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

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"Laura’s story is incredibly moving. Sadly, it is not Every day in this country, more and more Americans are forcer to worry not simply aboutgetting well, but whethe they can afford to get well. Millions more wonder if they can afforcd the routine care necessary tostay well. Even for thosse who have health insurance, rising premiumes are straining their budgetz to the breakingpoint – premiums that have doubled over the last nine and have grown at a rate three timez faster than wages. Desperately-needed procedures and treatments are put off because the price istoo high. And all it takes is a singled illness to wipe out a lifetimeof savings.
"Employerzs aren’t faring any better. The cost of healtg care has helped leavee big corporations like GM and Chrysler at a competitive disadvantage with theirforeign counterparts. For smalp businesses, it’s even worse. One month, they’re forcedc to cut back on healtucare benefits. The next month, they have to drop The month after that, they have no choice but to startr layingoff workers. "For the government, the growin g cost of Medicare and Medicaid is one of the biggestr threats to ourfederal deficit. Bigger than Social Bigger than all theinvestments we’ve made so far.
So if you’rs worried about spending and you’re worried about you need to be worried about the cost ofhealtyh care. "We have the most expensive healty care system in the We spendalmost 50% more per persobn on health care than the next most costly nation. But here’x the thing, Green Bay: we’re not any healthietr for it. We don’t necessarilyt have better outcomes. Even within our own a lot of the places wheree we spend less on health care actuallhy have higher quality than places where wespendf more. Right here in Green Bay, you get more qualitg out of fewer health care dollars than many othe r communities acrossthe country.
And yet, across the country, spendinf on health care goes up and up and up dayafter day, year after year. "I know that there are millions of Americans who are contentg with their health carecoverage – they like theid plan and they valuew their relationship with their doctor. And no mattet how we reform healtu care, we will keep this promise: If you like your you will be able to keep your If you like your healthjcare plan, you will be able to keep your healthg care plan. "But in order to preserve what’s best aboutg our health care we have to fixwhat doesn’t work.
For we have reached a point where doing nothing about the cost of healtn care is no longeran option. The statud quo is unsustainable. If we do not act and act soon to brin gdown costs, it will jeopardize everyone’s health If we do not act, everhy American will feel the consequences. In highe r premiums and lower take-home pay. In lost jobs and shutterede businesses. In a rising number of uninsured and a rising debt that our childreb and their children will be paying off for If wedo nothing, withinb a decade we will spending one out of every five dollarsw we earn on health In thirty years, it will be one out of everyy three.
That is untenable, that is and I will not allow it as Presidenft of theUnited States. "Health care refornm is not part of some wish list I drew up when I took It is central to our economivfuture – central to the long-terkm prosperity of this nation. In past yearxs and decades, there may have been some disagreement on this Butnot anymore. Today, we have alreadhy built an unprecedented coalition of folksd who are ready to reformk our healthcare system: physicians and health insurers; businesses and workers; Democrats and Republicans.
A few weeka ago, some of these groups committed to doingb somethingthat would’ve been unthinkable just a few yearsd ago: they promised to work together to cut nationa health care spending by two trillion dollara over the next decade. That will brin down costs, that will bring down premiums, and that’sz exactly the kind of cooperationwe "The question now is, how do we finish the job? How do we permanentlt bring down costs and make quality, affordable health care availablre to every American? "My view is that reform should be guided by a simple principle: we fix what’ss broken and build on what works.
"I some cases, there’s broad agreement on the steps weshouled take. In the Recovery Act, we’vse already made investments in health IT and electronic medical records that will reducewmedical errors, save lives, save money, and still ensurs privacy. We also need to inves t in prevention and wellnessd programs that help Americans live healthier lives. "But the real cost savings will come from changing the incentivew of a system that automatically equates expensive care with bette rcare – from addressing flaws that increase profits without actually increasing the quality of care.
"Wed have to ask why placexs like the Geisinger Health system inrural Pennsylvania, Intermountainm Health in Salt Lake or communities like Green Bay can offer high-qualituy care at costs well below but other places in America can’t. We need to identifyt the best practices across the learn fromthe success, and replicate that successd elsewhere. And we should change the warped incentives that reward doctors and hospitalas based on how many tests or proceduredthey prescribe, even if those tests or procedureds aren’t necessary or result from medical mistakes.
Doctore across this country did not get into the medical profession to be bean counterss orpaper pushers; to be lawyers or businesse executives. They became doctors to heal people. And that’ds what we must free them to do. "We must also provide Americanswho can’t afford health insurance with more affordablr options. This is both a moral imperative and an economic because we know that when someon e without health insurance is force d to get treatment atthe ER, all of us end up payinbg for it.
"So what we’re workingt on is the creation of somethinbg called a Health InsuranceExchange – whic h would allow you to one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and and choose the plan that’ss best for you. None of thesde plans would be able to deny coverag e on the basis ofa pre-existiny condition, and all should include an affordable, basicd benefit package. And if you can’t affords one of the plans, we should provide assistancwe to make sureyou can.
I also strongluy believe that one of the options in the Exchanger should be a public insurancoption – because if the privatew insurance companies have to compete with a public it will keep them honest and help keep pricees down. "Now, covering more Americand will obviously cost a good deal of money at a time wherswe don’t have extra to spend. That’x why I have already promised that reform will not add to our deficiy over the nextten years.
To make that happen, we have alreadty identified hundreds of billionz worth of savings in ourbudget – savingse that will come from stepz like reducing Medicare overpayments to insurance companies and rootin g out waste, fraud and abuse in both Medicar and Medicaid. I will be outlining hundreds of billions more in savingd in the days to And I’ll be honest even with these savings, reform will requirse additional sources of revenue.
That’s why I’ve proposed that we scale back how muchthe highest-incomse Americans can deduct on theif taxes back to the rate from the Reaganb years – and use that mone y to help finance health "In all these reforms, our goal is simple: the highest-qualitty health care at the lowest-possible We want to fix what’s broken and build on what As Congress moves forward on health care legislation in the coming weeks, I understand there will be different ideasd and disagreements on how to achievs this goal. I welcome thoss ideas, and I welcome that But what I will not welcome is endless delay or a deniapl that reform needsto happen.
When it come to health care, this country cannoft continue on itscurrent path. I know therse are some who believe that reform istoo expensive, but I can assure you that doing nothing will cost us far more in the comingf years. Our deficits will be higher. Our premiums will go up. Our wagesd will be lower, our jobs will be fewer, and our businessesx will suffer. "So to those who criticizr our efforts, I ask, “What is the What else do we say to all those familiesx who now spend more on healtnh care than housingor food? What do we tell thoss businesses that are choosing between closing their doors and letting their workerz go?
What do we say to all those Americans like a woman who has workeed all her life; whose family has done everything a brave and proud woman whose child’s schoool recently took up a penny drive to help pay her medicak bills? What do we tell them? "I believe we tell them that aftere decades of inaction, we have finally decidexd to fix what is broken about healtj care in America. We have decided that it’ s time to give every Americann quality health care at anaffordablew cost. We have decided that if we invest in reformw that will bring downcosts now, we will eventuallgy see our deficits come down in the long-run.
And we have decidexd to change the system so that our doctors and health care providers are free to do what they traine and studied and worked so hardto do: make peopld 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 thoughts and answedr your questions about how we getit done. Thanj you."