Obama: Healthcare 'not a luxury' any more

WASHINGTON, May 11 (UPI) -- Healthcare is "a necessity that cannot wait," U.S. President Obama said, while announcing healthcare providers have pledged to ease cost hikes by $2 trillion.

Spiraling healthcare cost is not only a growing crisis for the American people, but forcing small businesses to drop employee coverage and "putting the federal budget on a disastrous path" because of increased Medicare and Medicaid costs, Obama said during the announcement Monday.

The coalition of healthcare constituencies -- including physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies -- voluntarily agreed to reduce projected cost increases by 1.5 percent annually over the next 10 years, achieving a total savings of $2 trillion from 2010-2019, Obama said. The coalition's pledge helps push healthcare reform ahead in Washington, he said.

He reiterated his pledge to sign a healthcare reform measure by the end of the year, saying changes to the U.S. healthcare system is "imperative to economic future."

Healthcare "is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait," he said.

Obama also repeated his pledge that any healthcare reform would include provisions to bring down the rising costs of healthcare, allow patients the option of keeping their existing plan or physician or choose a new one, and a system of quality affordable healthcare for all Americans.

Watching his mother battle insurers during her losing fight with ovarian cancer galvanized Obama's position on healthcare reform, he said.

"Ultimately, the debate about reducing costs and the larger debate about healthcare reform itself is not just about numbers," Obama said. "It's not just about forms or systems. It's about our own lives and the lives of our loved ones."

One former hospital chief executive officer, however, already is running ads against a government-run program, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Rick Scott, founder of Conservatives for Patients' Rights and a multimillionaire investor, told the Post. "The bottom line is that this is happening fast, and there is not much of a debate going on about what will happen if we go down this path."