Here is a list of questions that reporters wanted to ask
President Obama about health care reform at Wednesday night's
press conference but were afraid to ask:
1. Why are American taxpayers subsidizing premiums of millions of
union members and healthy Americans who already have health
insurance at a cost of about $6,000 per person?
2. Why should American taxpayers pay for the health insurance of
millions of young single Americans making over $80,000 year who
are offered health insurance at work or can afford it but don't
get it?
3. Why should American taxpayers pay for the health insurances of
millions of illegal immigrants? Shouldn't there be a better way
to provide people who are here illegally basic care?
4. Why are American taxpayers paying $10 billion for the health
care costs of retirees of big corporations?
5. You talk about using health care reform to control the
deficit. But if we targeted help to people who need it most,
wouldn't that help?
6. You talk about two-thirds of the money to pay for people who
already have health insurance or don't have it even though they
can afford it or are eligible or aren't entitled to it (see
questions 1-4) or subsidizing a new program (question 5) coming
from eliminating "waste in the system" by having a government
panel of experts decide what services and treatments are best.
Won't that increase waiting times for services and access to new
treatments?
7. You also say doctors will decide how they should practice
medicine. So who will decide, the panel of experts or my doctor?
8. A follow up, Mr. President. You talk about the red pill being
half as expensive as the blue pill (or is it the other way
around?) but being just as effective. Sometimes only the blue
pill works but in systems where government experts decide, people
only get the red pill? Will that happen here?
9. Some of the "experts" have suggested that two-thirds of
hospital admissions for people on Medicare in the last two years
of life are wasteful because those people are going to die
anyway. That includes a lot of cancer patients like Ted Kennedy.
Do you think Ted Kennedy should die instead of being readmitted
to the hospital? Should anyone else be denied care in order to
subsidize paying for the health insurance of people who are not
eligible or who can afford care they refuse to pay for?
10. A related question: the care people get in the "last two
years of life" continues to extend and improve their lives
(that's why we are also living longer as Americans). So wouldn't
cutting this care also shorten and reduce quality of life? That's
what's happened to cancer and heart patients in other countries.
11. In fact, the health care bills you support would cut payments
for hospital readmissions. That could likely increase the number
of deaths and shorten the lives of people with cancer, heart
disease, and Parkinson's. Isn't that denying coverage for
pre-existing conditions?
12. The House health bill, which you support, pays a bonus to
doctors who provide less care to healthy, white middle class
people in rural area and cuts reimbursement to doctors who
provide care to sick, poor black people in inner cities. Doesn't
that discriminate against minorities, the chronically sick, and
the poor?
13. Another follow up. All the health care bills cut subsidies
for low-income people to buy insurance and provide more for
wealthy people, including the new retiree health bailout fund.
Doesn't that discriminate against minorities and the poor as
well?
14. You say if you have health insurance you like you can keep
it. But both the CBO and independent studies say that up to 120
million Americans will lose their group coverage at work and join
either Medicaid or a government-run plan because government will
pay much lower prices to doctors and hospitals. And these doctors
will also be paid 30 percent less and denying care based on
pre-existing conditions determined by your expert panel. Yet you
said the goal is to improve health. I am just a reporter and not
used to asking hard questions, so maybe you can explain.
15. Final question Mr. President: If the public option is so
good, will you try it out before we do? Like your first ball
throw at the All-Star game, your initial response to the question
kind sort of fell short and the media didn't cover it very well
then either.
topics:
Health Care, Rationing
