Obama: Healthy Employees, Healthy Profits
EmailObama: Healthy Employees, Healthy Profits ABC News’ Karen Travers reports: President Obama met today with business leaders to discuss innovative prevention and wellness measures they have implemented in their companies, as part of the ongoing discussions about reducing health care costs. Obama touted the efforts of companies like Microsoft, Safeway and Johnson & Johnson to improve employee health, but said they didn’t achieve results overnight. “There’s no quick fix. There’s no silver bullet,” he said. “When you hear what Safeway or Johnson & Johnson or any of these other companies have done, what you’ve seen is sustained experimentation over many years and a shift in incentive structures so that employees see concrete benefits,” to taking control of their health. While it seems quite nice that these companies take such an interest in the well-being of their employees, perhaps the reasons for the innovative measures are not 100 percent benevolent. President Obama said that when companies take steps to improve employee health and prevent disease, it is not just the workers who benefit. “[C]ompanies see their bottom lines improve,” he said. The president has directed the Office of Personnel Management to work with the Office of Health Reform, the National Economic Council, the Department of Labor, and the Office of Management and Budget to look at successful wellness and prevention plans that have reduced health care costs for businesses and improved employee health. Obama would like these agencies to look at the feasibility of developing similar plans for federal government workers. Obama said he wanted to put a spotlight on these companies and their practices so other companies can potentially learn from them. “Now, if we can do that in individual companies, there’s no reason why we can’t do that for the country as a whole,” he said. — Karen Travers
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Nice job to spin this in the favor of business. Will anyone buy it?
Posted by: matt | May 12, 2009, 1:40 pm 1:40 pm
This is all another dog and pony show before Obama screws us all with highly rationed national health care.
Even in the Gibbs presser yesterday he would not answer Jake’s question regarding what Americans would have to give up for national health care.
Rationed health care is coming. It is outlined in Tom Daschles book (the guy Obama wanted to run it, if he had paid all his taxes)
Dem congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is caught on tape admitting that the end goal and result will be an END TO PRIVATE INSURANCE and a complete national health care system
They also avoid mentioning that there will be premiums, just as with social security. And just as with social security you can bet they divert these funds and end up having to further cut services and to further raise taxes ON EVERYONE.
This system has not worked in any country, anywhere. These countries cannot even pay for armed forces large enough to defend themselves. Don’t forget Europe had to call us to take care of yugoslavia… twice!
Unemployment is a chronic 10%, which we have almost reached and which will stay there if we do national health care, as it does everywhere else!
There are dozens of bad reasons to stop this travesty but the medial will not allow them to be reported, and it will be too late.
Posted by: MNM | May 12, 2009, 1:56 pm 1:56 pm
The essence of the fraud is that this guy has steadfastly maintained that reforming healthcare is essential to economic recovery. This is just staggeringly false.
“Think back to last fall and the economic crash. There was a lot of talk about an overleveraged society, about Fannie Mae, about credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations. Amid the emergency, was anyone saying, “We will never recover from this downturn unless we enact universal health care”? Obama is pulling off the world’s biggest change-of-subject.”
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | May 12, 2009, 2:13 pm 2:13 pm
Has anyone noticed that the Obama economists predicted that, without his recovery plan, unemployment would reach 8.6% in April, whereas with his plan it would be 7.8%?
And lo and behold, it is at 8.9%. Does this tell you anything?
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | May 12, 2009, 2:25 pm 2:25 pm
Obama is pulling off the world’s biggest change-of-subject.”
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | May 12,
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No change of subject dog, health care reform IS a Democratic objective still ,as it has been since Carter ,and even before that.
Private health care and the insurance that funds it provide a vicious catch 22 circle/cycle that has many Americans in the pathetic situation of having to neglect their health care issues because they simply can’t afford or just don’t want to to pay for health care and insurance that is too expensive and inefficient ,which it is right now .
Health care and health insurance are both ridiculously over-priced , a rip-off by and large AND the biggest legal ponzi scheme in history to boot.
Posted by: dab | May 12, 2009, 2:28 pm 2:28 pm
NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE—IF FOR-PROFIT INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE INVOLVED
That the point–to discuss health care with—BUSINESS LEADERS. For profit business shouldn’t be involved in health care at all? THE PEOPLE do not need middleman anymore, as they become rich of the backs of sick people. It will be very interesting to see what is enacted on Capitol Hill? Too much money to be made by both parties, for UHC to succeed. Large Campaign Contributions buys a lot of influence in our politics? Let us see if the majority of Democrats and President Obama are really concerned about the working man? Just remember that Health care is a trillion dollar—FOR PROFIT— industry in America, that does not work for the average person.
When you have seen family members dying because they have denied medical care, as they had insufficient coverage. When your sick child could not afford 14 drugs to keep them alive. Yes! I think its time for a European type health care, without worrying about co-pays and premiums? Only the wealthy like the broken system the way it is because they can afford everything they need, including home visits by prestigious physicians. We–THE AMERICAN PEOPLE–are given less service, less preventative medicine–specially if you have been laid-off from your job. However the fact that hundreds of thousands of well-heeled investors, including our senators and Congressman who make massive profits in the medical industry–AS THAT IS WHAT IT IS–AN INDUSTRY? The million dollar ads on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies are already here to scare people off a European system Their biggest worry is that it will eat into their enormous profits? Nobody on the lower pay scale will get decent humane medical care, while the monolithic for-profit insurance companies are involved, as they will bleed every penny they can from us. Before the British legal and illegal immigration invasion of the 1950′s, my distant relatives assured me they received first class health care from the government.
Just have to ensure illegal nationals go home to get health care–NOT ON THE BACKS OF TAXPAYERS? CALL YOUR SENATORS & REPRESENTATIVES AND DEMAND IT?
Posted by: Brittanicus | May 12, 2009, 2:38 pm 2:38 pm
“Has anyone noticed that the Obama economists predicted that, without his recovery plan, unemployment would reach 8.6% in April, whereas with his plan it would be 7.8%?”
From the Times of London
Unemployment registered its smallest rise for six months in April, boosting hopes that the worst of the toll from the economic slump has now passed.
In a strong sign that the surge in job losses fuelled by recession is easing off, numbers out of work and claiming unemployment benefit rose by a far smaller than expected 57,000 last month.
March’s increase in headline claimant unemployment was also scaled down to a revised 66,000, against the 74,000 initially reported. This left the total rise in the jobless count over the past two months at less than the 136,000 leap in February alone.
Posted by: Ryan C | May 12, 2009, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
Health insurance as it is today = borrow from peter to pay paul
Dumb.
Posted by: Duh | May 12, 2009, 2:51 pm 2:51 pm
I have good advice for the public..
Close your eyes and think of England.
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | May 12, 2009, 2:59 pm 2:59 pm
I blame doctors who got into medicine to make big money as their main impetus/agenda.
Profits in medicine are fine , but cannot ever come at the expense of ethics. Never.
Hippocrates and his magnificent oath have been the yardstick of that metric since medicine began as a true science .
People who chose to be doctors (or anything else in the medical industry really ) need to completely and clearly understand the ethical and moral implications of their chosen profession(s) and be ready and happy to uphold those ideals each and every day ,for life , BEFORE they go to medical school ,nursing training or whatever ,right down to the candy stripers.
Capitalism and medicine are always going to be unhappy bedfellows ,(with capitalism on top in general) ,but intelligent timely appropriate legislation CAN make a difference and indeed it must , for this is a life and death issue for some and cannot wait for political posturing or indifference.
Posted by: Frank | May 12, 2009, 3:09 pm 3:09 pm
The plans for highly rationed health care are well underway. Read the senate hearing testimony!
in the Senate Finance Committee hearings on health-care reform. The speaker, Professor Stuart Altman of Brandeis University, tells the committee that resources get wasted in the American health-care system, especially for one segment of the population. Professor Altman says he’s reluctant to mention it, but why waste money on in-depth treatment for people who won’t live long anyway? Better to warehouse them and save the resources for the young:
“Remember, our population is aging. And with the very, very elderly, the costs go down, so that percentage should be falling, and it’s not. Second, the cost of care is growing by so much, so at the same percentage, it’s worth a lot more. So let’s go back to the issue of comparative effectiveness, which we’re supporting. That’s where that can have a big impact. It’s not only there, but that’s where the waste is. That’s where people are using technologies that really either don’t work at all or keep people alive for for very limited [time] and [at] very high cost.
Hospice is one option, but we do need take account of the cost — you know, I hate to say it, the cost-benefit of some of the things we do. And either we can do it directly, or we can do it by bundling the payments and let the delivery system deal with it. So it’s a combination of the delivery system dealing with it, or, and/or providing more information for people to make the right decisions, both for themselves and for the care.”
Posted by: MNM | May 12, 2009, 3:13 pm 3:13 pm
“I blame doctors who got into medicine to make big money as their main impetus/agenda.”
That’s a rather cynical view, blaming doctors for our health care costs. What do you really know or understand about doctors, their motivations, their financials, etc. that would prompt you to make such an idiotic statement like that? What is your experience?
Posted by: Sigmonde | May 12, 2009, 3:50 pm 3:50 pm
I blame doctors who blame lawyers who blame doctors.
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | May 12, 2009, 4:13 pm 4:13 pm
The essence of the fraud is that this guy has steadfastly maintained that reforming healthcare is essential to economic recovery. This is just staggeringly false.
======================================
Agreed! If healthcare reform is so essential to economic recovery, look to Europe. Many countries there have “advanced” healthcare delivery systems, yet they too are suffering from the economic downturn.
Posted by: Ms Trish | May 12, 2009, 4:24 pm 4:24 pm
I’d take a harder look at the Board of Directors of Johnson and Johnson. All is not as it would appear.
Posted by: WISDOM | May 12, 2009, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm
What is your experience?
Posted by: Sigmonde | May 12, 2009 3:50:30 PM
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Here is one example. I play golf . I see WAY too many Doctors (driving ferraris and aston martins )that can shoot in the low 70s ,when they probably should spend the time they are using/wasting trying to become the next club champion to become A BETTER DOCTOR THAT CAN PROVIDE ETHICAL PROPER CARE AT A REASONABLE PRICE !!
Become something else if you want the good life , being a doctor is all about lots of self-sacrifice for the good of others ,firstly.
If you can’t sign on for that then don’t go to medical school to begin with .
Posted by: dab | May 12, 2009, 5:33 pm 5:33 pm
“Here is one example. I play golf . I see WAY too many Doctors (driving ferraris and aston martins )that can shoot in the low 70s ,when they probably should spend the time they are using/wasting trying to become the next club champion to become A BETTER DOCTOR THAT CAN PROVIDE ETHICAL PROPER CARE AT A REASONABLE PRICE !!”
What a ridiculous statement. Equating a doctor who plays golf as being unethical in his practice. And what business is it of yours to be concerned what kind of automobile a doctor drives? What’s the correlation there? And why are you wasting time playing golf if you’re so worried about doctors playing golf and wasting time?
Posted by: Sigmonde | May 12, 2009, 6:09 pm 6:09 pm
This is fantastic. I work in Disease Management and in the emergency room as a nurse and I see both sides. When people manage their illnesses it saves them and their employees money. When people don’t take responsibility for their care they land in the ER, expect everyone else to fix them, and the costs are spread to everyone else.
I also just think it’s hysterical that people are upset because Doctors get paid well. I would love to see anyone try take less money for what they do. Whether you are conservative or liberal I doubt you are going to volunteer your services out of the kindness of your heart. I have volunteered my services and it is fulfilling, but I have to eat too.
Posted by: Jose | May 13, 2009, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm