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"Laura’s story is incrediblty moving. Sadly, it is not unique. Evert day in this country, more and more Americansw are forced to worry not simply abouggetting well, but whether they can afford to get Millions more wonder if they can afforde the routine care necessary to stay Even for those who have health insurance, rising premiums are straining their budgets to the breakingf point – premiums that have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate thred times faster than wages.
Desperately-needed procedures and treatmentse are put off because the price is too And all it takesz is a single illness to wipe out a lifetimeof "Employers aren’t faring any better. The cost of healthu care has helped leave big corporationss like GM and Chrysler at a competitived disadvantage with their foreign Forsmall businesses, it’e even worse. One they’re forced to cut back on healthcare benefits. The next they have to drop coverage. The month after that, they have no choicre but to start layingoff workers. "Fof the government, the growing cost of Medicarew and Medicaid is one of the biggest threat s to ourfederal deficit. Biggedr than Social Security.
Bigger than all the investments we’ve made so far. So if you’res worried about spending and you’re worried about deficits, you need to be worriecd about the cost ofhealth care. "We have the most expensivse health care system inthe world. We spend almostt 50% more per person on healtuh care than the next most costly But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthier for it. We don’t necessarily have better Even within ourown country, a lot of the places wherer we spend less on health care actually have highet quality than places where we spenfd more.
Right here in Green Bay, you get more qualitt out of fewer health care dollarsa than many other communities acrosethe country. And yet, across the country, spending on health care goes up and up and up dayafter day, year after year. "I know that therw are millions of Americans who are contengt with their health care coverage they like their plan and they value their relationshipl withtheir doctor. And no matter how we reformm health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your you will be able to keep your If you like your healthcare plan, you will be able to keep your healthj care plan.
"But in ordeer to preserve what’s best about our healtgh care system, we have to fix what doesn’ft work. For we have reachexd a point where doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longeeran option. The status quo is If we do not act and act soon to bringvdown costs, it will jeopardize everyone’s health care. If we do not act, every American will feel the In higher premiums andlower take-homw pay. In lost jobs and shuttered businesses. In a rising numberr of uninsured and a rising debt that our childrenn and their children will be paying off for If we do within a decade we will spendinbg one out of every five dollars we earn onhealtgh care.
In thirty it will be one out of every three. That is untenable, 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 disagreement on this But not anymore. Today, we have alreadyh built an unprecedented coalition of folks who are readgy to reform our health care physicians andhealth insurers; businesses and Democrats and Republicans.
A few weeks ago, some of thess groups committed to doing somethingthat would’vre been unthinkable just a few year ago: they promised to work together to cut national health care spending by two trillionh dollars over the next decade. That will bringb down costs, that will bring down premiums, and that’s exactlgy the kind of cooperationbwe need. "The question now is, how do we finisgh the job? How do we permanently bring down cost andmake quality, affordable health care available to every American?
"My view is that reform should be guided by a simple we fix what’s broken and build on what "In some cases, there’s broaxd agreement on the steps we should In the Recovery Act, we’ve already made investmentsd in health IT and electronic medical records that will reduce medical save lives, save money, and stilol ensure privacy. We also need to invest in preventiom and wellness programs that help Americans live healthier lives.
"But the real cost savingd will come from changing the incentives of a systejm that automatically equates expensive care with bettercare – from addressin flaws that increase profits without actually increasing the qualit y of care. "We have to ask why placees like the Geisinger Healtb system inrural Pennsylvania, Intermountain Health in Salt Lake or communities like Green Bay can offer high-quality care at costws well below average, but other places in Americaq can’t. We need to identify the best practiceds acrossthe country, learn from the and replicate that success elsewhere.
And we should changes the warped incentives that reward doctors and hospitale based on how many tests or procedures they even if those tests orprocedures aren’gt necessary or result from medical Doctors across this country did not get into the medica profession to be bean countere or paper pushers; to be lawyers or business executives. They becams doctors to heal people. And that’sw what we must free them to do.
"We must also providee Americanswho can’t afforxd health insurance with more affordable This is both a moral imperative and an economic imperative, becauser we know that when someone without health insurance is forcefd to get treatment at the ER, all of us end up payingt for it. "So what we’re workingg on is the creation of somethingb called a Health InsuranceExchange – which would allow you to one-sto p shop for a health care plan, compars benefits and prices, and choosre the plan that’s best for you.
None of these planse would be able to deny coverage on the basiw ofa pre-existing and all should include an affordable, basic benefit And if you can’t afford one of the we should provide assistance to make sure you can. I also stronglyt believe that one of the options in the Exchange shoulxd be a public insuranceoption – becaused if the private insurance companies have to compete with a publixc option, it will keep them honesg and help keep prices down. covering more Americans will obviously cost a good deal of money at a time wher ewe don’t have extra to spend. That’s why I have alread y promised that reform will not add to our deficitt over the nextten years.
To make that we have already identified hundreds of billion worth of savings in ourbudget – savingw that will come from steps like reducinbg Medicare overpayments to insurancse companies and rooting out fraud and abuse in both Medicare and Medicaid. I will be outliningg hundreds of billions more in savinges in the daysto come. And I’llp be honest – even with these savings, reformm will require additional sourcesof That’s why I’ve proposedr that we scale back how much the highest-incomwe Americans can deduct on theier taxes back to the rate from the Reaga n years – and use that money to help finance healtn care.
"In all these reforms, our goal is the highest-quality health care at the lowest-possible cost. We want to fix what’xs broken and build on what As Congress moves forward on health care legislationj in thecoming weeks, I understand theree will be different ideaes and disagreements on how to achieve this I welcome those ideas, and I welcome that But what I will not welcome is endless delay or a denial that reform needs to happen. When it comes to healtnh care, this country cannot continue on its current I know there are some who believe that reform is too but I can assure you that doing nothinyg will cost us far more in thecoming years. Our deficitw will be higher.
Our premiums will go up. Our wagesd will be lower, our jobs will be fewer, and our businessex will suffer. "So to thoser who criticize our efforts, I ask, “Whag is the alternative?” What else do we say to all those families who now spend more on health care than housing or food What do we tell those businesses that are choosing betweenj closing their doors and lettinv theirworkers go? What do we say to all thos e Americans like Laura, a woman who has worked all her whose family has done everything right; a brave and proud woman whose child’s school recently took up a pennuy drive to help pay her medical bills? What do we tell them?
"I believe we tell them that after decades of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what is brokenn about health care in America. We have decided that it’s time to give everhy American quality health care at anaffordabler cost. We have decidede that if we invesy in reforms that will bring downcosts now, we will eventuallyt see our deficits come down in the And we have decided to changew the system so that our doctorz and health care providers are free to do what they trainesd and studied and worked so hard to do: make peopld well again.
That’s what we can do in this that’s what we can do at this moment, and now I’de like to hear your thoughtx and answer your questions about how we get it Thank you."
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