Text: Obama’s speech in Green Bay – Denver Business Journal:

"Laura’s story is incredibly moving. it is not unique. Every day in this more and more Americans are forced to worruy not simply about getting but whether they can afford to get Millions more wonder if they can affordx the routine care necessary tostay well. Even for thosew who have health rising premiums are straining their budgets to the breakinhgpoint – premiums that have doubledr over the last nine years, and have grow at a rate three times faster than Desperately-needed procedures and treatments are put off because the pricer is too high. And all it takes is a singlw illness to wipe out a lifetimeof savings. "Employera aren’t faring any better.
The cost of health care has helped leave big corporations like GM and Chryslerr at a competitive disadvantage with theireforeign counterparts. For smalk businesses, it’s even worse. One month, they’rw forced to cut back on healthbcare benefits. The next they have to drop coverage. The montyh after that, they have no choice but to start layingyoff workers. "For the the growing cost of Medicare and Medicaied is one of the biggest threatx to ourfederal deficit. Bigger than Sociapl Security. Bigger than all the investmenta we’ve made so far.
So if you’re worried aboutf spending and you’re worried about deficits, you need to be worriede 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 costlg nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthiet for it. We don’t necessarily have better outcomes. Even withim our own country, a lot of the places where we spend less on health care actually have higher qualitu than places where wespend more. Right here in Green Bay, you get more qualityt out of fewer healtn care dollars than many other communitiew acrossthe country.
And yet, across the country, spendingb on health care goes up and up and up dayafter day, year after year. "I know that therd are millions of Americans who are content with theier health carecoverage – they like their plan and they value their relationship with their doctor. And no matter how we reformm health care, we will keep this If you like your you will be able to keepyour doctor. If you like your healthb care plan, you will be able to keep your healthncare plan. "But in orde to preserve what’s best about our health care system, we have to fix what doesn’t work.
For we have reached a point wherde doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longertan option. The status quo is If we do not act and act soon to bring down it willjeopardize everyone’s health care. If we do not act, everyg American will feel the In higher premiums andlower take-homer pay. In lost jobs and shuttered In a rising number of uninsured and a risinyg debt that our children and their childrenn will be paying offfor decades. If we do nothing, within a decade we will spending 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 alloew it as President of theUniter States. "Health care reform 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 yearz and decades, there may have been some disagreemenr onthis point. But not anymore. we have already built an unprecedented coalition of folks who are readt to reform our health care physicians andhealth insurers; businesses and Democrats and Republicans.
A few weeks ago, some of thesre groups committed to doing somethingthat would’vd been unthinkable just a few year s ago: they promised to work together to cut national health care spending by two trillion dollar s over the next decade. That will bring down that will bringdown premiums, and that’ s exactly the kind of cooperation we "The question now is, how do we finish the job? How do we permanentlyt bring down costs and make quality, affordable health care available to every American?
"My view is that refor should be guided by a simple principle: we fix what’a broken and build on what "In some cases, there’s broad agreement on the steps we should take. In the Recovergy Act, we’ve already made investmentes in health IT and electronic medicao records that will reduce medical save lives, save money, and stilpl ensure privacy. We also need to invest in preventio n and wellness programs that help Americaneslive longer, healthier lives.
"Burt the real cost savings will come from changing the incentivez of a system that automatically equatees expensive care with better care from addressing flaws that increase profits withouf actually increasing the qualityof care. "Wwe have to ask why places like the Geisingerf Health system inrurapl Pennsylvania, Intermountain Health in Salt Lake or communities like Green Bay can offeer high-quality care at costs well below average, but otheer places in America can’t. We need to identify the best practicees acrossthe country, learn from the and replicate that successe elsewhere.
And we should change the warped incentives that reward doctorzs and hospitals based on how many testa or proceduresthey prescribe, even if those tests or procedures aren’t necessary or result from medical mistakes. Doctors across this country did not get into the medical profession to be bean counterws orpaper pushers; to be lawyers or businessw executives. They became doctors to heal people. And that’ what we must free them to do. "We must also provided Americanswho can’t afford health insurance with more affordable options.
This is both a moral imperative and an economic because we know that when someone without health insurancr is forced to get treatmenty atthe ER, all of us end up payinfg for it. "So what we’re working on is the creatiobn of something called a Health InsurancedExchange – which would allow you to one-stop shop for a healtj care plan, compare benefitss and prices, and choose the plan that’s best for you. None of thesd plans would be able to deny coveragse on the basis ofa pre-existinbg condition, and all should include an affordable, basix benefit package. And if you can’t afford one of the we should provide assistance to make sureyou can.
I also stronglgy believe that one of the options in the Exchang e should be a public insurance option – because if the private insurancew companies have to compete with a publicc option, it will keep them honest and help keep pricew down. "Now, covering more Americans will obviouslg cost a good deal of money at a time whereswe don’t have extra to That’s why I have already promised that reform will not add to our deficir over the next ten years.
To make that we have already identified hundreds of billionsw worth of savings in our budget savings that will come from steps like reducing Medicard overpayments to insurance companies and rootingout waste, fraudc and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid. I will be outliningy hundreds of billions more in savings in the days to And I’ll be honest even with these savings, reform will require additionap sources of revenue. That’s why I’vr proposed that we scale back how muchthe highest-income Americanws can deduct on their taxess back to the rate from the Reaganh years – and use that money to help financwe health care.
"In all these reforms, our goal is simple: the highest-qualit health care at the lowest-possible cost. We want to fix what’es broken and build on what works. As Congress moves forward on healthn care legislation in thecomingy weeks, I understand there will be different ideas and disagreements on how to achieve this I welcome those ideas, and I welcomed that debate. But what I will not welcome is endless delayg or a denial that reform needzto happen. When it come s to health care, this country cannot continue on its current I know there are some who believs that reform is too but I can assure you that doing nothing will cost us far more in thecominv years.
Our deficits will be Our premiums willgo up. Our wages will be our jobs willbe fewer, and our businessew will suffer. "So to those who criticizs our efforts, I ask, “What is the What else do we say to all thoswe families who now spend more on health care than housinbgor food? What do we tell those businesses that are choosing betwee n closing their doors and letting their workers go? What do we say to all thosse Americans like Laura, a woman who has workesd all her life; whose family has done everythingg right; a brave and prourd woman whose child’s schoool recently took up a penny drive to help pay her medicalp bills? What do we tell them?
"I believd we tell them that after decaded of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what is broken about health care in We have decided that it’sa time to give every American quality health care at an affordabl cost. We have decided that if we invesyt in reforms that will bring downcosts now, we will eventuallh see our deficits come down in the And we have decided to change the system so that our doctors and health care providers are free to do what they traine and studied and worked so hard to do: make people well That’s what we can do in this country; that’s what we can do at this and now I’d like to hear your thoughts and answed your questions about how we get it Thank you.
"
kupgima.edublogs.org