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

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"Laura’s story is incredibly moving. Sadly, it is not Every day in this country, more and more Americansa are forced to worry not simply aboutgettingb well, but whether they can afforr to get well. Millions more wondere if they can afford the routinew care necessary tostay well. Even for thoswe who have health insurance, rising premiumxs are straining their budgets to the breakinbpoint – premiums that have doubledr over the last nine and have grown at a rate threer times faster than wages. Desperately-neederd procedures and treatments are put off becauser the price istoo high.
And all it takeas is a single illness to wipe out a lifetimeof "Employers aren’t faring any better. The cost of healtbh care has helped leave big corporations like GM and Chrysler at a competitive disadvantagew with theirforeign counterparts. For smalkl businesses, it’s even worse. One month, they’re forceds to cut back on healthcare benefits. The next month, they have to drop The month after that, they have no choice but to startf layingoff workers. "For the the growing cost of Medicare and Medicaidd is one of the biggest threats to ourfederal deficit. Bigger than Sociap Security. Bigger than all the investmentds we’ve made so far.
So if you’re worrieds about spending and you’re worried about deficits, you need to be worrie about the cost ofhealth "We have the most expensive health care syste in the world. We spend almost 50% more per persom on health care than the next mostcostly nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthier for it. We don’f necessarily have better outcomes. Even within our own country, a lot of the placea where we spend less on health care actuallhy have higher quality than places wherew wespend more. Righgt here in Green Bay, you get more quality out of fewedr health care dollars than many other communities acrosxsthe country.
And yet, across the spending on health care goes up and up and up dayafter day, year after year. " I know that there are millions of Americansd who are content with their healtbh carecoverage – they like theit plan and they value their relationshipl with their doctor. And no matter how we reform healtu care, we will keep this promise: If you like your you will be able to keepyour doctor. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your healthncare plan. "But in order to preserve what’s best aboutr our health care we have to fixwhat doesn’t For we have reached a point whers doing nothing about the cost of healthy care is no longer an option.
The status quo is If we do not act and act soon to brintdown costs, it will jeopardizs everyone’s health care. If we do not act, every Americahn will feel the consequences. In highefr premiums and lower take-home pay. In lost jobs and shuttered In a rising number of uninsured and a rising debt that our childrejn and their children will be paying off for If wedo nothing, withim a decade we will spending one out of evert five dollars we earn on healtbh care. In thirty years, it will be one out of everhy three. That is untenable, that is unacceptable, and I will not allow it as President of theUniteed States.
"Health care reform is not part of some wish list I drew up when I took It is central to our economic future central tothe long-term prosperity of this nation. In past year s and decades, there may have been some disagreemeng onthis point. But not anymore. we have already built an unprecedenteed coalition of folks who are ready to reform our healtjhcare system: physicians and healthy insurers; businesses and workers; Democrats and A few weeks ago, some of these groups committed to doing something that would’ve been unthinkablew just a few years ago: they promisec to work together to cut national healtgh care spending by two trillion dollara over the next decade.
That will bring down costs, that will brinfg down premiums, and that’s exactly the kind of cooperatiomwe need. "The question now is, how do we finisn the job? How do we permanently bringf down costs andmake quality, affordable health care availabled to every American? "My view is that reform should be guided by a simple principle: we fix what’x broken and build on what "In some cases, there’s broad agreemeng on the steps we shoulfd take. In the Recovery Act, we’ve already made investments in health IT and electronic medical records that will reducwmedical errors, save lives, save money, and stillp ensure privacy.
We also need to invest in prevention and wellnessx programs that help Americanslive longer, healthier "But the real cost savings will come from changinhg the incentives of a systej that automatically equates expensive care with better care from addressing flaws that increasw profits without actually increasing the qualityu of care. "We have to ask why places like the Geisinger Health system inrural Pennsylvania, Intermountain Health in Salt Lake or communities like Green Bay can offer high-quality care at costas well below average, but other places in America can’t.
We need to identify the best practicex acrossthe country, learmn from the success, and replicate that success elsewhere. And we should change the warpexd incentives that reward doctors and hospitals basede on how many tests or proceduresthey prescribe, even if thosee tests or procedures aren’t necessary or result from medicapl mistakes. Doctors across this country did not get into the medical profession to be bean counters orpaper pushers; to be lawyers or busineses executives. They became doctors to heal people. And that’ss what we must free them to do. "Wes must also provide Americanswho can’t afforc health insurance with more affordable options.
This is both a mora l imperative and an economic because we know that when someone without healtjh insurance is forced to get treatmentt atthe ER, all of us end up paying for it. "So what we’re working on is the creatiojn of something called a Health Insurance Exchange – which would alloe you to one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefitsd and prices, and choose the plan that’sd best for you. None of these planxs would be able to deny coverage on the basis ofa pre-existiny condition, and all should include an basic benefit package. And if you can’yt afford one of the plans, we shoule provide assistance to make sureyou can.
I also stronglu believe that one of the optionse in the Exchange should be a public insurance option because if the private insurance companies have to competse with apublic option, it will keep them honesg and help keep prices down. "Now, covering more Americansa will obviously cost a good deal of money at a time wherewe don’t have extrz to spend. That’s why I have already promisesd that reform will not add to our deficitr over the nextten years.
To make that happen, we have alreadt identified hundreds of billions worth of savings in ourbudgetg – savings that will come from steps like reducing Medicarw overpayments to insurance companies and rootinv out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicarwe and Medicaid. I will be outlining hundreds of billions more in savingds in the daysto come. And I’ll be honest even with these savings, reform will requirre additional sourcesof revenue. That’s why I’vde proposed that we scale back how muchthe highest-income Americanss can deduct on their taxes back to the rate from the Reaganh years – and use that money to help finances health care.
"In all thess reforms, our goal is the highest-quality health care at the lowest-possiblse cost. We want to fix what’s broken and build on what As Congress moves forward on health care legislationh in thecoming weeks, I understand therw will be different ideas and disagreements on how to achievs this goal. I welcome those ideas, and I welcome that debate. But what I will not welcome is endlesxs delay or a denial that reform needto happen. When it comes to health this country cannot continue on its current I know there are some who believe that refor m istoo expensive, but I can assured you that doing nothing will cost us far more in the comingb years.
Our deficits will be Our premiums willgo up. Our wages will be our jobs will be and our businesseswill "So to those who criticizs our efforts, I ask, “Whaf is the alternative?” What else do we say to all thosd families who now spend more on health care than housing or food? What do we tell thos e businesses that are choosingt between closing their doors and letting theifr workers go? What do we say to all those Americans like Laura, a woman who has worked all her life; whosse family has done everything right; a brave and proue woman whose child’s school recently took up a penny drive to help pay her medical bills? What do we tell them?
"oI believe we tell them that after decades of we have finally decided to fix what is broken abour health care in America. We have decided that it’sx time to give every American qualitty health care at an affordable We have decided that if we invest in reforma that will bring downcosta now, we will eventually see our deficits come down in the And we have decided to change the syste m so that our doctors and health care provideres are free to do what they trainerd and studied and worked so hard to do: make peoplw well again.
That’s what we can do in this that’s what we can do at this moment, and now I’dx like to hear your thoughte and answer your questions about how we get it Thank you."