The President, in an effort to appear to embrace bipartisan ideas, has responded with four specific ideas to improve the Democratic bills now pending in Congress. We applaud this move. However, we have to wonder how different this process may have been had Mr. Obama taken this approach from day one, instead of allowing the abrasive, highly partisan, left wing leadership of Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid to run the show. Thank you Mr. President for stepping in at this late hour. Unfortunately, the overall damage is done, and while these suggestions are positive, the represent window dressing for a cake that is not very tasty . . . obi jo and jomaxx
President Obama offered Tuesday to address some of the concerns expressed by Republicans in the health care summit. Both parties are positioning for advantage heading into the final stretch of this legislative battle. Mr. Obama said he was interested in four suggestions offered by Republicans at last week’s health care summit meeting:
(1) An idea put forward by Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, to have health care professionals pose as patients in undercover stings to root out fraud.
(2) Mr. Obama also said that high-deductible insurance policies, used in conjunction with health care savings accounts (HSAs), could be offered to consumers in new federally regulated exchanges that would be created by this legislation.
(3) The president also supported providing $50 million in grants to states to help them test alternatives to the current system of resolving medical malpractice claims. Mr. Obama stopped short of endorsing Republican proposals to impose limits on damage awards in medical malpractice lawsuits.
(4) To answer Republican criticism of expansion of Medicaid, he agreed that it would be helpful to increase payment rates to doctors “in a fiscally responsible manner.”
Obama Offers to Use Some G.O.P. Health Proposals – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/health/policy/03health.html?hp