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"Laura’s story is incrediblyg moving. Sadly, it is not Every day in this country, more and more Americands are forced to worry not simply abougtgetting well, but whether they can affordr to get well. Millions more wonder if they can afford the routine care necessary tostay well. Even for thosr who have health insurance, rising premiums are straininhg their budgets to the breakingpoint – premiuma that have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate three times faster than wages. Desperately-needed proceduresx and treatments are put off because the pricre istoo high.
And all it takes is a singlse illness to wipe out a lifetimeof "Employers aren’t faring any better. The cost of healthh care has helped leave big corporations like GM and Chrysle r at a competitive disadvantage with their foreign Forsmall businesses, it’s even One month, they’re forced to cut back on healtgh care benefits. The next month, they have to drop coverage. The montuh after that, they have no choice but to start layingoff workers. "For the the growing cost of Medicare and Medicaie is one of the biggest threats to ourfederak deficit. Bigger than Social Security. Bigger than all the investments we’ve made so far.
So if you’rre worried about spending and you’re worried abouf deficits, you need to be worried aboutt the cost ofhealth care. "Wse have the most expensive health care system inthe world. We spendc almost 50% more per persohn on health care than the next mostcostly nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’red not any healthier for it. We don’g necessarily have better outcomes. Even withib our own country, a lot of the places wher e we spend less on health care actually have highedr quality than places where wespensd more. Right here in Green Bay, you get more quality out of fewe r health care dollars than many other communities acrossthe country.
And yet, across the spending on health care goes up and up and up dayafter day, year after "I know that there are millionsz of Americans who are content with theid health care coverage – they like thei plan and they value their relationship with thei doctor. And no matter how we reform health we will keepthis promise: If you like your you will be able to keep your If you like your healtj care plan, you will be able to keep your healthh care plan. "But in order to preservre what’s best about our health care system, we have to fix what doesn’ t work. For we have reachedf a point where doing nothing abouyt the cost of healtu care is no longeran option.
The statuxs quo is unsustainable. If we do not act and act soon to bringbdown costs, it will jeopardize everyone’s healtj care. If we do not act, every Americamn will feel the consequences. In highet premiums and lower take-home pay. In lost jobs and shutteredx businesses. In a rising number of uninsured and a risingf debt that our children and their childrenb will be paying offfor decades. If we do within a decade we will spending one out of everg five dollars we earn onhealtjh care. In thirty years, it will be one out of evert three. That is that is unacceptable, and I will not alloq it as President of theUnited States.
"Health care reformn is not part of some wish list I drew up when I took It is central to our economixfuture – central to the long-term prosperity of this nation. In past yearzs and decades, there may have been some disagreementf onthis point. But not anymore. we have already built an unprecedented coalition of folkse who are ready to reform our healthhcare system: physicians and health businesses and workers; Democrats and A few weeks ago, some of theswe groups committed to doing somethinfg that would’ve been unthinkablre just a few years ago: they promised to work together to cut national health care spendint by two trillion dollarss over the next decade.
That will bringb down costs, that will bring down and that’s exactly the kind of cooperatiobwe need. "The question now is, how do we finis h the job? How do we permanently brinbg down costs and make affordable health care available toevery American? "My view is that reforjm should be guided by a simplw principle: we fix what’d broken and build on what works. "In some there’s broad agreement on the steps weshould take. In the Recovery Act, we’ve alreadg made investments in health IT and electronic medical records that will reducedmedical errors, save lives, save money, and still ensurs privacy.
We also need to invesgt in prevention and wellness programs that help Americans live healthier lives. "But the real cost savings will come from changintg the incentives of a systemm that automatically equates expensive care with better care from addressing flaws that increase profits without actually increasing the qualityof care. "W e have to ask why places like the Geisingefr Health system inrural Pennsylvania, Intermountain Healtg in Salt Lake City, or communitiesx like Green Bay can offer high-quality care at costs well belowq average, but other places in America We need to identify the best practiced across the country, learn from the and replicate that succesz elsewhere.
And we should changw the warped incentives that reward doctorz and hospitals based on how many tests or proceduresthey prescribe, even if those tests or proceduresw aren’t necessary or result from medical mistakes. Doctors across this countrgy did not get into the medical professionm to be bean counters or paper to be lawyers or business They became doctors to heal And that’s what we must free them to do. "Wwe must also provide Americanswho can’t afforx health insurance with more affordable options.
This is both a moraol imperative and aneconomifc imperative, because we know that when someone without health insurance is forced to get treatment at the ER, all of us end up paying for it. "So what we’re working on is the creation of somethinb called a Health Insurance Exchange which would allow youto one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose the plan that’s best for you. None of thesre plans would be able to deny coverage on the basis ofa pre-existingb condition, and all should includes an affordable, basic benefitt package. And if you can’t afforrd one of the plans, we should provid assistance to make sureyou can.
I also strongly believre that one of the options in the Exchange shoulrd be a public insuranceoption – because if the privatw insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest and help keep pricesa down. "Now, covering more Americans will obviouslyh cost a good deal of moneh at a time wherewe don’t have extra to That’s why I have alreadg promised that reform will not add to our deficit over the next ten To make that happen, we have alread y identified hundreds of billions worth of savingsz in our budget – savingsx that will come from steps like reducinvg Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rootin out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicare and I will be outlining hundredas of billions more in savings in the days to And I’ll be hones – even with these savings, reform will require additionalo sources of revenue.
That’s why I’vd proposed that we scale back how muchthe highest-income Americand can deduct on their taxes back to the rate from the Reaganh years – and use that money to help financd health care. "In all these reforms, our goal is simple: the highest-qualith health care at the lowest-possible We want to fix what’s broke and build on what As Congress moves forward on health care legislatiob in thecoming weeks, I understandc there will be different ideas and disagreements on how to achieves this goal. I welcome those and I welcomethat debate. But what I will not welcomd is endless delay or a denia that reform needsto happen.
When it comesx to health care, this country cannot continue on itscurrentg path. I know there are some who believre that reform istoo expensive, but I can assur e you that doing nothing will cost us far more in the comingh years. Our deficits will be higher. Our premiums will go up. Our wageas will be lower, our jobs will be and our businesseswill suffer. "So to those who criticizde our efforts, I ask, “What is the alternative?” What else do we say to all thosr families who now spends more on health care than housinvgor food? What do we tell those businesses that are choosing between closinyg their doors and letting theifr workers go?
What do we say to all thosre Americans like Laura, a womaj who has worked all her whose family has done everything right; a brave and proue woman whose child’s school recently took up a pennhy drive to help pay her medical bills? What do we tell them ? "I believe we tell them that after decadeds of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what is broken abougt health care in America. We have decider that it’s time to give every Americann quality health care at anaffordable cost.
We have decided that if we inves in reforms that will brinb downcosts now, we will eventually see our deficitx come down in the And we have decided to change the systekm so that our doctors and health care providers are free to do what they trainer and studied and worked so hard to do: make people well again. That’sx what we can do in this country; that’s what we can do at this and now I’d like to hear your thoughtw and answer your questions abourt how we get it Thank you.
"
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