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Analysis: Obama urges 'bold' health reform

By OLGA PIERCE, UPI Health Business Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Bold action and a short timeline are needed to address the nation's healthcare crisis, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday.

"When you see what the healthcare crisis is doing to our families, to our economy, to our country, you realize that caution is what's costly," said the senator from Illinois said at an event held by consumer advocacy group Families USA. "Inaction is what's risky. Doing nothing is what's impossible when it comes to healthcare in America."

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A day after President Bush unveiled his own tax break-based plan to extend coverage to some of the uninsured, Obama criticized the plan as not being bold enough.

"Plans that tinker and halfway measures now belong to yesterday," he said. "The president's latest proposal that does little to bring down cost or guarantee coverage falls into this category."

While Obama said he is still working on his own plan for universal health coverage, he called on Congress, the president and other stakeholders to work together toward the goal of health insurance for all by 2012.

"When some try to propose something bold, the interests groups and the partisans treat it like a sporting event, with each side keeping score of who's up and who's down, using fear and divisiveness and other cheap tricks to win their argument, even if we lose our solution in the process," said the junior senator from Illinois.

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To fail to act boldly is not only "morally wrong" but also economically irresponsible, he said, because the large number of uninsured Americans drives up the cost of healthcare, strains small business and makes large corporations less competitive in the global marketplace. The typical family's premium is $922 higher each year because of uncompensated care for the uninsured, and taxpayers pay $15 billion more in taxes.

Some parts of the solution are obvious, he said, like investing in healthcare information technology, enrolling eligible uninsured children in safety-net programs like Medicaid and aiding state healthcare coverage experiments.

Other parts of a bold plan would be more controversial, he said, like questioning the status quo of an employer-based health coverage system and taking a closer look at pharmaceutical company profits.

"It's perfectly understandable for a corporation to try and make a profit, but when those profits are soaring higher and higher each year while millions lose their coverage and premiums skyrocket, we have a responsibility to ask why."

The current healthcare situation is similar to the crossroads policymakers faced 60 years ago when they were considering extending coverage to uninsured seniors, he said, but under the leadership of President Harry Truman a compromise -- today's Medicare program -- was found.

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If bold action, combined with the political will to actually address the problem of the uninsured can be mustered, another such healthcare success could result, he said. "Now is the time to push those boundaries once more.

"Regardless of what combination of policies and proposals get us to this goal, we must reach it. We must act. And we must act boldly."

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