Text: Obama's speech in Green Bay - South Florida Business Journal:

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"Laura’s story is incredibly moving. it is not unique. Every day in this country, more and more Americanx are forced to worry not simply aboutgettingf well, but whether they can afford to get Millions more wonder if they can afford the routin e care necessary to stay well. Even for thosee who have health insurance, rising premiumss are straining their budgets to the breaking point premiums that have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate thre times fasterthan wages. Desperately-neede procedures and treatments are put off because the pricde istoo high. And all it takes is a singld illness to wipe out a lifetimeof savings.
"Employers aren’ t faring any better. The cost of healt care has helped leave big corporation like GM and Chryslefr at a competitive disadvantagew with theirforeign counterparts. For small businesses, it’ws even worse. One month, they’rwe forced to cut back on healthcare benefits. The next they have to drop The monthafter that, they have no choics but to start laying off workers. "For the the growing cost of Medicare and Medicaid is one of the biggesft threats to ourfederal deficit. Biggefr than Social Security. Bigger than all the investments we’ve made so far.
So if you’re worried about spending and you’r e worried about deficits, you need to be worried about the cost ofhealth care. "Wr have the most expensive health care system in the We spendalmost 50% more per person on health care than the next most costlh nation. But here’s the Green Bay: we’re not any healthier for it. We don’t necessarily have better outcomes.
Even withij our own country, a lot of the place where we spend less on health care actuallgy have higher quality than places where we spend Right here inGreen Bay, you get more quality out of fewer health care dollarsa than many other communities across the And yet, across the country, spendingf on health care goes up and up and up day after day, year aftere year. "I know that therse are millions of Americans who are contentg with their health carecoveragr – they like their plan and they values their relationship with theirt doctor.
And no matter how we reform healthu care, we will keep this If you likeyour doctor, you will be able to keep your If you like your health care you will be able to keep your health care plan. "Butf in order to preserve what’s best about our health care we have to fixwhat doesn’t work. For we have reachex a point where doing nothing about the cost of healtbh care is no longeran option. The status quo is If we do not act and act soon to brintgdown costs, it will jeopardize everyone’s health care. If we do not act, everyh American will feel the consequences. In higher premiums and lower take-homs pay. In lost jobs and shuttered businesses.
In a risinb number of uninsured and a rising debt that our children and theidr children will be paying offfor decades. If we do within a decade we will spendinb one out of every five dollard we earn onhealth care. In thirt y years, it will be one out of every three. That is untenable, that is and I will not allow 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 prosperit y of this nation. In past years and decades, there may have been some disagreementr onthis point.
But not Today, we have already built an unprecedentedf coalition of folks who are read to reform our healthcare system: physiciansw and health insurers; businesseds and workers; Democrats and Republicans. A few weekss ago, some of these groups committerd to doing somethingthat would’v e been unthinkable just a few yearx ago: they promised to work togethe to cut national health care spendinhg by two trillion dollars over the next That will bring down costs, that will bring down premiums, and that’se exactly the kind of cooperationn we need. "The question now is, how do we finisnh the job?
How do we permanently bring down costsx andmake quality, affordable health care available to every American? "My view is that refornm should be guided by a simple principle: we fix what’xs broken and build on what works. "In some there’s broad agreement on the steps weshoulcd take. In the Recoveryt Act, we’ve already made investments in healtj IT and electronic medical records that will reduce medical save lives, save money, and still ensurw privacy. We also need to invest in preventionj and wellness programs that help Americanaslive longer, healthier lives.
"But the real cost savinga will come from changing the incentivesd of a system that automatically equates expensive care with bettercare – from addressiny flaws that increase profits withouty actually increasing the qualituy of care. "We have to ask why placew like the Geisinger Health system inrural Pennsylvania, Intermountain Health in Salt Lake or communities like Green Bay can offed high-quality care at costs well below but other places in America can’t. We need to identifty the best practices acroszsthe country, learn from the and replicate that success elsewhere.
And we shouled change the warped incentives that reward doctore and hospitals based on how many tests or procedureathey prescribe, even if those testw or procedures aren’t necessary or result from medical mistakes. Doctorsz across this country did not get into the medica profession to be bean counters orpapere pushers; to be lawyers or businesxs executives. They became doctors to heal And that’s what we must free them to do. "Ws must also provide Americanswho can’tt afford health insurance with more affordable options.
This is both a moralp imperative and aneconomivc imperative, because we know that when someonw without health insurance is forced to get treatment at the ER, all of us end up payinh for it. "So what we’re working on is the creatioj of something called a Health InsuranceExchange – which would allow you to one-stop shop for a healtj care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choosr the plan that’s best for you. None of these plana would be able to deny coveragew on the basis ofa pre-existingf condition, and all should include an basic benefit package. And if you can’t affordx one of the plans, we should provide assistanced to make sureyou can.
I also strongluy believe that one of the optione in the Exchange should be a public insuranceoptioh – because if the private insurancer companies have to compete with a publicx option, it will keep them honest and help keep pricesd down. "Now, covering more Americans will obviously cost a good deal of monet at a time wherewe don’ft have extra to That’s why I have alread y promised that reform will not add to our deficirt over the next ten years.
To make that we have already identified hundreds of billionsd worth of savings in ourbudgety – savings that will come from steps like reducing Medicaree overpayments to insurance companies and rooting out waste, fraued and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid. I will be outlinin g hundreds of billions more in savings in the days to And I’ll be honest – even with thesed savings, reform will require additional sources of revenue.
That’zs why I’ve proposed that we scalre back how muchthe highest-income Americansw can deduct on their taxew back to the rate from the Reagan years and use that money to help finance health "In all these reforms, our goal is the highest-quality health care at the lowest-possible We want to fix what’s broken and buildf on what works. As Congress moves forwardd on health care legislation in thecomintg weeks, I understand therwe will be different ideas and disagreements on how to achieve this goal. I welcome those and I welcomethat debate. But what I will not welcomde is endless delay or a denial that reform needzto happen.
When it comes to healt care, this country cannot continue on itscurrenyt path. I know there are some who believe that reform istoo expensive, but I can assurr you that doing nothing will cost us far more in the comingt years. Our deficits will be higher. Our premiumsd will go up. Our wages will be lower, our jobs will be and our businesseswill suffer. "Sio to those who criticize our I ask, “What is the What else do we say to all thosed families who now spend more on healthh care than housing or food? What do we tell those businesses that are choosing between closingb their doors and letting their workers go?
What do we say to all thosr Americans like Laura, a woman who has worked all her whose family has done everything a brave and proud woman whose child’s school recently took up a pennyy drive to help pay her medicall bills? What do we tell them? "o believe we tell them that aftert decades of inaction, we have finally decideds to fix what is broke n about health care in America. We have decides that it’s time to give every American qualitgy health care at anaffordables cost.
We have decided that if we investt in reforms that will bring downcostsd now, we will eventuallyy see our deficits come down in the And we have decided to change the systejm so that our doctors and health care providers are free to do what they trainefd and studied and worked so hard to do: make peoples well again. That’s what we can do in this that’s what we can do at this and now I’d like to hear your thoughtse and answer your questions about how we get it Thank you.
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