The President Makes the Case for Medicare

[Greenbeard]

Not the current one (though he's doing an all right job), the one who first fought for his Medical Care for the Aged bill.

He's always a fun one to watch.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI2iV6kbWBs]JOHN F. KENNEDY at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - YouTube[/ame]

Now, therefore, his basic needs are taken care of. He owns his house. He has twenty-five hundred or three thousand dollars in the bank. And then his wife gets sick - and we're all going to be in a hospital, 9 out of 10 of us, before we finally pass away, and particularly when we're over 65 - now she is sick, not just for a week but for a long time. First goes the twenty-five hundred dollars - that's gone. Next he mortgages his house, even though he may have some difficulty making the payments out of his social security. Then he goes to his children, who themselves are heavily burdened because they're paying for their houses and they are paying for their sicknesses, and they want to educate their children. Then their savings begin to go. . .

So therefore now, what is he going to do? His savings are gone - his children's savings, they're contributing though they have responsibilities of their own - and he finally goes in and signs a petition saying he's broke and needs assistance.

Now what do we say? We say that during his working years he will contribute to Social Security, as he has in the case of his retirement, twelve or thirteen dollars a month. When he becomes ill, or she becomes ill over a long period of time, he first pays ninety dollars, so that people will not abuse him. But then let's say he has a bill of fifteen hundred dollars. . . . But let's say it's fifteen hundred dollars, of which a thousand dollars are hospital bills. This bill will pay that thousand dollars in hospital bills. And then I believe that he, and the effort that he makes and his family, can meet his other responsibilities.

Well, let's hear what some people say. First, we read that the AMA is against it, and they are entitled to be against it. Though I do question how many of those who speak so violently about it have read it. But they are against it, and they are entitled to be against it if they wish.

There are doctors in New Jersey who say they will not treat any patient who receives it. Of course they will. They are engaged in an effort to stop the bill. It is as if I took out somebody's appendix.

The point of the matter is that the AMA is doing very well in its efforts to stop this bill. And the doctors of New Jersey and every other State may be opposed to it, but I know that not a single doctor - if this bill is passed - is going to refuse to treat any patient. No one would become a doctor just as a business enterprise. It's a long, laborious discipline. We need more of them. We want their help - and gradually we're getting it.

All these arguments were made against social security at the time of Franklin Roosevelt. They are made today. The mail pours in. And at least half of the mail which I receive in the White House, on this issue and others, is wholly misinformed. Last week I got 1,500 letters on a revenue measure - 1,494 opposed, and 6 for. And at least half of those letters were completely misinformed about the details of what they wrote.

And why is that so? Because there are so many busy men in Washington who write - some organizations have six, seven, and eight hundred people spreading mail across the country, asking doctors and others to write in and tell your Congressman you're opposed to it. The mail pours into the White House, into the Congress and Senators' offices - Congressmen and Senators feel people are opposed to it. Then they read a Gallup Poll which says 75 percent of the people are in favor of it, and they say, "What has happened to my mail?"

This bill serves the public interest. It involves the Government because it involves the public welfare. The Constitution of the United States did not make the President or the Congress powerless. It gave them definite responsibilities to advance the general welfare - and that is what we're attempting to do.

And then I read that this bill will sap the individual self-reliance of Americans. I can't imagine anything worse, or anything better, to sap someone's self-reliance, than to be sick, alone, broker to have saved for a lifetime and put it out in a week, two weeks, a month, two months.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c8l6sfTnlo]JOHN F.KENNEDY AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN PART 2 - YouTube[/ame]

I understand that there is going to be a program this week against this bill, in which an English physician is going to come and talk about how bad their plans are. It may be, but he ought to talk about it in England, because his plans - because his plans and what they do in England are entirely different.

And then those who say that this should be left to private efforts. In those hospitals in New Jersey where the doctors said they wouldn't treat anyone who paid their hospital bills through social security, those hospitals and every other new hospital, the American people - all of us - contribute one-half, one or two thirds for every new hospital, the National Government. We pay 55 percent of all the research done. We help young men become doctors.

This cooperation between an alert and progressive citizen and a progressive Government is what has made this country great - and we shall continue as long as we have the opportunity to do so.

What we are concerned about is not the person who has not got a cent but those who saved and worked and then get hit. . . We've got great unfinished business in this country, and while this bill does not solve our problems in this area, I do not believe it is a valid argument to say, "This bill isn't going to do the job." It will not, but it will do part of it.

That's what we are going to do today, we are trying. We are trying. And what we're talking about here is true in a variety of other ways. All the great revolutionary movements of the Franklin Roosevelt administration in the thirties we now take for granted. But I refuse to see us live on the accomplishments of another generation. I refuse to see this country, and all of us, shrink from these struggles which are our responsibility in our time. Because what we are now talking about, in our children's day will seem to be the ordinary business of government.

Every day I am reminded of how many things were left undone. Thirty years ago they provided that no drugs be put on the market which were unsafe for hogs and for cattle. We want to take the radical step of doing the same for human beings. Anyone who says that Woodrow Wilson, as great a President as he was, and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, that they did it all and we have nothing left to do now, is wrong.

We ask you, the citizens of this country, the responsible and thoughtful doctors, the hospital administrators, all those who face this challenge of educating our children, finding work for our older people, finding security for those who have retired, all who are committed to this great effort of moving this country forward: come and give us your help.

 

[SniperFire]

 

[Greenbeard]

Here he is pushing it on the stump in 1960:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gu1HyCeEus]JFK - Medicare Campaign Speech (1960) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Lakhota]

Why are you spamming this thread? You squeal when it's done to yours.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

It's not 1960 anymore. Try to keep up.

And John Kennedy cut taxes for the rich.

 

[Lakhota]

Ryan Touts Medicare Program He Wants To End At Florida Rally

 

[Lakhota]

Whiteboard Face Off: ThinkProgress Takes On Romney's Medicare Madness | ThinkProgress

The Real White Board - YouTube

 

[buckeye45_73]

Grrenbeard, so the question is, what REFORMS does Obama plan to do. Hes taking out716billion with no change in the plan........uh oh. I love how liberals want change, but never to their programs, status quo baby status quo.

 

[Lakhota]

Grrenbeard, so the question is, what REFORMS does Obama plan to do. Hes taking out716billion with no change in the plan........uh oh. I love how liberals want change, but never to their programs, status quo baby status quo.

Why would you show such ignorance by asking such a stupid question? Are you just flaming or are you really that uninformed?

 

[Greenbeard]

Grrenbeard, so the question is, what REFORMS does Obama plan to do.

His reforms aren't a secret, as they're in the implementation stage now: (1) shift the way Medicare pays for services away from encouraging high-volume, low (or mediocre) value service provision, and (2) promote and assist health care providers in delivering better care more efficiently and less expensively, while holding them accountable for quality outcomes.

You can see some of what's coming down the pike in results (i.e. slower cost growth, higher quality scores) from this private sector pilot in Massachusetts that incorporates some of these principles: http://www.usmessageboard.com/healt...-reform-model-lowers-costs-improves-care.html. More importantly, there are some early indicators that providers have already begun to reorganize care delivery in response to the ongoing and coming reforms, accounting for some of Medicare's current record-low cost growth--and offering some promise that we might be entering a new era of cost containment.

Obama's plan is to tackle the biggest cost drivers, not just in Medicare but in the entire health system: the inflationary payment mechanisms and flawed delivery systems that have plagued the health system for decades. If you don't address those, you're not going to get anywhere.

Hes taking out716billion with no change in the plan........

Not so, the savings in the ACA come with the tools needed for long-term structural reforms for getting costs under control. The ACA's slowed Medicare reimbursement growth rates are a down payment on broad-based health system reform. The law offers the tools and payment incentives to improve the way care is delivered. The long-term slowing of the payment increases is the stick that goes with those carrots to get providers moving. But the carrots and reform aids are numerous. Some examples:

• What We're Doing | Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation
  
• Hospital Value-Based Purchasing | Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
  
• AHRQ Effective Health Care Program
  
• Shared Savings Program | Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
  
• EHR Incentive Programs | Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

 

[Publius1787]

Not the current one (though he's doing an all right job), the one who first fought for his Medical Care for the Aged bill.

He's always a fun one to watch.

JOHN F. KENNEDY at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - YouTube

Now, therefore, his basic needs are taken care of. He owns his house. He has twenty-five hundred or three thousand dollars in the bank. And then his wife gets sick - and we're all going to be in a hospital, 9 out of 10 of us, before we finally pass away, and particularly when we're over 65 - now she is sick, not just for a week but for a long time. First goes the twenty-five hundred dollars - that's gone. Next he mortgages his house, even though he may have some difficulty making the payments out of his social security. Then he goes to his children, who themselves are heavily burdened because they're paying for their houses and they are paying for their sicknesses, and they want to educate their children. Then their savings begin to go. . .

So therefore now, what is he going to do? His savings are gone - his children's savings, they're contributing though they have responsibilities of their own - and he finally goes in and signs a petition saying he's broke and needs assistance.

Now what do we say? We say that during his working years he will contribute to Social Security, as he has in the case of his retirement, twelve or thirteen dollars a month. When he becomes ill, or she becomes ill over a long period of time, he first pays ninety dollars, so that people will not abuse him. But then let's say he has a bill of fifteen hundred dollars. . . . But let's say it's fifteen hundred dollars, of which a thousand dollars are hospital bills. This bill will pay that thousand dollars in hospital bills. And then I believe that he, and the effort that he makes and his family, can meet his other responsibilities.

Well, let's hear what some people say. First, we read that the AMA is against it, and they are entitled to be against it. Though I do question how many of those who speak so violently about it have read it. But they are against it, and they are entitled to be against it if they wish.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c8l6sfTnlo]JOHN F.KENNEDY AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN PART 2 - YouTube[/ame]

That's what we are going to do today, we are trying. We are trying. And what we're talking about here is true in a variety of other ways. All the great revolutionary movements of the Franklin Roosevelt administration in the thirties we now take for granted. But I refuse to see us live on the accomplishments of another generation. I refuse to see this country, and all of us, shrink from these struggles which are our responsibility in our time. Because what we are now talking about, in our children's day will seem to be the ordinary business of government.

Every day I am reminded of how many things were left undone. Thirty years ago they provided that no drugs be put on the market which were unsafe for hogs and for cattle. We want to take the radical step of doing the same for human beings. Anyone who says that Woodrow Wilson, as great a President as he was, and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, that they did it all and we have nothing left to do now, is wrong.

We ask you, the citizens of this country, the responsible and thoughtful doctors, the hospital administrators, all those who face this challenge of educating our children, finding work for our older people, finding security for those who have retired, all who are committed to this great effort of moving this country forward: come and give us your help.

Thanks alot. U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Why would you show such ignorance by asking such a stupid question? Are you just flaming or are you really that uninformed?

Look at one of the biggest pots at this forum calling the kettle black.

 

[California Girl]

Why would you show such ignorance by asking such a stupid question? Are you just flaming or are you really that uninformed?

Look at one of the biggest pots at this forum calling the kettle black.

It made me laugh. Pots and kettles.

 

[mudwhistle]

What was the debt in 1960?

 

[Katzndogz]

I just listened to obama on the obama plan. He will pay doctors, hospitals and medical providers less and expect they will provide the same service. They are just greedy rich people and should welcome the opportunity to get paid less.

It's more hope and change. He's hoping they won't change.

 

[Politico]

No one becomes a doctor as a business enterprise lol. Ah the good old days.

 

[Katzndogz]

No one becomes a doctor as a business enterprise lol. Ah the good old days.

They all become doctors because they have taken vows of government induced poverty.

 

[Greenbeard]

No one becomes a doctor as a business enterprise lol. Ah the good old days.

They all become doctors because they have taken vows of government induced poverty.

The last 50 years haven't been particularly unkind to the medical sector in this country. Even with that radical Kennedy's Medicare bill passing after his death.

 

[edthecynic]

Whiteboard Face Off: ThinkProgress Takes On Romney's Medicare Madness | ThinkProgress

The Real White Board - YouTube

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QQxGEQm6Qo]Stephanie Cutter: Medicare Whiteboard - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Greenbeard]

Stephanie Cutter: Medicare Whiteboard - YouTube

I have to say, I'm delighted to see the campaign making the little, almost throwaway, point at 1:40: under Romney's proposal, the Medicare trust fund would be insolvent before the end of his first term.

I was hoping the campaign wouldn't miss the fact that Romney has now purposefully chosen to move up the year of Medicare's insolvency to 2016 (a full seven years before any of his supposed Medicare reforms would begin).

But they need to hit him on that harder; that line deserves a starring role.