Obama says insurance companies holding US hostage

Source: Reuters
BELGRADE, Mont., Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, pushing for healthcare reform during a trip to conservative Montana, said on Friday the country was "held hostage" by insurance companies that deny coverage to sick people.
Obama, on a multi-state swing to tamp down vociferous opposition to his top domestic priority, targeted insurance companies for dropping customers who become sick or forcing patients to cover huge costs.
"We are held hostage at any given moment by health insurance companies that deny coverage or drop coverage or charge fees that people can't afford," Obama told a crowd of some 1,000 people in Montana.
"It's wrong. It's bankrupting families. It's bankrupting businesses. And we are going to fix it when we pass health insurance reform this year," he said. LinkHere

Obama says he's not trying to vilify insurers

BELGRADE, Mont. — President Barack Obama says he isn't trying to vilify the insurance companies. He says he's just trying to stop their practices that hurt people.
Obama was responding to an insurance salesman who asked about the president's change in terminology. Obama has switched from calling for "health reform" to "health insurance reform." He's also complained about insurance companies' profits.
The president says his intent was not to vilify the big companies. He said some, like Aetna, are working with the administration on overhaul. But he said others are spending money to oppose his efforts to remake the system.
Obama kicked off a four-state swing in Montana to push for his top domestic priority and regain the initiative in the bitter debate. LinkHere

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Wonder where Faux Propaganda was?
Nashville anti-health care reform protest a bust (1 person shows up)

Source: AP
NASHVILLE — The leader of a Tennessee group opposing the Obama administration’s health care reform plan said today he’s disappointed he was the only one who showed up for a protest in Nashville.
Tom Kovach, state director of America’s Independent Party, said he’d hoped to see at least 50 people at the protest in a parking lot in front of West End Middle School near downtown.
Instead, the only company he had was a hand full of reporters and a few passing joggers.
Kovach acknowledged that today was school students’ first day back and that protesters may have wanted to be ‘‘cautious,’’ considering the group was criticized for protesting near the school. LinkHere

We were duped, say two British women used in US health campaign Source: Times of London
Two British women who have become the unwitting stars of a campaign to derail Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms yesterday said that their views on the NHS had been misrepresented.
Katie Brickell and Kate Spall said that they strongly supported state-funded healthcare, but their descriptions of poor treatment at the hands of the NHS form the centrepiece of an advertising campaign against the proposed reforms in America.
Both appear in adverts for Conservatives for Patients’ Rights (CPR), a lobby group that opposes Mr Obama’s plans for universal medical insurance, which have caused a transatlantic rift over the merits of the NHS. LinkHere