WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's plan to curb health care costs that drive the deficit will mean less taxpayer money for providers and more costs for beneficiaries as he draws from bipartisan ideas already on the table.
But don't look for his speech Wednesday to endorse a Medicare voucher system or turning Medicaid over to the states, as leading Republicans have proposed.
Conceding the GOP's point that government needs to cut and health care is one of the first places to look, Obama will try to change the direction of a deficit debate that threatens to get away from him. The president is using his speech to lay down broad principles and trace a path that could lead to compromise, but he won't unveil a detailed program.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that health care savings are essential to control the deficit. The spokesman indicated that Obama would build on the work of his debt commission, whose recommendations he initially refrained from endorsing. Carney also praised a small group of senators from both parties, known as the Gang of Six, that is trying to set up a framework for a divided Congress to reach compromise on deficits.
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