Thursday, March 05, 2009

What's Going On At The Healthcare Summit and Money for Community Health Centers

While detractors continue to say that reforming healthcare is too much too soon, Obama continues to say that reforming healthcare isn't a luxury and it can't happen soon enough.

Our healthcare system costs the most, yet 48 million are uninsured. Not only are people uninsured, but they're underinsured (estimated 25 million). How many times have we heard stories about people who thought they were insured only to find out that their insurance company wouldn't pay the medical bills? Half of the bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. 

Obama seems to view government in a holistic way -- that everything must be tackled simultaneously because healthcare affects the economy and the economy affects national security. All the issues coincide as part of social ecosystem. It's a gigantic puzzle. 

If Obama's goal of getting all Americans insured isn't possible, he's willing to compromise. Today's healthcare summit is an attempt to get all interests on board. See the video below.
The administration's health care summit will focus on reducing and containing costs as well as expanding coverage, one senior administration official said.

Doctors, nurses, pharmaceutical representatives, lawmakers and hospital officials are among the 150 people expected to take part in the gathering, which President Obama sees as a starting point in tackling the overhaul of health care.

"This isn't a luxury; this is a necessity," Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told CNN's "American Morning" on Thursday, explaining that health care reform is a must for the U.S. to get its "economic ship steady."

"Health care costs are exploding. Many people are bringing in less income every month and seeing their premiums go up at the same time. It's affecting the bottom line and businesses. It's also affecting the fiscal well-being of our country," Barnes said.

"So this is something we have to do, because of the tough economic times, and we feel like we've learned lessons from the past that are going to help us get health care reform on the president's desk for his signature this year." CNN
Obama's going to need to rally the people on this one. Nothing's happened yet and republicans are already whining "socialized medicine:"
In other healthcare news, stimulus money has been released to community centers across the U.S.
President Obama announced the release of $155 million in Recovery Act grant funds to support 126 Community Health Centers across the country. These grants alone will help provide health services to 750,000 Americans and create 5,500 jobs.
See the map of where the money is going here.

What's going on at the healthcare summit:
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