Obama Points to Health-Care Progress

Judith Burns
Wall Street Journal
Oct 10, 2009

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama used his weekly radio address to point to growing momentum to overhaul U.S. health care and to urge Congress to "finish the job" of enacting such reforms.

The Senate Finance Committee is slated to vote Tuesday on a health-care overhaul bill, paving the way for its work to be merged with that of other congressional committees. The president hailed the vote as a sign of meaningful progress and noted that the Congressional Budget Office has concluded that the finance committee's bill would provide affordable health care to millions of uninsured Americans without adding to the U.S. deficit.

Mr. Obama praised Republicans who have spoken in support of health-care overhaul, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; two former Republican Senate majority leaders, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas and Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee; and two men who served as Health and Human Services Secretary under President George W. Bush, Louis Sullivan and Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor.

"These distinguished leaders understand that health-insurance reform isn't a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, but an American issue that demands a solution," said Obama. He said it's time "to come together as Americans" and reject the status quo on health care, saying: "Let's go finish the job."

In the Republican response to Mr. Obama's remarks, Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., raised concerns that the Democrats' approach would reduce funding for Medicare, the federal health program for older Americans, and require financially strapped states to shoulder billions more in health-care costs. He also predicted that if the plan becomes law, it likely would increase the cost of health-insurance premiums for many Americans, not lower them.

"We in the Congress have a duty to tackle this problem, but the solution we settle upon should not be rushed, and the solution should not be worse than the problem we are trying to solve," said Mr. LeMieux.

Mr. LeMieux outlined features Republicans would like to see in a health-overhaul bill, including making health coverage more portable, and provisions to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and to reduce the practice of "defensive" medicine, where doctors order unnecessary tests to avoid potential lawsuits.