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[|Healthy Start -- Battle lines remain, but Obama begins with agreement on need for change.] by RICK KLEIN

President Obama is currently beginning to address the old issue of high health care costs. He believes that lowering health care costs will not only lower the current rate of "bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds”, but will lessen the budget deficit in the long term. Although Obama says that he wants to make mostly bipartisan decisions, he also believes that reform needs to happen immediately, and may have to forgo complete agreement between both parties. However, most people believe that Health care is in desperate need of reform. There are eight main policies that Obama wants to enforce - “Guarantee choice of health plans and physicians; Making health coverage affordable; Protecting families’ financial health; Investing in prevention and wellness; Providing portability of coverage; Aiming for universality; Improving patient safety and quality care; and Maintaining long-term fiscal sustainability.”

Obama plans to address affordable health care in a health care summit that will discuss health care for senior citzens, insurance, etc., during the afternoon of March 5th, 2009. The President also plans on traveling around the country soon, starting with Dearborn, Michigan, to hold health care reform discssions. Obama has plans for a $630 billion investment in expanding government-run health care. There are critics in both parties that worry about Obama's budget reforms, and are wondering about his fiscal policy discipline. However, the health care summit will still happen on March 5th, and will act as an opportune time to break down barriers and talk about what ideas politicians have.