Obama will talk to doctors on healthcare

he will talk to doctors!? no let me correct that: he will talk to some lefty doctors that support the so called "single payer" health (single payer is another word for government care, socialist care, or communist care). obama is a fascist and it's become obvious.

American doctors make more money than any other doctors in the world (and that's net after malpractice insurance, etc). The AMA is a group of hypocrites when they claim that they have concern for patients. They have blocked health care reform all the way back to the 30s. The U.S. is dead last according to several studies as far as quality of health care among developed nations and we rank after 18 undeveloped nations according to the World Health Organization. Some doctors do sincerely care but many are greedy individuals with god complexes.

How do the 1/2 million or so health insurance consultants fit into the equation? Unemployed I guess. So much for creating jobs.

Do you really believe the Middle Class can be expected to pick up the tab for healthcare on 50 million people, the stimulas handout to the unions and public offices, the Social Security Deficit, the Public Sector Pensions, the Goverment pay raises, the public school pay increases, the state government handouts, Medicare, and Medicade. Why do you try to fix what exists before you jump into another unknow situation.

The need is not just for uninsured people to have coverage; the need for affordable healthcare for everyone. I had heart problems and was in a position of needing to buy my own insurance to allow me to have the surgery I needed as a result of a congenital problem that was problematic when I was in my early 50's.
The cost of the insurance I had to buy forced me to work from 7:30a.m. to 9:10 at night four days a week, and often the fifth day of the week. And I had to drive
about 45 minutes each way to get to the job that could provide the health insurance. My doctor told me I cannot work the hours I had been working;
it's not sustainable. I am in the one state that requires people to buy their own health insurance. That state's policies did not help me in any way. We need a great reduction in the cost of healthcare.

The AMA represents less than 30% of all US physicians. While their opinion is certainly of value it should not be the determining factor as far as what doctors think should be done. They are, above all, a business group interested in making money. It seems in the matter of health care the President and congress are willing to listen to everyone but the American people. While the single payer system in France is the world's best, I know that cannot get approval. A true government sponsored public option should be offered so that those of us who would rather stop paying the dividends, profits and executive salaries of pharmaceutical and insurance companies could have a choice.

For profit corporations have seen record profits and we have seen ever increasing costs. Could it be those two things are connected?

Health care as well as education are the product of the Gov't.
Bring back pay in cash and insurance for accident/ detrimental health if you choose.

50 million uninsured- some bums some down on luck, some choose it no coverage. Gov't need to mind it's own business.

Here in California it is the illegals which are costing the system. Close the borders, 25k to educate non Americans and give foreigners heathcare...we are Mombroke!

2009 Boston Globe "Obama will talk to doctors on healthcare "

2007 Boston Globe "Bush says he will talk to doctors on healthcare but we know he is in the pocket of big business and special interests."

The World Health Organization ranks the US as the 37th best health care system, lagging behind the likes of Costa Rica, Morocco and Oman. We're currently spending 2.4 trillion, or 17% of GDP, the most per capita in the world on health care. How do we get to #1 (France, at 9.5% of GDP) by cutting health care spending by over a trillion dollars?

Doctors know what government run plans are like , MEDICARE, or even worse these plans could be more like medicaid with no one wanting to participate . Medicare directly and indirectly caps medical fees every year, the real problem is increasing utilization of care. There are more of us and overall we are more sickly as a society. Obama solution will have to be rationing in some form.

I'm an epileptic, and I take $3.78 in pills every night, to stay alive another day. The 14.00 pills were making me a little too psychotic. The pills cost about $0.015 to manufacture (I think in China), and then they go into a system of ships, trains, and planes to get to me, with everyone making a little profit along the way. Every now and then I get an MRI or EEG; yes, I'm still sick. What's wrong with this system? Too much profit, or not enough underlying value. We've seen this with banks and cars so far...

Do you think the doctors will be smarter than the car makers and bankers?

will congress finally have the moral ethics to stand up for the people who are being ripped off by escalating health care costs including a confusing, expensive, represive insurance industry and not allow the AMA, health insurance agencies and pharmaceutical industries to continue to reap huge profits and dominate the legislation conversation ?

Healthcare in America is a privilege and a multi-trillion dollar industry, just benefiting the ultra wealthy insurance companies. Here is an very ominous example of our so called medical care. Professor and surgeon Dr. Richard Foster of Indiana University medical center operated on a cancerous kidney, that was partially successfully removed. After she was operated on my relative she found herself in incessant chronic pain and has been on the strongest of pain killers since then. The surgeon in question severed the intercostial nerves under her rib cage. As with many states physicians are never held accountable, as its hard to prove medical malpractice even if you can afford the attorney fees. She is now appealing Federal disability, because two pain doctors say she can never work again. Since than she spends more time fighting with her California state-backed insurance company, for her pain medication to elevate the awful pain.

These insurers have denied her over and over again, and forced her into federally mandated emergency room. This is an outrageous travesty of what we have a nerve to call health care. Health care in most European civilized countries has been exceptional, but since the advent of unparalleled immigration, a once Universal health care, single payer system has rapidly gone downhill. Yet If I had a chance at being a member of Canada's, France, United Kingdom method of delivery, I would grab it happily with both hands any day. In America it's run for profit, that is monopolized by giant wealthy insurance companies, who deceives the American people with copays, premiums and and almost impossible referrals, once the doctor has seen you. Of course the--BIG ONE--is pre-existing condition clauses, and small print in documents that you need a magnifying glass to read, if at all. Time this superpower called the United States accommodated it's citizens with a single payer system for all and not just the high income families.

President Obama already compromised on the public plan by making it compete with private plans, instead of having a single-payer health care system.

No more compromises. What we need is a working universal health care system not some Process Bipartisan BS from the politicians who, by the way, are enjoying a perfectly working government provided health plan.

I agree with Craig's comment # 3: if Medicare and Social Security are broke or almost broke, why are we creating yet another Govt entity that we can't afford, and that will prove all the more difficult to keep solvent? This simply insults the intelligence of any reasonable person. Obama says he does not want a Universal Govt System like Britain's: I believe he is being disingenuous--this is exactly what he wants, and he knows that's what we'd end up with.

There are only a few factions that oppose universal healthcare:
1) Rich doctors,
2) Insurance execs,
3) and Fox "News" enthusiasts.

Ask Canadians and Britons why they LOVE their system! Stop indirect euthanasia (death by prevention of healthcare access), and support the RIGHT to HEATHCARE by ALL US CITIZENS!

It will be just another big mistake made by Obama who knows nothing about anything except Socialism. He doesn't know how to improve anything, the government, health care, the banking industry, the automobile industry, education or anything else except how to take money from those who have it and waste it. He's never worked for money, he's always had government dole money so how can he possibly appreciate what it takes to make a capitalistic society such as what we HAD a few weeks ago. He knows how to smile, look pretty, and lie so that dummies believe him. The reason he smiles all the time is because he just can't believe how easy it was & is to bamboozle the American people.

I am a physician and every day see faults of the healthcare system in the United States. However, the fault does not lie on the institute of medicine alone. The American public needs to understand that they are responsible too for the fall of the system. Going to the ER instead of a physician's office costs the tax payers $500 on average just to see an ER physician. However, the person does not have to pay a "copay" to go to the ER, so it is much more desirable than an office visit. This is clearly not an appropriate use of our resources. We as a society need to stop blaming other people for the problems in healthcare and start taking responsibility for ourselves

Ann Cook, Obama has done more in 4 months than Bush did in 8 years. All Bush and his cabal did was take a surplus and convert into a multi trillion dollar deficit. If you can call Bush's disjointed attempt at framing sentences we had 8 years of lies. Enough with the mudslinging. We had 8 years of every aspect of this country decimated. Economy, health care, infrastructure, security, food safety, the environment are all in crisis mode. Step up and support our President.

My understanding of the main plan Obama wants to implement is to provide all Americans with a choice of the same type of insurance system federal government employees have had for years. I was a federal goverment employee, and had several choices when signing up or changing insurance selections each year. Each state has a list of many private insurance companies that have contracted with the US government to provide healthcare to government employees - HMOs, PPOs, high deductible plans, etc. How can it be bad to offer lower cost insurance for everyone through this type of system? We'd still have the Medicare and Medicaid systems, but that's completely separate from this.

We need to take a good hard look at the invited stakeholders of the "playing field". Where are the registered nurses and some of the other healthcare disciplines for these summits and meetings? Notice how the insurance industry and physician groups are sought out as the "experts" in reshaping and revamping the playing field. It is for reasons such as these that today's generation does not seek out the field of nursing, the very essence or glue that holds the hospital together and keeps it functioning. President Obama and Congress need to take a good hard look at who is being invited to create and solidify our future of healthcare.

I want my surgeon to be very happy when he/she is standing over me with a scalpel. If that means he/she makes a lot of money...which he/she deserves, so be it. People like Jack play the usual class warfare game. Because Jack is mediocre, he wants everyone else to be too.

President Obama should just go to Congress and state that all american people rich or poor should be given universal health care insurance be & treated equally.
People working earning a living but can not afford to buy health care insurance should be given the same benefit because instead of buyingh insurance they prefer to buy food for their family. Pharmaceuticals are charging the medicines too expensively & padding it.Doctors and surgeons are being dictated by Health care insurance not to order too much labs and procedures.We'd still have the Medicare and Medicaid systems, but that's completely separate from this.