Once Opposed to ‘Forcing’ Americans to Get Health Insurance, President Obama Now Says His Thinking Has ‘Evolved’

This just points out the absurdity of the Obama admin’s declarations that everyone can keep their current insurance and doctor if they so desire. He is stating now that eventually everyone will be forced to have health insurance, and that it will have to be insurance that complies with government rules on coverage, etc… What this means is that inevitably private insurance will become less affordable as more employers dump people from employer health care plans into the public plan. This will eliminate choice and in the end we will end up with a national health care system just like the UK and Canada where only the wealthy can afford to see a doctor or have a surgery immediately by paying cash. There is even a likelihood that we will someday end up with a system where doctors are forbidden to see patients outside of the national health care system. This will not end well, which is why we must stop it in it’s tracks right now.

In other words, he’s a liar.
What a shock.

Obamaspeak:
evolved=lied

I read a book once about a society where every person had an implant that would “eliminate” them when they ran out of time. You had to keep earning time to avoid being eliminated. People who were running out of time went around killing other people and stealing their time.
Now THAT’S a universal health care plan I can get behind!
Wait a minute. That’s what Obamacare will be, only the time you have left will be determined by your govt healthcare professional. If you’re overweight, unproductive or a drain on the system, your benefits will be denied and you won’t survive.

Ronald Reagan once signed legislation liberalizing California’s abortion laws. Later, when running for president, Reagan promised to appoint anti-choice federal judges. Sometimes politicians change their minds — sometimes because of conviction, sometimes because it is simply impractical to follow a certain policy.
If people who don’t like the idea of having to buy health insurance, why aren’t they protesting at their state capitols? Most states require drivers to get at least liability insurance.

Anytime the words “Government” and “Forces you” are in the same sentence, that’s never a good thing. I would think Americans of all political stripes could get behind that!

Alex, or anyone else who wants to find out more about Alex’s take: Google “Adamantly pro-choice? Ronald Reagan and abortion in 1967 Mark Kilmer” and click on the FreeRepublic link for a timeline of how Reagan signed this bill.
I think you are skewing this to your advantage. It doesn’t sound to me like Reagan was Pro-Choice and then changed his mind.
And if Obama’s position is so “understandable,” then why did Mitt Romney get raked over the coals for changing his abortion stance?

“Anytime the words “Government” and “Forces you” are in the same sentence, that’s never a good thing.”
The government forces me to pay to support the army! The government forces me to pay to support my local fire department! The government forces me to pay to support the roads! The government forces me to pay to support universal education!
If you hate government so much, just head off to some utopia without one. Maybe Somalia. Enjoy your solitary, nasty, brutish and short life.

jhw539 – “the US has lower life expectancy than most of the nations where the government is ‘determining’ the “time you have left” rather than a for-profit insurance bureaucracy”
I suspect life expectency has little to do with health care decisions made by the govt. Life expectency in war torn countries is pretty low. Life expectency probably has more to do with other factors.
“As opposed to your caring, for profit HMO pre-approval department.”
I’ve never had a problem with an HMO procedure being approved in a timely manner. I’ve been in HMO’s for about 30 years. I know these problems exist but percentages I think are low. Tragic nontheless when people need help.

Everybody knows that life expectancy has to do with how many generations removed you are from Adam and Eve.
That’s why people used to live like 600 years. And now they only live 60.
Don’t trust thinkers like Obama.
Government health care will make you die.
According to one study, 100 out of 100 patients in Canada, in spite of their “great” health care system, died.
Died!
Do you want that to happen to you?

IF you do decide to go to a hospital, you should try first building one yourself.
Many people do not realize that many hospitals are subsidized by government funds. Nearly all of the medicine they give you is in some way funded by taxes. And the roads and water that they use are socialist.
Every person should build their own hospital. And then, if you don’t build one, that’s your personal decision.
But don’t expect me to pay for your decision if you do not have your own hospital.
We really need to get back to basics.

I’m with this chap from Borneo. There is really nothing individual about everything. We should share cars, too. You know, since we all share the street and all. And we should share tvs, too, since those tvs are brought to our house on the street.

Don’t blame public education for your own misspent life!
Public education is great. But it requires discipline on behalf of the student to achieve its aims.
It’s really sad that people resent the sacrifices that millions of Americans make every day…. so that they can have access to education, information, clean water, safe roads, cutting edge research, a stable society….
Instead of waking up and saying, “Thank you, America! For giving me a better chance than anyone in the world…” You complain about how America held you back?
It’s bananas.

Ryan C:”CIGNA HealthCare denied the request, but later reversed its decision after Sarkisyan’s supporters, including members of the California Nurses Association, protested outside CIGNA’s offices in Glendale. The company said that it made an exception in her case.
But the delayed approval came too late, Nataline died a few hours later. ”
Awesome work by that pre-approval officer. He/she added a good $150k to CIGNA’s profit; this sort of performance (requests approved versus requests denied or withdrawn) is carefully tracked and a key component come employee review time. Remember, losing a form can be the difference between a low profit year and a great profit year!

“Awesome work by that pre-approval officer. He/she added a good $150k to CIGNA’s profit; this sort of performance (requests approved versus requests denied or withdrawn) is carefully tracked and a key component come employee review time. Remember, losing a form can be the difference between a low profit year and a great profit year!”
That is what slays me.
I get the feeling that people screaming about the government making their medical decisions have never had to do deal with their insurance company more than their monthly premium and copay for a doctor visit.

“Seems to me that the system would be far more efficient if our country reduced our reliance on health insurance, increased the number of free-clinics or government-sponsored clinics, encouraged more tax-free medical savings accounts and instituted a voucher program similar to Sweden’s, where if a person does need medical services and can’t afford to pay for it, the government covers it, but it comes out of that person’s Social Security.”
I like this.
“Mandating health insurance just seems overly intrusive and out of touch with reality.”
Mandates always seem to rile our rebellious nature.
I understand the economics of it (spread the risk) but I agree that it comes off as overly intrusive.

Bryant:”We have the best already ”
We spend two to three times as much as every other first world nation. Is our system, which results in the same or lower life expectancy, two to three times better than every other first world nation? In what way?

Lastly, Jake..
When’s the last time anyone in the establishment media described a 12% cut in a government program as “trimming”? Much smaller cuts, or even reductions in projected spending that are actually increases, have usually been accompanied by descriptive adjectives like “slashing,” “stripping,” “slicing,” “gutting,” etc. But there is apparently no cow more sacred than state-run health care, so a 12% cut is only “trimming.”
Two other points:
1. The $32 million in “slowing payments” looks like a cash-flow gimmick that saves no long-term dollars. But it does reduce capital available at the managed-care companies, who will have to consider how cavalier the state is about paying its bills on time when quoting premiums for future coverage.
2. We can only hope that “The progress of the Massachusetts healthcare initiative is being closely watched in Washington.” If it is, people will reject what President Obama and Congress are proposing, which in many ways, including the odious penalties for not buying insurance, mimics the Massacusetts mess.

Here in Holland the health insurance is privatized and works pretty bad, i have to say. Everyone is forced to pay 70 euro per month, and then we are attended by “house doctors” at the neighborhood clinic, which are almost nurses and don’t understand about any problem you have. They deny you to consult the specialist in order to save money. I wonder where is MY money going to!

Is anyone really suprised by this change from Obama? He said waht he thught people wanted to hear inorder to get elected and now everything is changed. Typical politician – only this is change we cannot afford in any way, shape, or form.

The Dictator’s thoughts are slowly
being revealed as the sham that was
candidate Obama becomes clearer!
2012 can’t come soon enough!

Before the political piggies force this on the American guinea pigs, I suggest:
That they rid themselves of the GOLDEN CARE they receive and strap on this monster they are going to force on their constituents.
After they do a full term in office with this system and it doesn’t kill them first…….then the people can “VOTE” on whether they want to pay for it!!
Or is this “TOO” simple foe the progressives to comprehend?

“2012 can’t come soon enough!”
Another potential GOP opponent for Obama just self immolated.

Sadie:”Who is funding your healthcare astroturfing campaign ”
What a joke. The polls clearly show widespread support for health care reform and as Obama’s massive internet-based small donor haul shows, his online support is real. Heck, even niche candidate Ron Paul has an impressive, unpaid, sincere online ‘army.’
The only whiffs of astroturfing have been the McCain’s setup that awarded points for posts and kept score towards prizes.

Krystal and Denise. Right on! While my opinion was not “forced”, it has certainly “evolved”. Obama and Washington are focused and friendly with the fat cats on Wall Street.

Two Questions….
1. Exactly WHAT will be the “penalty” for NOT joining a healthcare plan? I have known two young couple in the past few years who were very healthy and chose not to carry health insurance for a couple of years to help them boost their savings to buy a house. After they achieved thier goal, they got back into a plan where one of them worked. Will the gov’t “punish” people who make a choice similar to this?
2. After establishing this the “best thing for the people”, what is to stop the gov’t from then deciding for you other issues that are in the “best interest of the people”?

Not too worry Mike C, Barney Frank will make sure that young couples will be able to purchase those houses regardless on whether they can afford them or not and just stick it the responsible tax payer later on Every Day is Christmas in Washington DC….HERE WE GO AGAIN……

ANY HEALTH CARE PLAN THE FED COMES UP WITH WHICH I HOPE IS ZERO, THE PLAN SHOULD BE AT LEAST TEST MARKETED BEFORE DUMPING THE WHOLE THING ON THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER. WHY IS OBAMA IN SUCH A RUSH TO BANKRUPT OUR COUNTRY? AMERICANS WENT GAGA OVER OBAMA IN THE CAMPAIGN. WHEN ALL THE DUST HAS SETTELED THOSE AMERICANS ARE GOING TO FIND THAT THEY HAVE BEEN TAKEN FOR A RIDE!!

Yeah evolved after hammering Hillary on the same thing. Obama please say as you said so many times during the debates I agree with Hillary or Hillary was right.

Mike_C | Jun 24, 2009 3:55:40 PM Exactly WHAT will be the “penalty” for NOT joining a healthcare plan?
—
One of the penalties/fines being put forth in “drafts” is 2% of gross annual income. Figure it out taken from your take-home. No “insurance” in return. This is punishment for disobedience.
And I’m sure other politicians are thinking that’s too low…

YES, I WAS NOT HAPPY WITH THE SPENDING UNDER GB’S WATCH ESPECIALLY THE FIRST BAILOUT. IN HIS DEFENSE, HE HAD 911, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE AS A PRIORITY. HE ALSO HAD A SPEND HAPPY CONGRESS. HOWEVER, DOES THAT MEAN OBAMA HAS TO GO APE OVER MORE OUT OF CONTROL SPENDING? THE OBAMA STIMULUS IS NOT WORKING AND HAD NO CHANCE OF WORKING. STIMULUS SHOULD HAVE HAD INCLUDED MUCH MORE STRESS FAVORING THE PRIVATE SECTOR. THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS THE ONLY ENTITY THAT CAN CREATE ECONOMIC GROWTH. FED’S MAKE WORK PROGRAMS ARE JUST ABOUT AS VALUABLE AS BLOWING F RTS IN THE WIND.

Please enlighten me..is there even one campaign promise obama has kept. Next he will tell us that we can’t keep the plans we have, what doctor we can see, what medical care we can get.
I still can’t figure out why the single payer plan was not even considered. Just watch he will evolve away from public option too.
Him and Bush gave all our money to the banks, we are in the worst recession ever, it is predicted housing is going to continue to tank, we will barely be able to pay for milk for our children let alone continue to support this president and his rich cronies.

I live in Massachusetts and work full-time for the state of Connecticut. Mandatory–forced-insurance is a loss of personal freedom. You don’t have to be a right-wing ideologue or a Leftist nut to know this. If I don’t carry insurance, despite my health or my views on medicine, the state fines me thousands of dollars each year! This is not progress; this is an attempt to take our hard-earned money away from us and give it to the state and the insurance companies. The only exemptions are for financial hardship–as it is defined by the state of Massachusetts–and religious beliefs. I didn’t vote for Obama because I knew he would let the insurance companies, politicians like Deval Patrick, and Hillary Clinton, and other sell-out tools and stoodges influence his decisions. And when America was in its frenzy of adulation and I refused to support him or McCain, I was told I was cyncial. Well, I’d laugh if this wasn’t all so serious and sad. America needs to wake up and see who’s really running this country.