Thank you.
, thank you.
Hello, Ohio!
It is good to be here in the Buckeye State.
Congratulations on winning the Big Ten Championship.
I'm filling out my brackets now.
The President's The President's The President's The President's
The President, no wait, yeah, that kid, Turner looks pretty good.
You guys are doing all right.
It is wonderful to be here.
I love you back.
I do.
A couple of people I just want to make sure I give special mention
to.
We saw him Governor Ted Strickland in the House.
Ted is fighting every day to bring jobs and economic
development to Ohio.
So is your terrific United States Senator Sherrod Brown.
Love Sherrod Brown.
The President's name is the President's name.
Your own Congressman, who is tireless on behalf of working
people, Dennis Kucinich.
Did you hear that, Dennis?
Go and say that again.
The President and the President, the President and the President.
A couple of other members of Congress are here.
U.S. Representative Betty Sutton.
U.S. Representative Marsha Fudge.
U.S. Representative Tim Ryan.
I want to thank Mayor Tom Persiak.
Hear Strong's bill, please, Mr. Mayor.
You're on.
That's a good bunch of folks we got here in Ohio, working hard.
Which is why I'm glad to be back.
And let's face it, it's nice to be out of Washington once in a
while.
I want to thank Connie.
I want to thank Connie who introduced me.
I want to thank her and her family for being here on behalf
of her sister, Natoma.
I don't know if everybody understood that Natoma is in
the hospital right now.
So Connie was filling in.
It's not easy to share such a personal story when your sister
you love so much is sick.
And so I appreciate Connie being willing to do so here today.
And I want everybody to understand that Connie and her
sister are the reason that I'm here today.
The President's name is the President's name.
See, Connie felt it was important that her sister's
story be told.
But I want to just repeat what happened here.
Last month, I got a letter from Connie's sister, Natoma.
She's self-employed, she's trying to make ends meet,
and for years she's done the responsible thing,
just like most of you have.
She didn't have a big employer who provided her insurance,
so she bought her health insurance through the individual market.
And it was important for her to have insurance because 16 years
ago she was diagnosed with a treatable form of cancer.
And even though she had been cancer-free for more than a
decade, the insurance companies kept on jacking up her rates,
year after year.
So she increased her out-of-pocket expenses.
She raised her deductible.
She did everything she could to maintain her health insurance that
would be there just in case she got sick,
because she figured I didn't want to be in a position where if she
did get sick, somebody else would have to pick up the tank,
that she'd have to go to the emergency room,
that the cost would be shifted onto folks through their higher
insurance premiums or hospitals charging higher rates.
she tried to do the right thing.
And she upped her deductible last year to the minimum,
the highest possible deductible.
But despite that, the Tomas Insurance Company raised her
premiums by more than 25 percent.
And over the past year, she paid more than $6,000 in monthly
premiums.
She paid more than $4,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs for co-pays and medical care
and prescriptions. So altogether, this woman paid $10,000 one year. But because she never
hit her deductible, her insurance company only spent $900 on her care. All right, so
So the insurance company is making, getting $10,000,
paying out $900.
Now, what comes in the mail at the end of last year?
It's a letter telling Natoma that her premiums would go up
again by more than 40 percent.
So here's what happens.
She just couldn't afford it.
She didn't have the money.
She realized that if she paid those health insurance premiums
that had been jacked up by 40 percent,
she couldn't make her mortgage.
And despite her desire to keep her coverage,
despite her fears that she would get sick and lose the home that
her parents built, she finally surrendered,
she finally gave up her health insurance.
She stopped paying it.
She couldn't make ends meet.
January was her last month of being insured.
Like so many responsible Americans,
folks who work hard every day, who try to do the right thing,
she was forced to hang her fortunes on chance.
Just to take a chance, that's all she could do.
She hoped against hope that she would stay healthy.
She feared terribly that she might not stay healthy.
That was the letter that I read to the insurance companies,
including the person responsible for raising her rates.
Now, I understand Natoma was pretty surprised when she found
out that I'd read it to these CEOs.
But I thought it was important for them to understand the human
dimensions of this problem.
Her rates had been hyped more than 40 percent.
This was less than two weeks ago.
Unfortunately, Natoma's worst fears were realized.
And just last week, she was working on a nearby farm,
walking outside, apparently chasing after a cow,
when she collapsed And she was rushed to the hospital She was very sick
She needed two blood transfusions.
Doctors performed a battery of tests.
And on Saturday, Natoma was diagnosed with leukemia.
Now, the reason Natoma is not here today is that she's lying
in a hospital bed, suddenly faced with this emergency,
to face more than a month of aggressive chemotherapy.
She's wracked with worry not only about her illness,
but about the costs of the tests and the treatment that she's
surely going to need to beat it.
So you want to know why I'm here, Ohio?
I'm here because of Natoma.
I'm here because of the countless others who have been
forced to face the most terrifying challenges in their
with the added burden of medical bills they can't pay.
I don't think that's right.
Neither do you.
That's why we need health insurance right now.
Health insurance reform right now.
I'm here because of my own mother's story.
She died of cancer, and in the last six months of her life,
she was on the phone in her hospital room arguing with
insurance companies instead of focusing on getting well and
spending time with her family.
I'm here because of the millions who are denied coverage because
of preexisting conditions, or dropped from coverage when they
get sick.
I'm here because of the small businesses who are forced to
choose between health care and hiring.
I'm here because of the seniors unable to afford the
prescriptions that they need.
I'm here because of the folks seeing their premiums go up 20
and 30 and 40 and 50 and 60 percent in a year.
Ohio, I am here because that is not the America I believe in.
And that's not the America that you believe in.
So when you hear people say, start over, I want you to think about Natoma.
When you hear people saying that this isn't the right time,
you think about what she's going through.
When you hear people talk about, well,
what does this mean for the Democrats?
What does this mean for the Republicans?
I don't know how the polls are doing.
When you hear people more worried about the politics of it than
what's right and what's wrong, I want you to think about Natoma
and the millions of people all across this country who are
looking for some help and looking for some relief.
That's why we need health insurance reform right now.
You know, part of what makes this issue difficult is most of us
do have health insurance.
We still do.
And so we kind of feel like, well, I don't know,
it's kind of working for me.
I'm not worrying too much.
But what we have to understand is that what's happened in
Natoma, there but for the grace of God go any one of us.
Anybody here, if you lost your job right now?
And after the Cobra ran out, looks like we've got somebody
who might have fainted down there.
So if we've got a medic.
No, no, no, hold on.
I'm talking about there's somebody who might have fainted
right down here.
So if we can get a medic just back here.
They're probably okay.
Just give her or him some space.
The Pressure of the President.
So let's just think about if you lost your job right now.
How many people here might have had a preexisting condition that
would mean it would be very hard to get health insurance on the
individual market.
Think about if you wanted to change jobs.
Think about if you wanted to start your own business,
but you suddenly had to give up your health insurance on your job.
Think about what happens if a child of yours,
heaven forbid, got diagnosed with something that made it hard
for them to insure.
For so many people, it may not be a problem right now,
But it's going to be a problem later at any point.
And even if you've got good health insurance,
what's happening to your premiums?
What's happening to your co-payments?
What's happening to your deductibles?
They're all going up.
That's money straight out of your pocket.
So the bottom line is this.
The status quo on health care is simply unsustainable.
We can't have
We can't have a system that works better for the insurance
companies than it does for the American people.
And we know what will happen if we fail to act.
We know that our government will be plunged deeper into debt.
We know that millions more people will lose their coverage.
We know that rising costs will saddle millions more families
with unaffordable expenses.
And a lot of small businesses are just going to drop their
coverage altogether.
That's already what's been happening.
A study came out just yesterday.
This is a nonpartisan study.
It's found that without reform, premiums could more than double
for individuals and families over the next decade.
Family policies could go to an average of $25,000 or more.
Can you afford that?
No.
The President's office.
You think your employer can afford that?
No.
The President's office.
Your employer can't sustain that.
So what's going to happen is they're basically, more and more
of them are just going to say, you know what, you're on your own on this.
We have debated this issue now for more than a year.
Every proposal has been put on the table.
Every argument has been made.
I know a lot of people view this as a partisan issue.
But look, the fact is both parties have a lot of areas
where we agree, it's just politics are getting in the way
of actually getting it done.
Somebody asked, what's our plan?
Let me describe exactly what we're doing.
Because we've ended up with a proposal that incorporates the
best ideas from Democrats and Republicans,
even though Republicans don't give us any credit.
That's all right.
You know, if you think about the debate around health care
reform, there were some who wanted to scrap the system of
private insurance and replace it with government care And look that works in a number of places But I did not see that being practical to get help right away
for people who really need it.
And on the other end of the spectrum,
and this is what a lot of the Republicans are saying right now,
there are those who simply believe that the answer is to
unleash the insurance industry, to deregulate them further,
provide them less oversight and fewer rules.
This is called the Fox Garden, the henhouse approach to health
insurance reform.
So what it would do is it would give insurance companies more
leeway to raise premiums, more leeway to deny care.
It would segment the market further.
It would be good if you were rich and healthy.
You'd save money, but if you're an ordinary person,
if you get older, if you get a little sicker,
you'd be paying more.
Now, I don't believe we should give the government or insurance
companies more control over health care in America.
I believe it's time to give you, the American people,
more control over your own health insurance.
And that's what our proposal does.
Our proposal builds on the current system where most
Americans get their health insurance from their employer.
So if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.
If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
I don't want to interfere with people's relationships between
them and their doctors.
Essentially, here's what my proposal would change.
Three things about the current health care system,
but three important things.
Number one, it would end the worst practices of the insurance
companies.
This is like a patient's bill of rights on steroids.
The President, I'm going to say,
within the first year of signing health care reform,
thousands of uninsured Americans with preexisting conditions
will be able to purchase health insurance for the first time in
their lives or the first time since they got sick.
This year, insurance companies will be banned forever from
denying coverage to children with preexisting conditions so parents can have a little bit
of security.
This year, under this legislation, insurance companies will be banned from dropping your
coverage when you get sick. Those practices would end.
With this reform package, all new insurance plans would be
required to offer free preventive care to their customers
starting this year.
So free checkups to catch preventable diseases on the
front end.
That's a smart thing to do.
Starting this year, if you buy a new plan,
there won't be lifetime or restrictive annual limits on the
the amount of care you receive from your insurance company,
so you won't be surprised by the fine print that says suddenly
they've stopped paying and you now suddenly are $50,000 or $100,000
or $200,000 out of pocket.
That won't, that will not happen if this becomes law this year.
I see some young people in the audience.
If you're an uninsured young adult, you will be able to stay on your parents' policy until
you're 26 years old under this law.
So number one, number one is insurance reform.
The second thing that this plan would change about the current
system is this.
For the first time, uninsured individuals, small businesses,
they'd have the same kind of choice of private health
insurance that members of Congress get for themselves.
And I think that's the only thing that we can do.
Understand, if this reform becomes law, members of Congress,
they'll be getting their insurance from the same place
that the uninsured get theirs.
Because if it's good enough for the American people,
it's good enough for the people who send us to Washington.
Simply, what would happen is we'd set up a pool of people,
millions of people across the country would all buy into these
pools that give them more negotiating power.
If you work for a big company, you've got a better insurance
deal because you've got more bargaining power as a whole.
We want you to have all the bargaining power that the
federal employees have, that big companies have,
so you'll be able to buy in or small business will be able to
buy into this pool.
And that will lower rates as estimated by up to 14 to 20%
over what you're currently getting.
That's money out of pocket.
And what my proposal says is if you still can't afford the
insurance in this new marketplace,
then we're going to offer you tax credits to do so.
And that will add up to the largest middle-class tax cut for
health care in history.
That's what we're going to do.
Now, when I was talking about this at that health care summit,
some of you saw it.
I sat there for about seven hours.
I know you guys watched the whole thing.
But some of these folks said, well, we just, that's a nice idea,
but we just can't afford to do that.
Look, I want everybody to understand,
the wealthiest among us can already buy the best insurance
there is.
least well among us, the poorest among us,
they get their health care through Medicaid.
So it's the middle class, it's working people that are getting
squeezed, and that's who we have to help,
and we can afford to do it.
Now, it is true that providing these tax credits,
to middle-class families and small businesses,
that's going to cost some money.
It's going to cost about $100 billion per year.
But most of this comes from the nearly $2.5 trillion a year that
Americans already spend on health care.
It's just right now a lot of that money is being spent badly.
So with this plan, we're going to make sure the dollars we make
the dollars that we spend on health care are going to make
insurance more affordable and more secure.
we're going to eliminate wasteful taxpayer subsidies that
currently go to insurance companies.
Insurance companies are making billions of dollars on subsidies
from you, the taxpayer, and if we take those subsidies away,
we can use them to help folks like Lentoma get health insurance
so she doesn't lose her house.
And yes, we will set a new fee on insurance companies because they
stand to gain millions more customers who are buying insurance There nothing wrong with them giving something back But here the bottom line Our proposal is paid for
Which, by the way, is more than can be said for our colleagues on
the other side of the aisle when they passed that big prescription
drug plan that costs about as much as my health care plan,
and they didn't pay for any of it and went straight to the deficit,
and now they're up there on their high horse talking about,
we don't want to expand the deficit.
This plan doesn't expand the deficit.
Their plan expanded the deficit.
That's why we pay for what we do.
That's the responsible thing to do.
So let me talk about the third thing,
which is my proposal would bring down the cost of health care
for families, for businesses, and for the federal government.
So Americans buying comparable coverage to what they have today,
I already said this, would see premiums fall by 14 to 20 percent.
That's not my numbers.
That's what the Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says.
For Americans who get their insurance through the workplace,
how many people are getting insurance through their jobs
right now?
Raise your hands.
Well, a lot of those folks, your employer,
it's estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000
percent, which means they could give you a raise.
We have incorporated most of the serious ideas from across the
political spectrum about how to contain the rising costs of
health care.
We go after waste and abuse in the system, especially in Medicare.
Our cost-cutting measures would reduce most people's premiums and
bring down our deficit by up to a trillion dollars over the next
two decades.
Those aren't my numbers.
Those are the numbers determined by the Congressional Budget
Office.
They're the referee.
That's what they say, not what I say.
Now, the opponents of reform, they've tried to make a lot of
different arguments to stop these changes.
You remember, first they said, well,
there's a government takeover of health care.
Well, that wasn't true.
Then they said, well, what about death panels?
Well, that turned out to be true.
The most insidious argument they're making is the idea that
somehow this would hurt Medicare.
I know we've got some seniors here with us today,
So I couldn't tell you guys look great.
I wouldn't have guessed.
But I want to tell you directly, this proposal adds almost a decade
of solvency to Medicare.
This proposal would close the gap in prescription drug coverage
called the donut hole, you know something about that,
that sticks seniors with thousands of dollars of drug costs.
This proposal will over time help to reduce the cost of
Medicare that you pay every month.
This proposal would make preventive care free so you
don't have to pay out of pocket for tests to keep you healthy.
So, yes, we're going after the waste, the fraud,
abuse in Medicare.
We are eliminating some of the insurance subsidies that should
be going to your care.
That's because these dollars should be spent on care for
seniors, not on the care and feeding of the insurance
companies through sweetheart deals.
And every senior should know there is no cutting of your
guaranteed Medicare benefits, period.
No ifs, ands, or buts.
This proposal makes Medicare stronger, it makes the coverage better, and it makes the
finances more secure. And anybody who says otherwise is either misinformed or they're
trying to misinform you. Don't let them hoodwink you. They're trying to hoodwink him.
The President's not going to be a vote.
No.
So, look, Ohio, that's the proposal.
And I believe Congress owes the American people a final up or
down vote.
We need an up or down vote.
It's time to vote.
And now, as we get closer to the vote,
there is a lot of hand-wringing going on.
We hear a lot of people in Washington talking about politics,
talking about what this means in November,
talking about the poll numbers for Democrats and Republicans.
We need courage.
Did you hear what somebody just said?
That's what we need.
That's why I came here today.
We need courage.
You know, in the end, this debate is about far more than politics.
It comes down to what kind of country do we want to be.
It's about the millions of lives that would be touched,
and in some cases saved, by making health insurance more
secure and more affordable.
And it's about a woman who is lying in a hospital bed who just
wants to be able to pay for the care she needs.
And the truth is, what's at stake in this debate,
it's not just our ability to solve this problem,
it's about our ability to solve any problem.
I was talking to Dennis Kucinich on the way over here about this.
I say, you know what, it's been such a long time since we made
government on the side of ordinary working folks,
where we did something for them that relieved some of their
struggles that made folks who work hard every day and are
doing the right thing and were looking out for their families
and contributing to their communities that just gave them
a little bit of a better chance to live out their American dream.
The American people want to know if it's still possible for
Washington to look out for their interests, for their future.
So what they're looking for is some courage.
They're waiting for us to act.
They're waiting for us to lead.
They don't want us putting our finger out to the wind.
They don't want us reading polls.
They want us to look and see what is the best thing for America
and then do what's right.
And as long as I hold this office,
I intend to provide that leadership.
And I know these members of Congress are going to provide
that leadership.
I don't know about the politics, but I know what's the right thing to do.
And so I'm calling on Congress to pass these reforms,
and I'm going to sign them into law.
I want some courage.
I want us to do the right thing, Ohio.
And with your help, we're going to make it happen.
God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.