News poll in which 69% of respondents said they “were concerned that the quality of their health care would decline if the government put universal health insurance in [...]

president’s patience is a virtue – not a ‘Waterloo’

Steve Anderson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:20:59 +0000

We’re tempted to say that President Obama got Punk’d yesterday by the Senate, as Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the Senate will not be able to get a health reform bill wrapped up before a month-long Congressional recess that starts in August. We would love to have had Congress hammer out the bill. We [...]

media plays chicken little as health reform legislation steadily advances

Steve Anderson — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:37:51 +0000

It’s hard enough trying to convince Americans that it’s time for drastic health reform measures when that reform is being fought tooth and nail by the health insurance industry, which today launched a seven-figure advertising campaign to put pressure on moderate Congressional Democrats. The pressure, of course, is to urge them to help kill momentum [...]

obama ad buy troubling but necessary in time of corporate dominance

Chuck Smith-Dewey — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:38:33 +0000

in time of corporate dominance" title="obama ad buy troubling but necessary
in time of corporate dominance" style="float:right;" />Organizing for America, the campaign arm of the Obama machine, is targeting constituents of moderate Senators in both parties with a cable TV ad buy. We have no quarrel with the content of the ad, shown below. The stories of the people featured ring true, and this campaign serves a noble purpose in letting their [...]

will the democrats tear up their golden ticket?

Steve Anderson — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:53:47 +0000

up their golden ticket?" title="will the democrats tear
up their golden ticket?" style="float:right;" />Since the health insurance industry stonewalled the Clinton Administration’s attempts to drastically overhaul our trainwreck of a health care system, Americans have been waiting. We’ve been waiting for something nearly miraculous: a convergence of conditions that would include a frightening global economic climate; a national realization that our system is an ineffective, unfair mess; and [...]

is meaningful health reform written in the stars?

Steve Anderson — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:31:30 +0000

President Obama has a lot on his plate. If you hadn’t already sensed the magnitude of the challenges he’s facing, the POTUS (President of the United States) spelled them out last night in his 100th-day press conference. Between bailing out the auto industry, fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, keeping an eye on North Korea [...]