Obama lays it on the line to push his healthcare program in his prime time press conference tonight. Full Transcript from AP HERE
The key to his approach: Give FREE Healthcare to “Middle Class” Americans
The one commitment that I’ve been clear about is I don’t want that final one-third of the cost of health care to be completely shouldered on the backs of middle-class families who are already struggling in a difficult economy.
And so if I see a proposal that is primarily funded through taxing middle-class families, I’m going to be opposed to that because I think there are better ideas to do it.
Now there are — you know, I have not yet seen what the Senate Finance Committee is producing. They’ve got a number of ideas. But we haven’t seen a final draft. The House suggested a surcharge on wealthy Americans. And my understanding, although I haven’t seen the final versions, is that there has been talk about making that basically only apply to families whose joint income is $1 million.
To me, that meets my principle that it’s not being shouldered by families who are already having a tough time.
Watch Obama wrap himself up like a pretzel answering Jake Tappers critical question of what will Americans REALLY give up to get this “free” healthcare. Watch how he adroitly blames Bush and never really answers Jake’s question.
Q: Thank you, Mr. President. You said earlier that you wanted to tell the American people what’s in it for them. How will their family benefit from the health care reform? But experts say that in addition to the benefits that you’re pushing, there is going to have to be some sacrifice in order for there to be true cost-cutting measures, such as Americans giving up tests, referrals, choice, end-of-life care.
When you describe health care reform, you don’t — understandably, you don’t talk about the sacrifices that Americans might have to make. Do you think — do you accept the premise that other than some tax increases on the wealthiest Americans, the American people are going to have to give anything up in order for this to happen?
OBAMA: They’re going to have to give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier. And I — speaking as an American, I think that’s the kind of change you want.
Look, if, right now, hospitals and doctors aren’t coordinating enough to have you just take one test when you come because of an illness, but instead have you take one test, then you go to another specialist, you take a second test, then you go to another specialist, you take a third test, and nobody is bothering to send the first test that you took, same test, to the next doctors, you’re wasting money.
You may not see it, because if you have health insurance right now, it’s just being sent to the insurance company. But that’s raising your premiums. It’s raising everybody’s premiums. And that money, one way or another, is coming out of your pocket. Although we are also subsidizing some of that because there are tax breaks for health care.
So, not only is it costing you money in terms of higher premiums, it’s also costing you as a taxpayer. Now, I want to change that. Every American should want to change that. Why would we want to pay for things that don’t work? That aren’t making us healthier?
And here’s what I’m confident about. If doctors and patients have the best information about what works and what doesn’t, then they’re going to want to pay for what works.
If there’s a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that’s going to make you well?
But the system right now doesn’t incentivize that. Those are the changes that are going to be needed — that we’re going to need to make inside the system. It will require, I think, patients to — as well as doctors, as well as hospitals, to be more discriminating consumers.
But I think that’s a good thing, because ultimately we can’t afford this. We just can’t afford what we’re doing right now.
And — and — and just to — to raise a broader issue that I think has colored how we look at health care reform, let me just talk about deficit and debt, because part of what’s been happening in this debate is the American people are understandably queasy about the huge deficits and debt that we’re facing right now.
And the feeling is, all right, we had the bank bailout, we had the recovery package, we had the supplemental, we’ve got the budget, we’re seeing numbers, trillions here and trillions there. And so I think, legitimately, people are saying, Look, we’re in a recession. I’m cutting back. I’m having to give up things. And yet all I see is government spending more and more money.
And that argument, I think, has been used effectively by people who don’t want to change health care to suggest that somehow this is one more government program. So I just want to address that point very quickly.
First of all, let’s understand that, when I came in, we had a $1.3 trillion deficit — annual deficit that we had already inherited. We had to immediately move forward with a stimulus package because the American economy had lost trillions of dollars of wealth. Consumers had lost through their 401(k)s, through home values, you name it, they had lost trillions of dollars. That all just went away.
That was the day I was sworn in; it was already happening. And we had 700,000 jobs that were being lost. So we felt it was very important to put in place a recovery package that would help stabilize the economy.
Then we had to pass a budget by law, and our budget had a 10-year projection. And I just want everybody to be clear about this. If we had done nothing, if you had the same old budget as opposed to the changes we made in our budget, you’d have a $9.3 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. Because of the changes we’ve made, it’s going to be $7.1 trillion.
Now, that’s not good, but it’s $2.2 trillion less than it would have been if we had the same policies in place when we came in.
So the reason I point this out is to say that the debt and the deficit are deep concerns of mine. I am very worried about federal spending. And the steps that we’ve taken so far have reduced federal spending over the next 10 years by $2.2 trillion.
It’s not enough. But in order for us to do more, we’re not only going to have to eliminate waste in the system — and, by the way, we had a big victory yesterday by eliminating a weapons program, the F-22, that the Pentagon had repeatedly said we didn’t need — so we’re going to have to eliminate waste there.
We’re going to have to eliminate no-bid contracts. We’re going to have to do all kinds of reforms in our budgeting. But we’re also going to have to change health care. Otherwise, we can’t change that $7.1 trillion gap in the way that the American people want it to change.
So to all — everybody who’s out there who has been ginned about this idea that the Obama administration wants to spend and spend and spend, the fact of the matter is, is that we inherited an enormous deficit, enormous long-term debt projections. We have not reduced it as much as we need to and as I’d like to.
But health care reform is not going to add to that deficit. It’s designed to lower it. That’s part of the reason why it’s so important to do, and to do now.
Watch Dear Leader ADMIT he will control your care and ration it!
Steve Koff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer?
Q: Thank you. To follow up on Jake’s question earlier, sir, so many Americans are concerned that this plan, particularly the government insurance, the public option, would lead to reduced benefits or reduced coverage.
Two questions: One, can you guarantee that this legislation will lock in and say the government will never deny any services, that that’s going to be decided by the doctor and the patient, and the government will not deny any coverage? And, secondarily, can you, as a symbolic gesture, say that you and the Congress will abide by the same benefits in that public option?
OBAMA: Well, number one, not only in the public option, but the insurance regulation that we want to put in place will largely match up with what members of Congress are getting through the federal employee plan.
That’s a good example of what we’re trying to build for the American people. The same thing that Congress enjoys, which is they go, there’s a marketplace of different plans that they can access, depending on what’s best for their families.
Now, one of the plans that we talked about is a public option. And part of the reason we want to have a public option is just to help keep the insurance companies honest. If the insurance companies are providing good care — and, as it is, they’re going to be more regulated so that they can’t deny you care because of a pre-existing condition or because you changed jobs or because they’ve decided you’re too sick and not a good risk — you know, with regulation, there’s already going to be some improvement in the insurance industry.
But having a public plan out there that also shows that maybe if you take some of the profit motive out, maybe if you are reducing some of the administrative costs, that you can get an even better deal, that’s going to incentivize the private sector to do even better. And that’s a good thing. That’s a good thing.
Now, you know, there had been reports just over the last couple of days of insurance companies making record profits. Right now, at the time when everybody’s getting hammered, they’re making record profits and premiums are going up.
What’s the constraint on that? How can — how can you ensure that those costs aren’t being passed onto employers or passed onto employees, the American people, ordinary middle-class families, in a way that over time is going to make them broke? Well, part of the way is to make sure that there’s some competition out there.
So — so that’s the idea. Now, to get to your — your original question, can I guarantee that there are going to be no changes in the health care delivery system? No. The whole point of this is to try to encourage changes that work for the American people and make them healthier.
The government already is making some of these decisions. More importantly, insurance companies right now are making those decisions. And part of what we want to do is to make sure that those decisions are being made by doctors and medical experts based on evidence, based on what works, because that’s not how it’s working right now. That’s not — that’s not how it’s working right now.
Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that’s out there. So if they’re looking and you come in and you’ve got a bad sore throat or your child has a bad sore throat or has repeated sore throats, the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.
Now, that may be the right thing to do, but I’d rather have that doctor making those decisions just based on whether you really need your kid’s tonsils out or whether it might make more sense just to change — maybe they have allergies. Maybe they have something else that would make a difference.
So — so part of what we want do is to free doctors, patients, hospitals to make decisions based on what’s best for patient care. And that’s the whole idea behind Mayo. That’s the whole idea behind the Cleveland Clinic.
You know, I’m going to be visiting your hometown tomorrow to go to the Cleveland Clinic to show — to show why their system works so well. And part of the reason it works well is because they’ve — they’ve set up a system where patient care is the number-one concern, not bureaucracy, what forms have to be filled out, what do we get reimbursed for.
Those are changes that I think the American people want to see.
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