Increasing coverage without raising the costs not possible: Gary Bauer

Former presidential candidate Gary Bauer on the eve of President Obama's health care address said Tuesday that he would be listening for specifics from the President about "compromises and concessions he is willing to make to show that his promises of bipartisan policy development were real."

The chairman of the Campaign for Working Families made the following comments: "President Obama's idea of bipartisanship is that the GOP blindly accepts all his ideas without comment and offer up other people's money via taxes for his proposals. The speech tonight needs to include specifics from the President about the kind of compromises he plans to make to address the very real concerns Americans have with his plans. The only bipartisanship coalitions being created are those among Democrats and Republicans who oppose key elements of Obama's proposal.

"No one believes that you can increase coverage without raising the costs, and the most disingenuous reality of the proposed health care take over is the fact that never once is a tremendous contributor to rising health care costs addressed: runaway legal cost. The fact that trial lawyers are such strident supporters of the Democratic Party seems to be the reason that that ballooning legal fees are not curtailed. Real health care reform involved cutting off the legal gravy train. We need tort reform.

"It is equally strange that the president argues that a health care bill must be forced through this year, only to languish for years and take effect AFTER he is up for reelection. If there is a real crisis in his eyes, he should be willing to stand before the voters and be accountable for his health care take over. If there is time for more careful deliberation, it should involve the bipartisan efforts of all our elected officeholders. Health care reform should receive the attention and care that most Americans believe was not given to the emergency stimulus bill which was long on funds for Democratic interests and short on the kinds of help that would curtail rising unemployment. False emergency proclamations are poisoning the process. We need thoughtful, bipartisan, thorough problem solving for effective health care reform."