Text: Obama's speech in Green Bay - Business First of Louisville:

iwyqaxewun.wordpress.com
"Laura’s story is incredibly moving. Sadly, it is not Every day in this country, more and more Americans are force d to worry not simply aboutgettintg well, but whether they can afford to get Millions more wonder if they can afford the routind care necessary to stay well. Even for thosd who have health insurance, rising premiums are straining theie budgets to the breakingpoint – premiumw that have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate threew times faster than wages. Desperately-needed proceduresw and treatments are put off because the pricer istoo high. And all it takes is a single illnesd to wipe out a lifetimeof savings.
"Employers aren’t faring any better. The cost of healthn care has helped leave big corporationxs like GM and Chrysler at a competitivr disadvantage with their foreign Forsmall businesses, it’s even One month, they’re forced to cut back on health care The next month, they have to drop The month after that, they have no choic e but to start laying off workers. "Forr the government, the growingh cost of Medicare and Medicaid is one of the biggesr threats to ourfederal deficit. Bigger than Social Bigger than all theinvestmentx we’ve made so far.
So if you’re worried about spending and you’re worried about deficits, you need to be worrier about the cost ofhealth care. "We have the most expensive healtn care system inthe world. We spensd almost 50% more per persob on health care than the next most costly But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthiere for it. We don’t necessarily have better outcomes. Even within our own a lot of the places where we spends less on health care actually have higher qualityg than places where wespend more. Right here in Green Bay, you get more qualitgy out of fewer health care dollars than many othefr communities acrossthe country.
And yet, acrose the country, spending on healtyh care goes up and up andup – day aftedr day, year after "I know that there are millions of Americans who are contenyt with their health care coverage they like their plan and they value their relationshi p with their doctor. And no matter how we reform healtnh care, we will keep this promise: If you like your you will be able to keep your If you like your health care you will be able to keep your healthucare plan. "But in order to preserve what’e best about our health care system, we have to fix what doesn’t work.
For we have reached a point whers doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longerdan option. The statuds quo is unsustainable. If we do not act and act soon to bringydown costs, it will jeopardize everyone’s health care. If we do not act, everty American will feel the consequences. In higher premiums and lower take-home pay. In lost jobs and shuttered businesses. In a risinhg number of uninsured and a rising debt that our childrejn and their children will be payinhg offfor decades. If we do nothing, within a decad we will spending one out of everty five dollars we earn onhealth care. In thirty years, it will be one out of everyt three.
That is untenable, that is and I will not allow it as President of theUnitefd States. "Health care reform is not part of some wish list I drew up when I took It is central to our economicfuturre – central to the long-term prosperity of this In past years and decades, ther e may have been some disagreement on this But not anymore. Today, we have already built an unprecedentes coalition of folks who are ready to reform our healt hcare system: physicians and health insurers; businesses and Democrats and Republicans.
A few weeks ago, some of thesse groups committed to doing somethinhgthat would’ve been unthinkables just a few years ago: they promise to work together to cut national healtnh care spending by two trillion dollarsz over the next decade. That will bring down that will bringdown premiums, and that’e exactly the kind of cooperation we need. "The question now is, how do we finish the job? How do we permanentlgy bring down costs and make affordable health care available to everyAmerican "My view is that reform shoule be guided by a simple principle: we fix what’w broken and build on what works. "In some there’s broad agreement on the stepsa weshould take.
In the Recoveryh Act, we’ve already made investments in health IT and electronic medical records that will reducemedical errors, save lives, save and still ensure privacy. We also need to invest in preventiom and wellness programs that help Americans live healthier lives. "But the real cost savinga will come from changing the incentives of a system that automaticallt equates expensive care with bettercare – from addressinfg flaws that increase profits without actuallyt increasing the quality of "We have to ask why places like the Geisingedr Health system in rural Pennsylvania, Intermountaijn Health in Salt Lake City, or communitie like Green Bay can offer high-quality care at costxs well below average, but other places in America We need to identify the best practicew across the country, learn from the and replicate that success elsewhere.
And we shouldr change the warped incentivea that reward doctors and hospitalws based on how many testsa or proceduresthey prescribe, even if those tests or procedurew aren’t necessary or result from medical Doctors across this country did not get into the medical professionh to be bean counters or paper pushers; to be lawyerw or business executives. They becamed doctors to heal people. And that’s what we must free them to do. "Wer must also provide Americanswho can’t afforc health insurance with more affordable options.
This is both a moral imperative and aneconomic imperative, because we know that when someone withour health insurance is forced to get treatment at the ER, all of us end up payiny for it. "So what we’rer working on is the creation of something calle a Health InsuranceExchange – which woulds allow you to one-sto shop for a health care plan, compar benefits and prices, and choose the plan that’a best for you. None of theses plans would be able to deny coverage on the basiw ofa pre-existing condition, and all should include an affordable, basiv benefit package. And if you can’g afford one of the plans, we shouldx provide assistance to make sureyou can.
I also strongl y believe that one of the options in the Exchange shoulcd be a public insurance option because if the private insurance companies have to competr with apublic option, it will keep them honestt and help keep prices down. "Now, coverinbg more Americans will obviously cost a good deal of money at a time whererwe don’t have extra to spend. That’x why I have already promised that refornm will not add to our deficit over the next ten To makethat happen, we have already identified hundreds of billions worth of savings in our budge t – savings that will come from stepa like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rooting out waste, fraud 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 reform will require additional sources of revenue. That’z why I’ve proposed that we scale back how muchthe highest-incomde Americans can deduct on their taxes back to the rate from the Reagann years – and use that money to help finance health care. "I all these reforms, our goal is simple: the highest-quality health care at the lowest-possible We want to fix what’z broken and build on what works.
As Congresss moves forward on health care legislatiom in thecoming weeks, I understanx there will be different ideas and disagreements on how to achievre this goal. I welcome those ideas, and I welcomw that debate. But what I will not welcome is endles s delay or a denial that reform needs to When it comes to health this country cannot continue on itscurrent path. I know there are some who believe that reformj istoo expensive, but I can assure you that doint nothing will cost us far more in the coming Our deficits will be Our premiums will go up. Our wage s will be lower, our jobs will be and our businesseswill suffer.
"So to thosew who criticize our efforts, I ask, “Whart is the alternative?” What else do we say to all thos families who now spend more on health care than housing orfood ? What do we tell those businesses that are choosingt between closing their doors and letting their workers go? What do we say to all thos e Americans like Laura, a woman who has workedd all her life; whose family has done everythingg right; a brave and proud woman whos e child’s school recently took up a penny drive to help pay her medicak bills? What do we tell them?
"j believe we tell them that aftee decades of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what is broken about healtu care in America. We have decides that it’s time to give every American quality healty care at anaffordable cost. We have decides that if we invest in reforms that will brin g downcosts now, we will eventuallty see our deficits come down in the long-run. And we have decidedf to change the system so that our doctorss and health care providers are free to do what they trainedc and studied and worked so hardto do: make peoplre 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 thoughtss and answer your questions about how we getit done. Thank you."