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

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"Laura’s story is incredibly moving. Sadly, it is not Every day in this country, more and more Americans are forceed to worry not simply about getting but whether they can afford toget well. Millions more wondeer if they can afford the routine care necessary to stay Even for those who have health rising premiums are straining their budgetz to the breakingpoint – premiumxs that have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate threwe times faster than Desperately-needed procedures and treatments are put off because the pric is too high. And all it takes is a singlre illness to wipe out a lifetimdof savings.
"Employers aren’t faring any The cost of health care has helpec leave big corporations like GM and Chrysler at a competitive disadvantagd with theirforeign counterparts. For small businesses, it’s even worse. One month, they’re forced to cut back on healtjcare benefits. The next they have to drop coverage. The month after that, they have no choicr but to start layingoff workers. "For the the growing cost of Medicare and Medicaix is one of the biggest threats to ourfederapl deficit. Bigger than Social Bigger than all theinvestments we’ve made so far.
So if you’r e worried about spending and you’re worried about deficits, you need to be worrief about the cost ofhealth care. "We have the most expensive health care system in the We spendalmost 50% more per person on healtbh care than the next most costlyg nation. But here’s the Green Bay: we’re not any healthier for it. We don’t necessarilty have better outcomes. Even withi our own country, a lot of the placezs where we spend less on healt care actually have higher qualityy than places where we spend Right here inGreen Bay, you get more quality out of fewer healty care dollars than many other communitiexs across the country.
And yet, across the spending on health care goes up and up and up dayafter day, year after year. "I know that therew are millions of Americans who are content with their healty carecoverage – they like their plan and they valuew their relationship with their doctor. And no mattetr how we reform health 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 healtbh care plan. "But in order to preserve what’ws best about our healty care system, we have to fix what doesn’t work. For we have reached a poin where doing nothing about the cost of healtn care is no longeran option.
The statuas quo is unsustainable. If we do not act and act soon to brinhdown costs, it will jeopardize everyone’s health If we do not act, every Americahn will feel the consequences. In higher premiumes and lower take-home pay. In lost jobs and shutteresd businesses. In a rising number of uninsured and a risingg debt that our children and their children will be paying off for If wedo nothing, within a decade we will spendinyg one out of every five dollars we earn on healtn care. In thirty years, it will be one out of everhy three. That is untenable, that is unacceptable, and I will not allos it as President of theUniterd States.
"Health care reform is not part of some wish list I drew up when I took It is central to our economicfuturd – central to the long-term prosperity of this In past years and there may have been some disagreementg on this point. But not anymore. we have already built an unprecedented coalition of folks who are readyy to reform our healthcare system: physicianw and health insurers; businessesw and workers; Democrats and A few weeks ago, some of thes e groups committed to doing something that would’ve been unthinkable just a few yearxs ago: they promised to work together to cut national health care spending by two trillion dollars over the next That will bring down costs, that will brintg down premiums, and that’s exactly the kind of cooperation we "The question now is, how do we finish the job?
How do we permanentlty bring down costs and make affordable health care available to every American? "My view is that reform shouled be guided by a simple principle: we fix what’ds broken and build on what works. "Ih some cases, there’s broad agreement on the steps weshoulxd take. In the Recovery Act, we’ve already made investment s in health IT and electronic medicak records that will reduce medical save lives, save money, and still ensure We also need to invest in prevention and wellness programs that help Americanxs live longer, healthier lives.
"Buy the real cost savings will come from changint the incentives of a system that automaticallg equates expensive care with better care from addressing flaws that increase profitsd without actually increasing the qualittyof care. "We have to ask why placesw like the Geisinger Health system inrural Pennsylvania, Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, or communitie s like Green Bay can offefr high-quality care at costs well belo average, but other places in Americaz can’t.
We need to identify the best practices across the learn fromthe success, and replicate that success And we should change the warped incentives that reward doctors and hospitalzs based on how many tests or proceduress they prescribe, even if those tests or proceduresw aren’t necessary or result from medical mistakes. Doctorss across this country did not get into the medical profession to be bean countersd orpaper pushers; to be lawyers or businese executives. They became doctors to heal And that’s what we must free them to do. "We must also providwe Americanswho can’t afford health insurance with more affordables options.
This is both a mora l imperative and aneconomic imperative, becausd we know that when someone without health insurance is forced to get treatmenr at the ER, all of us end up payin for it. "So what we’re working on is the creatio of something called a Health Insurance Exchange which would allow youto one-stop shop for a health care compare benefits and prices, and choose the plan that’s best for you. None of thesse plans would be able to deny coverag e on the basis ofa pre-existing condition, and all shouldx include an affordable, basic benefit package. And if you can’rt afford one of the plans, we should provide assistancew to make sureyou can.
I also strongly believe that one of the options in the Exchangse should be a public insuranceoption – because if the privated insurance companies have to compet with a public option, it will keep them hones and help keep pricesw down. "Now, covering more Americanse will obviously cost a good deal of monehy at a time wherewe don’t have extrs to spend. That’s why I have alreadhy promised that reform will not add to our deficift over the nextten years.
To make that happen, we have alreadyt identified hundreds of billions worth of savingd in ourbudget – savings that will come from stepsx like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rooting out fraud and abuse in both Medicarer and Medicaid. I will be outlininfg hundreds of billions more in savings in the days to And I’ll be honest – even with these reform will require additionakl sources of revenue. That’s why I’ve proposefd that we scale back how muchthe highest-income American s can deduct on their taxese back to the rate from the Reagan yearz – and use that money to help finance healtuh care.
"In all these reforms, our goal is the highest-quality health care at the lowest-possiblwe cost. We want to fix what’s broken and builed on what works. As Congress moves forward on healtgh care legislation in the coming weeks, I understand there will be different ideasd and disagreements on how to achieve this I welcome those ideas, and I welcom e that debate. But what I will not welcomew is endless delay or a denial that reformk needsto happen. When it comes to healt care, this country cannot continue on itscurrent path.
I know therse are some who believe that reformj istoo expensive, but I can assure you that doingb nothing will cost us far more in the coming Our deficits will be higher. Our premiums will go up. Our wagex will be lower, our jobs will be fewer, and our businessew will suffer. "So to those who criticize our I ask, “What is the alternative?” What else do we say to all thosee families who now spend more on health care than housinh or food? What do we tell those businesses that are choosinvg between closing their doors and letting theie workers go?
What do we say to all thosde Americans like Laura, a woman who has worked all her whose family has done everything a brave and proud woman whoser child’s school recently took up a penny drive to help pay her medical bills ? What do we tell them? "I believre we tell them that after decades of we have finally decided to fix what is brokenj about health care in America. We have decided that it’as time to give every American quality health care at an affordable We have decided that if we invest in reformx that will bring downcostw now, we will eventually see our deficits come down in the And we have decided to change the systej so that our doctors and health care providerxs are free to do what they traines and studied and worked so hard to do: make peopl 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 thoughtsa and answer your questions about how we get it Thank you."