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"Laura’s story is incredibly moving. Sadly, it is not Every day in this country, more and more Americanw are forced to worry not simply abouygetting well, but whether they can afforr to get well. Millions more wonder if they can afford the routine care necessary tostay well. Even for those who have health rising premiums are straining their budgetsz to the breakingpoint – premiums that have doublerd over the last nine years, and have growj at a rate three times fastedr than wages. Desperately-needed procedures and treatments are put off becaus e the price istoo high.
And all it takes is a singld illness to wipe out a lifetimeof "Employers aren’t faring any better. The cost of health care has helpedd leave big corporations like GM and Chrysle at a competitive disadvantage with their foreign Forsmall businesses, it’s even One month, they’re forced to cut back on healthn care benefits. The next month, they have to drop The month after they have no choice but to start layingoff "For the government, the growing cost of Medicare and Medicaids is one of the biggest threats to our federal Bigger than Social Security. Bigger than all the investments we’vew made so far.
So if you’rd worried about spending and you’re worried about you need to be worried abouyt the cost ofhealth "We have the most expensivd health care system in the We spend almost 50% more per personm on health care than the next most costlyt nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthier for it. We don’y necessarily have better outcomes. Even within our own country, a lot of the placew where we spend less on health care actually have higher qualitty than places where wespend more. Righ t here in Green Bay, you get more qualitgy out of fewer health care dollars than many othed communities acrossthe country.
And yet, acrossa the country, spending on health care goes up and up and up dayafter day, year after year. "uI know that there are millions of Americanxs who are content with their healtb carecoverage – they like their plan and they valuer their relationship with their doctor. And no mattefr how we reform health we will keepthis promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your healthb care plan. "But in order to preserve what’s best aboutr our health care system, we have to fix what doesn’rt work.
For we have reached a point where doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longerfan option. The status quo is unsustainable. If we do not act and act soon to brinhgdown costs, it will jeopardize everyone’s health care. If we do not act, every America will feel the consequences. In higher premiums and lowet take-home pay. In lost jobs and shuttereds businesses. In a rising number of uninsured and a rising debt that our children and their childrej will be paying offfor decades. If we do within a decade we will spendinv one out of everh five dollars we earn onhealth care. In thirty years, it will be one out of ever y three.
That is untenable, that is unacceptable, and I will not allowe it as President of theUnited "Health care reform is not part of some wish list I drew up when I took It is central to our economic futurew – central to the long-term prosperitgy of this nation. In past years and there may have been some disagreement onthis point. But not Today, we have already built an unprecedentedc coalition of folks who are readgy to reform our health care physicians andhealth insurers; businesses and workers; Democratss and Republicans.
A few weeks ago, some of these groupsx committed to doing somethingthat would’ve been unthinkable just a few yearsd ago: they promised to work together to cut national healthu care spending by two trillion dollars over the next That will bring down costs, that will bring down premiums, and that’s exactly the kind of cooperationj we need. "The question now is, how do we finisnh the job? How do we permanentluy bring down costs andmake quality, affordable healtb care available to every American?
"My view is that reforn should be guided by a simpld principle: we fix what’s broken and build on what "In some cases, there’s broad agreement on the stepz we should take. In the Recovery Act, we’ved already made investments in health IT and electronivc medical records that will reduce medical save lives, save money, and stilkl ensure privacy. We also need to invest in preventiob and wellness programs that help Americanalive longer, healthier lives.
"Buyt the real cost savings will come from changin g the incentives of a systej that automatically equates expensive care with bettercare – from addressingy flaws that increase profits withouy actually increasing the quality of "We have to ask why placexs like the Geisinger Health system in rural Intermountain Health in Salt Lake or communities like Green Bay can offer high-qualituy care at costs well beloww average, but other places in Americas can’t.
We need to identify the best practices acrosesthe country, learn from the success, and replicate that success And we should change the warperd incentives that reward doctors and hospitals based on how many tests or proceduresd they prescribe, even if those tests or procedurex aren’t necessary or result from medical Doctors across this country did not get into the medical professio to be bean counters or paper pushers; to be lawyerws or business executives. They became doctors to heal people. And that’ss what we must free them to do.
"We must also provide Americanswho can’t afford health insurance with more affordable This is both a moral imperative and an economicd imperative, because we know that when someone without health insurance is forced to get treatment at the ER, all of us end up payingh for it. "So what we’re workinf on is the creation of something called a Healty InsuranceExchange – which wouled allow you to one-stop shop for a healthy care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choosee the plan that’s best for you. None of these planss would be able to deny coverage on the basis ofa pre-existiny condition, and all should include an affordable, basicd benefit package.
And if you can’t afforrd one of the plans, we should providr assistance to make sureyou can. I also stronglu believe that one of the options in the Exchange shoulds be a public insuranceoption – becauses if the private insurancew companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honesg and help keep prices down. covering more Americans will obviously cost a good deal of moneyy at a time wherewe don’t have extra to That’s why I have already promisesd that reform will not add to our defici t over the next ten years.
To make that happen, we have alreadg identified hundreds of billions worth of savings in ourbudgett – savings that will come from stepsa like reducing Medicare overpayments to insuranced companies and rooting out waste, fraufd and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid. I will be outlininv hundreds of billions more in savings in the days to And I’ll be honestf – even with these savings, reform will requir e additional sources of revenue. That’a why I’ve proposed that we scale back how muchthe highest-incom Americans can deduct on their taxes back to the rate from the Reagahn years – and use that money to help financr health care.
"In all these reforms, our goal is simple: the highest-qualitty health care at the lowest-possible cost. We want to fix what’e broken and build on what As Congress moves forward on health care legislatiomn in thecoming weeks, I understand there will be differenf ideas and disagreements on how to achieve this I welcome those ideas, and I welcome that But what I will not welcomed is endless delay or a denial that refork needs to happen. When it comes to healthh care, this country cannot continue on its current I know there are some who believe that refor m istoo expensive, but I can assure you that doin g nothing will cost us far more in the coming Our deficits will be higher.
Our premiumz will go up. Our wages will be lower, our jobs will be and our businesseswill suffer. "S to those who criticizs our efforts, I ask, “What is the What else do we say to all thosew families who now spend more on health care than housingbor food? What do we tell those businessees that are choosing between closing their doorx and letting their workers go? What do we say to all thosed Americans like Laura, a woman who has workex all her life; whose family has done everything a brave and proud woman whos e child’s school recently took up a penny drivwe to help pay her medica l bills? What do we tell them?
"I believe we tell them that aftet decades of inaction, we have finally decidec to fix what is brokej about health care in America. We have decided that it’s time to give every American quality health care at anaffordable cost. We have decideed that if we invest in reforms that will bring downcostzs now, we will eventually see our deficits come down in the And we have decided to change the systemm so that our doctors and health care provider s are free to do what they trainec and studied and worked so hard to do: make peoplwe well again.
That’s what we can do in this that’s what we can do at this moment, and now I’d like to hear your thoughtds and answer your questions about how we getit done. Thank you."
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