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Obama: healthcare will need adjustments to cut costs

President Barack Obama signs the health insurance reform bill during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 23, 2010. REUTERS/Jason Reed

President Barack Obama signs the health insurance reform bill during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 23, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

WASHINGTON | Mon Mar 29, 2010 6:58pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday that a U.S. healthcare overhaul is a "critical first step" but that adjustments will be needed in the new law to further reduce costs.

Critics of the ten-year, $940 billion overhaul have complained the revamp does not go far enough in reducing healthcare costs.

Obama, in an NBC News interview to air on Tuesday on the "Today" show, said adjustments will be needed to the law.

"I think it is a critical first step in making a healthcare system that works for all Americans. It is not going to be the only thing. We are still going to have adjustments that have to be made to further reduce costs," he said.

Obama is to sign a package of final changes to the new law on Tuesday in Alexandria, Virginia.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Todd Eastham)
Healthcare Reform
Barack Obama
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Comments (7)
orlandorays wrote:
Obama doesn’t even know what’s in ObamaCare. How does he know it needs adjustments already?

Mar 29, 2010 7:38pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
Story_Burn wrote:
Start with making the HMOs non profit and taxing the rich even more than you said you would

Mar 29, 2010 8:03pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
DKinAL wrote:
I have always believed healthcare for profit is obscene. Physicians, nurses, technologists, equipment suppliers, non-medical hospital staff and necessary administrative personnel should be guaranteed living wages and reasonable profit. But, the establishment of corporations which sell shares to the public…all hoping to profit from healthcare…is shameful. Not until my lifetime – I am 55 – was a non-specialty hospital built for the sole purpose of profit for its investors. What many healthcare businesses (businesses!)and corporate hospitals have been doing should be unconscionable. How can corporate America justify receiving profit from necessary medical care given to our most helpless citizens? Healthcare is not a business. It is the trust a patient should have in his doctor and that doctor’s oath to place his patient’s well-being first. It is NOT an opportunity for investors (none of whom obviously believe in Karma). If you have provided no service, no medical care, have no medical knowledge but have profitted from what we continue to call healthcare, may God have mercy on your soul. I will not.

Mar 29, 2010 10:29pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
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