Damn! I almost got a little chill and could hear his voice when I read this. Let's go and get this done!

Um, I don't understand the difference between this new marketplace and the existing marketplace. Don't Americans already shop for health insurance? Don't insurance companies already compete for your business? That's how capitalism works. How are these big groups defined? Are there tiered pricing structures? So, I'm somehow lumped into "one big group" - is the price lower the bigger that group?

Blah blah blah Obama. I'm glad you've got your big boy voice on, but I don't hear the substance.

No, we don't shop for health insurance. Unless you're self-employed. If you have a job with health benefits (like many / most? Americans), you don't get any choice in the matter. The company might shop around, but they're more concerned with minimizing the cost to them than anything else. Our work-provided health insurer changed at the start of the year, and as a result the coverage is far worse (more claims rejected for no reason, lower percentage covered, etc etc etc); we didn't get any choice in the matter...

I don't mean to be a dick Annie, but it seems like you subscribe to the free market as an ideal, rather than a human enterprise.

A private insurance company COULD offer the highest quality product at the lowest possible price, which in this case the widest possible coverage for the lowest possible premium. They COULD do that, but do you see the problem there? That particular business model requires a high payout and a low income.

Time for America to step up and join the rest of the first world and take care of it's own. Anybody check out Joe Wilson? Wow, wow. Got out and didn't know how to act and shit, and he's a Congressman! Embarrassing, and on a world stage, historic moment. Just another GOP tool on the wrong side of history.

This is still a fucking joke to the millions of Americans who don't have health insurance and keep losing their jobs thanks to the economy. Thanks a lot for nothing, Democrats/Lesser of Two Evils.

Great speech tonight, but "Show me the health care!"

Death panels=private insurance companies.

Thanks Annie. Try again.

Annie:

"No. no. By the bill before Congress. Yes. Probably - see Medicare."

All good points. I just reread my comment and realized I sound like a giant capitalist turd. I am not. Just asking questions because all this rhetoric (from both sides, really) makes the head spin.

It's time for socialized health care, and we're so close, but I read speeches like that from big O and it seems like just more of the same old crap.

This whole "shopping" thing just seems like the same system, but now we've got some weak-ass gov't provisions to try to make insurance companies nice. Something tells me that's not gonna work so well.