Obama Health Care Forum on ABC

Last night, President Obama appeared on ABC for a health care forum. In case you missed it, and are interested the transcript is available here.

There were two questions that I found to be particularly interesting. The first came from an Epilepsy specialist named Orrin Devinsky, who asked what Obama would do if a member of his family became seriously ill, and the only option to help the family member was to go outside the coverage in the national plan. Obama inferred that he would go outside the system, saying "if it's my family, member, it's my wife, if it's my children, if it's my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care." He also stated we need to find a way to remove skewed incentives but at the same time not prevent people from getting the care they need.

The other question I thought was interesting was posed by moderator Charlie Gibson, who asked how the health care system will be able to deal with 46 million more patients, when the number of doctors will not grow at that same pace. Obama said that the policy will be phased in over time, and that removing beauracracy, getting nurses more involved, and lowering ER visits through wellness programs will help ease the burden.