The President's Medical Plan Speech

I listened carefully to the President's address this evening, both as a retired doctor and as a senior citizen now living on a moderate fixed income. In general, it was well received; even the Republicans stood and applauded at several points.
He laid out the main actions and the reasons. Skeptics on both sides will say "not enough detail", but he emphasized the results he was seeking: against the law for insurance companies to refuse coverage of pre-existing conditions, against the law to drop insurance or raise the premium when a client's treatment is too expensive; everyone can keep their present policy if they like it, and their present doctor too. There will always be details to work out, and I expect modifications will be necessary after the plan has been in operation a few months or years.
Most people's first reaction will probably be "How can the nation pay for all the extra care when the 45 million uninsured get coverage?" But the fact is, these 45 million are already here, already getting care, in the Emergency Room—the only place required to take care of them—but an ER visit is ten times the cost of a doctor's office visit.
You don't believe that cost ratio? Google the comparative prices. What I found was $170 for the average first office call, and from $1,000 to $2,000 for an average ER visit, tests, and treatment included in both. Sometimes the severity of the case demands ER care, but moving the headaches, colds, and minor injuries into the doctor's office can save billions per year.
Opponents like to quote the figure one trillion dollars over the next ten years as the increased cost of the President's plan, but that's 100 billion per year. Savings from over-testing, over treating, and over use of the ER could easily cover that.
My first reaction to Congressman Boustainy's rebuttal was that I thought the President covered all those points, but then I realized Mr. Boustainy would have had to write his speech before he heard the President, who had finished only about five minutes earlier. The only differences I can see are the Republican wish to make insurance purchasable across state lines (which I like) and their desire to "Press the reset button and start over" which would send us back to square one.
The biggest savings in present medical care I see are (1) tort reform with resultant easing of over-testing and over-treatment, and (2) lifting the ban on competitive bidding on pharmaceutical contracts. Downsizing the "donut hole" is useless if drug prices get upsized the next day.
Overall an excellent speech, and substantive. More later.