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June 22, 2009 at 08:00 PM
President Barack Obama has set an ambitious deadline of October to achieve comprehensive health care reform, traveling to-and-fro across the nation to warn civilians and lawmakers alike that the current healthcare system could bankrupt the nation.
During a speech to the American Medical Association (AMA) in Chicago June 15, Obama told physicians that “health care reform is the single most important thing we can do for America’s long-term fiscal health. That is a fact.” Indeed, during a June 11 town hall meeting on healthcare, Obama said that the single biggest problem the U.S. has “in terms of the debt and deficit is healthcare–it’s Medicare and Medicaid.” Medicare and Medicaid costs, he said, are going up “much, much faster than inflation.” Medicare and Medicaid “are the real nightmare scenarios.”
But reforming the healthcare system won’t come cheap. The Obama Administration proposes to pay for the full cost of health reform–which is estimated at $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years–by reducing Medicare and Medicaid spending and raising revenue. Published reports say that Obama wants to cut federal payments to hospitals by about $200 billion and cut $313 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years. He also is proposing a $635 billion “down payment” in tax increases and spending cuts in the healthcare system.
