Text: Obama's speech in Green Bay - San Francisco Business Times:

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"Laura’s story is incredibly moving. it is not unique. Everuy day in this country, more and more Americanes are forced to worry not simplyy aboutgetting well, but whether they can affordd to get well. Millions more wonder if they can afforxd the routine care necessary to stay Even for those who have health rising premiums are straining their budgetsd to the breakingpoint – premiumsz that have doubled over the last nine years, and have grownn at a rate three times faster than Desperately-needed procedures and treatments are put off becauss the price is too high. And all it takese is a single illness to wipe out a lifetimrof savings.
"Employers aren’t fariny any better. The cost of health care has helpecd leave big corporations like GM and Chrysler at a competitive disadvantage with their foreign Forsmall businesses, it’s even worse. One month, they’r forced to cut back on health care Thenext month, they have to drop coverage. The montnh after that, they have no choice but to start layinyoff workers. "For the the growing cost of Medicare and Medicaid is one of the biggest threats to ourfederalp deficit. Bigger than Social Security. Bigger than all the investments we’ve made so far.
So if you’re worried abouy spending and you’re worried about deficits, you need to be worrierd about the cost ofhealth "We have the most expensive health care system in the We spend almost 50% more per person on health care than the next most costlty nation. But here’s the Green Bay: we’re not any healthier for it. We don’tf necessarily have better outcomes. Even within our own country, a lot of the placese where we spend less on healty care actually have higher quality than places wherwe wespend more. Right here in Greeb Bay, you get more quality out of fewer healtgh care dollars than many othef communities acrossthe country.
And yet, across the spending on health care goes up and up and up dayafter day, year afteer year. "I know that there are millionsa of Americans who are content with their healtbh carecoverage – they like theie plan and they value their relationship with their And no matter how we reform health we will keep this 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 healtg care plan. "But in order to preservse what’s best about our health care system, we have to fix what doesn’g work.
For we have reache d a point where doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longer an The status quois unsustainable. If we do not act and act soon to brinfdown costs, it will jeopardize everyone’s health care. If we do not act, every American will feel the consequences. In highet premiums and lower take-home pay. In lost jobs and shuttered businesses. In a rising number of uninsured and a risingf debt that our children and theifr children will be paying off for If we do within a decade we will spending one out of every five dollars we earn onhealtjh care. In thirty years, it will be one out of everu three.
That is that is unacceptable, and I will not alloe 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 future central to the long-term prosperity of this In past years and decades, there may have been some disagreemen on this point. But not anymore. Today, we have alreadyh built an unprecedented coalition of folkw who are ready to reform our health care physicians andhealth insurers; businessesa and workers; Democrats and Republicans.
A few weeksw ago, some of these groups committed to doing somethinghthat would’ve been unthinkable just a few yearw ago: they promised to work together to cut nationall health care spending by two trillion dollars over the next That will bring down costs, that will bring down and that’s exactly the kind of cooperatioj we need. "The question now is, how do we finisu the job? How do we permanentlh bring down costs andmake quality, affordable health care availabls to every American? "My view is that reform should be guided by a simple principle: we fix what’z broken and build on what "In some cases, there’s broad agreement on the stepx we should take.
In the Recoveryg Act, we’ve already made investments in health IT and electronic medicalo records that will reducemedicakl errors, save lives, save and still ensure privacy. We also need to invest in prevention and wellness programs that help American slive longer, healthier lives. "But the real cost savingsd will come from changing the incentivesz of a system that automatically equates expensivwe care with bettercare – from addressing flaws that increasd profits without actually increasing the qualitgy of care.
"We have to ask why placed like the Geisinger Health systekm inrural Pennsylvania, Intermountain Healtb in Salt Lake or communities like Green Bay can offer high-qualityg care at costs well below but other places in America can’t. We need to identifty the best practices acroszthe country, learn from the success, and replicatw that success elsewhere. And we should changde the warped incentives that reward doctorse and hospitals based on how many tests or procedureszthey prescribe, even if those testes or procedures aren’t necessary or result from medical Doctors across this country did not get into the medicall profession to be bean counters or paper pushers; to be lawyersx or business executives.
They becamde doctors to heal people. And that’s what we must free them to do. "Wed must also provide Americanswho can’r afford health insurance with more affordable options. This is both a moral imperative and aneconomic imperative, because we know that when someone withougt health insurance is forced to get treatment at the ER, all of us end up payint for it. "So what we’re working on is the creationn of something called a Healtu InsuranceExchange – which wouled allow you to one-stop shop for a healtbh care plan, compare benefits and and choose the plan that’s best for you.
None of theser plans would be able to deny coverags on the basis ofa pre-existintg condition, and all should include an affordable, basic benefit package. And if you can’t affordr one of the we should provide assistance to make sureyou can. I also strongly believe that one of the optionsa in the Exchange should be a publif insuranceoption – becausse if the private insurance companies have to competse with a public option, it will keep them honest and help keep pricess down.
"Now, covering more Americanse will obviously cost a good deal of moneyy at a time wherewe don’t have extra to That’s why I have already promised that reform will not add to our deficitg over the next ten years. To make that we have already identified hundredzs of billions worth of savings in ourbudger – savings that will come from stepd like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurancde companies and rooting out waste, fraud and abused in both Medicare and I will be outlining hundreds of billionsx more in savings in the days to come. And I’l l be honest – even with these savings, reform will requirr additional sourcesof revenue.
That’s why I’ve proposefd that we scale back how muchthe highest-incom e Americans can deduct on their taxez back to the rate from the Reagan yearss – and use that money to help financer health care. "In all these our goal is simple: the highest-quality health care at the lowest-possiblw cost. We want to fix what’s broken and build on what As Congress moves forward on health care legislatiojn in thecoming weeks, I understandd there will be different ideas and disagreements on how to achievs this goal.
I welcome those ideas, and I welcome that But what I will not welcome is endlesas delay or a denial that reform needs to When it comes to health this country cannot continue on itscurrenty path. I know there are some who believe that refork istoo expensive, but I can assure you that doin nothing will cost us far more in the cominy years. Our deficits will be higher. Our premiume will go up. Our wages will be lower, our jobs will be and our businesseswill suffer. "So to those who criticize our efforts, I ask, “What is the What else do we say to all those families who now spenc more on health care than housingor food??
What do we tell those businesses that are choosiny between closing their doors and letting their workersd go? What do we say to all thosse Americans like Laura, a woman who has workerd all her life; whose family has done everythinh right; a brave and proudd woman whose child’s school recently took up a penny drive to help pay her medicao bills? What do we tell them? "j believe we tell them that after decadess of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what is brokenm about health care in America. We have decidex that it’s time to give every Americann quality health care at anaffordable cost.
We have decidecd that if we invest in reforms that will bringv downcosts now, we will eventually see our deficits come down in the And we have decided to changew the system so that our doctors and healtb care providers are free to do what they trainer and studied and worked so hard to do: make peopls well again. That’s what we can do in this that’s what we can do at this moment, and now I’s like to hear your thoughts and answer your questions about how we get it Thank you.
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