“The real problem is Medicaid and Medicare. That’s the nightmare scenario,” Obama tells Wisconsin — MedCity Morning Read, June 12, 2009

GREEN BAY, Wisconsin — Facing a sharpening debate on health care in Washington, President Barack Obama took his message of reform to the nation’ heartland on Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

During his first town hall meeting on health care, Obama warned an audience of 1,600 of the consequences of inaction.

“If nothing changes, then you essentially are going to be going … deeper and deeper into your pocket to keep the health care that you’ve got,” Obama told the crowd, according to the L.A. Times.

“And at some point your employers may decide, ‘We just can’t afford it,’ ” Obama said.

Even if the nation agrees to begin a health care overhaul this year, it will take four or five years to have the entire new system in place, he said.

Obama’s town hall meeting was strategically timed: senior Democrats are putting the finishing touches on reform legislation that is expected to dominate Congress this summer, the L.A. Times said.

The legislation has mobilized special interests, such as the insurance industry and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — even the American Medical Association — in their opposition to a government-run health insurance plan.

Forbes suggests that Obama’s plan could punish you for being healthy, that is, make you pay the same insurance premium if you’re a fit non-smoker as if you’re a smoker who’s obese.

And then there’s the question that has haunted the entire reform proceeding: How do we pay for it?

“So I just want to repeat: The single biggest problem we have in terms of the debt and the deficit is health care … the real problem is Medicaid and Medicare. That’s the nightmare scenario,” Obama said, according to the L.A. Times.

More stories worth a read:

• The AMA would make health care unaffordable to many Americans (Health Beat blog)
• Scientists at University of Akron find spider silk can behave like muscles (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
• Senate votes to allow FDA to regulate tobacco (New York Times)
• The health industry’s Achilles’ heel (The Health Care Blog)
• Generic drug makers adapt to survive (Financial Times)
• Files say Lilly ‘ghostwrote” journal articles (Bloomberg News/Indianapolis Star)
• Flu outbreak called pandemic (Columbus Dispatch)
• Massachusetts biotechs bet on personalized medicine (Mass High Tech)
• Despite odds, city race to bet on biotech (New York Times)
• Too early to call a biotech turnaround? Maybe, maybe not… (BNET Pharma)
• Florida governor signs bill aiding doctors (Miami Herald)
• Medtronic receives FDA approval for BRYAN cervical disc system (BusinessWire)
• CareMedic launches patient access management solution in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic (BusinessWire)
• AECOM wins $16 million Cleveland Clinic project in Abu Dhabi (BusinessWire)

[June 11, 2009 — Pres. Barack Obama talks to 1,600 people in Green Bay, Wis., during his first town hall meeting on health care reform/White House photo by Chuck Kennedy]