US President Barack Obama was to outline plans yesterday to cut US healthcare costs by US$2 trillion over the next 10 years, part of a bid to slash spending while making treatment more affordable.
Obama was to detail what he would describe as an “unprecedented commitment” by six major healthcare lobby groups to limit spending increases over the next decade, senior administration officials said on Sunday.
The White House hopes the voluntary plan — drawn up by groups representing insurance firms, hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical makers and a labor union — could eventually save US families as much as US$2,500 a year.
“We cannot continue down the same dangerous road we’ve been traveling for so many years, with costs that are out of control,” excerpts of his remarks released by the White House showed.
“Reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait,” they read.
Signatories to the deal have promised to reduce spending increases by 1.5 percentage points each year until 2019.
Officials say that amounts to about US$2 trillion, in part through slashing administrative costs.
The US currently spends more than US$2 trillion a year on healthcare, about 46 million Americas remain without health insurance.
Even with the planned savings, spending is still projected to increase by around 7 percent each year — well above inflation levels — an administration official said.
But officials insisted the deal was a “game changer” that would “virtually eliminate the long-term fiscal gap” — the government’s long-term budget deficit.
It could also provide the administration with much-needed cash to pay for a prospective government fund that would help insure millions of Americans who currently have no coverage.
But the targets, which will not be subject to formal government oversight or sanctions, are likely to be met with some skepticism by consumer groups who in the past have been wary of self-regulation, which they say amounts to no regulation at all.
Anticipating criticism, one official said the move would be “done within the context of comprehensive health reform” and healthcare firms would receive no under-the-table quid pro quo.
Signatories to the deal include the Health Insurance Plans, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Service Employees International Union and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Obama has vowed to present substantial healthcare reforms to Congress this year, despite the inevitable political dogfight that will follow and which will add to his existing difficulties — from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the sagging economy.
Healthcare reform has long been one of Washington’s most contentious issues.
In the 1990s, former president Bill Clinton campaigned hard on promises to establish a universal healthcare system, only to be badly burned when his proposals were slapped down by Congress.
Many Congressional Democrats have backed a shift toward European-style system that would guarantee healthcare for everyone, but such a move is strongly opposed by most Republicans who argue it would lessen choice and worsen standards.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
Cook Islands officials yesterday said they had discussed seabed minerals research with China as the small Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of its waters. The self-governing country of 17,000 people — a former colony of close partner New Zealand — has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government said it would not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and