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Obama: AARP-ready, but no socialism
by Mark Silva
"I think I'm scheduled to get my AARP card in a couple of years?'' President Barack Obama asked today.
"Anytime you want one,'' the organization told him. "Platinum.''
The stage was set at AARP, the powerful Washington-based lobby for senior Americans, for Obama to host another "town hall'' forum on healthcare reform, where the president allowed that both he and his wife Michelle have "living wills'' drafted but hope they don't have to use them anytime soon.
"If you have insurance that you like, you will be able to keep that insurance,'' Obama said of the healthcare reforms that he is pursuing on Capitol Hill. "Nobody is trying to change what works.''
No one's benefits under Medicare will be cut, the president promised, before an audience concerned about that question. "Nobody is talking about cutting Medicare benefits,'' Obama said. And no one, he said, is going to force the elderly to make life-ending choices -- living wills like his, he said, should be encouraged, but not mandatory.
The president also confessed to a certain "frustration'' over widespread resistance, any idea of doing nothing about a healthcare system that is inadequate for millions and and growing more costly by the year.
"Let me be specific as I can about the costs of doing nothing,'' the president said, pointing to typical 6 and 7 percent annual increases in healthcare costs while paychecks grow by 2 percent, if at all. "Your premiums will probably double again over the next 10 years,'' the president said. "If we do nothing, we'll probably end up seeing more people uninsured...
"The costs of doing nothing are probably trillions of dollars... without anybody getting any better care,'' he said. "You get these stories where a trillion dollars here a trillion there, it starts to get to be real money. Even here in Washington.''
The president sat on a stool on a low stage of the 40-million member organization for questions posed by telephone in the so-called "tele-town hall'' as well as questions posed by the audience before him.
"The nation's healthcare system is in need of positive change,'' said Jennie Chin-Hansen, president of the AARP, which maintains that it has not endorsed any of the reform bills circulating on Capitol Hill.
"The reason this has been controversial is, a lot of people have heard this term, 'socialized medicine'... Nobody is saying that. We're saying we'll give you a choice,'' said Obama, maintaining that Congress can offer people a choice of a public option for coverage as well as private insurance. "That's what Medicare is, a government-run healthcare plan that a lot of people are happy with.''
"TYhis is not like Canada, where we're suddenly dismantling the system and everybody is signed up for government-run healthcare... Nobody is being forced to go under this system... If we do this thing right, then all we're doing is giving the American people the same option that members of Congress have... They've got a number of options to choose from. If they've got a good deal, why shouldn't you?''
(President Barack Obama is pictured above at the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) in Washington today. Photo by Saul Loeb / AFP /Getty Images)
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