Healthcare reform

“ Today, I'm asking all Americans to help me break a logjam holding up reform of our health care system. Health care in our country is too expensive, too complicated. And too many times, the system is downright unfair. I've proposed comprehensive reforms, including four pieces of legislation now waiting in Congress' in-box. Americans could begin enjoying the benefits of reform right away if only Congress would act. ”

“ What is required, however, is a commitment to reform that focuses not on Democratic ideas or Republican ideas, but on ideas that work to rein in costs, expand access, and improve the quality of health care for the American people. ”

“ Because of spiraling health care costs that are crushing our families, dragging down our entire economy, and represent one of the fastest-growing parts of our federal and state budgets, we've made a historic commitment to health care reform in this budget -- reform that brings us closer to the day when health care is affordable and accessible for every single American. ”

“ The real choices on health care reform facing the Congress are becoming quite clear. For many, many months now, I have been fighting for private insurance coverage—not a Government program—for all Americans, along with provisions to make health care affordable to small business, to farmers, to the families with preexisting conditions. Interest groups and Members of Congress in the other party have criticized my plan, while many of them have said that they, too, are for full coverage for all Americans, but they offer no alternative to guarantee it. ”

“ This week, I conveyed to Congress my belief that any health care reform must be built around fundamental reforms that lower costs, improve quality and coverage, and also protect consumer choice. That means if you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold. ”

“ They say they're reforming the health care system, but they fail to provide every American with the ironclad guarantee that they'll have private health insurance that can never be taken away. Health care reform just isn't the real thing unless middle class working people are guaranteed coverage, and after at least 50 years of delay, the American people deserve the real thing. ”

“ Health Care The Obama-Biden Plan On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes -- government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. ”

“ Over the past few months, I’ve been pushing hard to make sure we finally address the need for health insurance reform, which has been deferred year after year, decade after decade. And today, after a lot of hard work in Congress, we are closer than ever before to finally passing reform that will reduce costs, expand coverage, and provide more choices for our families and businesses. ”

“ As I said yesterday, the President believes health care reform that lessens the cost for families and small businesses, improves outcomes in quality, and provides additional access to millions that don't currently have health insurance is long overdue for the American people. ”

“ We will introduce overall reform in public hospitals nationwide, abolish all markups on pharmaceuticals, and make coordinated progress in reforming health care pricing, staffing and remuneration, medicine distribution, and models of health insurance payment. ”

“ I do not accept a future where Americans forego health care because they can’t pay for it, and more and more families go without coverage at all. And I don’t accept a future where American business is hurt and our government goes broke. We have a responsibility to act, and to act now. That is why I’m working with Congress to pass reform that lowers costs, improves quality and coverage, and protects consumer health care choices. ”

“ For weeks we've been told that health care reform is dead, that America will continue to be the only advanced country in the world that spends more than anybody else on health care and does less with it, leaving tens of millions of our fellow citizens without health insurance, tens of millions more with inadequate insurance, and even more with the constant risk of losing their coverage. ”

“ But even as I’m abroad, I’m firmly focused on the other pressing challenges we face – including the urgent need to reform our health care system. Even as we speak, Congress is preparing to introduce and debate health reform legislation that is the product of many months of effort and deliberation. And if you’re like any of the Americans I’ve met across this country who know all too well that the soaring costs of health care make our current course unsustainable, I imagine you’ll be watching their progress closely. ”

“ To my progressive friends, I would remind you that for decades, the driving idea behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage affordable for those without it. The public option is only a means to that end — and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal. And to my Republican friends, I say that rather than making wild claims about a government takeover of health care, we should work together to address any legitimate concerns you may have. ”

“ Our ideas and opinions about how to achieve this reform will vary, but our goal must be the same: quality, affordable health care for every American that no longer overwhelms the budgets of families, businesses, and our government. ”

“ These problems will not be solved with a nationalized health care system that dictates coverage and rations care. Instead, we must work toward a system in which all Americans have a good insurance policy...choose their own doctors..and seniors and low-income Americans receive the help they need. Instead of bureaucrats, and trial lawyers, and HMOs, we must put doctors, and nurses, and patients back in charge of American medicine.
Health care reform must begin with Medicare, because Medicare is the binding commitment of a caring society. ”

“ No longer will you be without health insurance, even if you lose your job or change jobs. The good news is that people who know the system best are rallying to the cause of change. Just this past week, the American Nurses Association, representing millions of nurses across America, and the American Medical Association, representing doctors across our nation, announced their support because they’ve seen first-hand the need for health insurance reform. ”

“ Millions of Americans, even those with good health insurance, must live in fear of losing their health coverage. Another 2 million Americans lost their insurance in 1993. Our health care reform plan is a guaranteed system of private insurance that will cover every American. We'll maintain the health care system in private hands, improve the quality of health care, increase the choices you have as a consumer, and protect the doctor-patient relationship. ”

“ In fact, what’s remarkable is not that we’ve had a spirited debate about health insurance reform, but the unprecedented consensus that has come together behind it. This consensus encompasses everyone from doctors and nurses to hospitals and drug manufacturers. ”

“ After 60 years of fits and starts, of roadblocks and dead-ends, we're finally making real progress toward comprehensive health care reform. This week, for the first time ever, the relevant committees of Congress in both Houses have begun to review and modify our proposal to guarantee all Americans private health insurance, to give small businesses, farmers, and self-employed people the ability to buy insurance like big business and Government can today. ”

“ Within the first year of signing health care reform, thousands of uninsured Americans with preexisting conditions would suddenly be able to purchase health insurance for the very first time in their lives, or the first time in a long time. ”

“ Finally, many in this chamber — particularly on the Republican side of the aisle — have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health care. I don't believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but I have talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs. ”

“ After a long and thorough debate, we are on the verge of passing health insurance reform that will finally offer Americans the security of knowing they’ll have quality, affordable health care whether they lose their job, change jobs, move, or get sick. The worst practices of the insurance industry will be banned forever. ”

“ With health care reform, our economy will be more productive; our companies will be more competitive; our workers will be more secure in their jobs and, therefore, more productive in them; and our families will be more confident about their future. If we want to really straighten out this economy and live more prosperous lives, we have to improve the Nation's health care system.
And we know something else: The price of doing nothing about health care is far too high. Doing nothing means more and more Americans losing their coverage. ”

“ It follows that adequate reform required that methods should be adopted with a view to some part or all the cost of treatment being provided by the patient or his friends through an entire reorganization of the system of medical relief not only at the voluntary hospitals, but under the poor-law system. ”

“ Because this reform concerns the people's health-related rights and interests, we need to improve leadership, make plans and arrangements carefully, progress vigorously yet prudently, and effectively solve the problem of medical services being unaffordable and inadequate, in order to provide safe, effective, convenient and affordable medical and health care services for the people. ”

“ The Republican leadership in Congress has acknowledged that poor quality in managed care is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. I'm pleased that Senate Majority Leader Lott said he would bring managed care reform legislation to a vote on the Senate floor early this summer. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership's legislation falls far short of providing American families the protections they need in a changing health care system. ”

“ We can’t keep shifting a growing burden to future generations. With each passing year, health care costs consume a larger share of our nation’s spending, and contribute to yawning deficits that we cannot control. So let me be clear: health care reform is not part of the problem when it comes to our fiscal future, it is a fundamental part of the solution. ”

“ Well, I think that's the plan that, as he talked about in the campaign, he thought was best to achieve the long-term goals of health care reform. I would expand, I guess, your question a little bit to include not just people that are in Congress, but stakeholders that include doctors, insurance companies, certainly businesses that are grappling with the rising costs of health care coverage, labor unions. ”

“ But what we have to do and what the President believes strongly is that we can -- we cannot wait for health care reform any longer; that we have to do all that we can. And I think today's event was an important start in that process. ”

“ A Patients' Bill of Rights that doesn't provide these important protections is a Patients' Bill of Rights in name only, and our people deserve better. Protecting our families should be an issue that brings us together. I've been encouraged that many Republicans have said they would work with Democrats to pass strong, enforceable managed care reform.
Today I ask the congressional leadership to move the right kind of managed care reform to the very top of their agenda. After all, we all get sick; we all need health care. ”

“ And we're putting the finishing touches on a health care reform proposal that will restore peace of mind and financial security to homes and to businesses all across America by providing health care that's always there at an affordable price. ”

“ Taken together with the earlier enactment this month of long-delayed laws to extend health care to millions more children of working families, we've done more in 30 days to advance the cause of health care reform than this country has done in a decade. ”

“ Reforming health care is a bipartisan priority. Earlier this week, I was pleased to receive a letter from 10 senators -- five Democrats and five Republicans -- who expressed their desire to work together on health care reform. ”

“ And there are still those who would try to kill reform at any cost. The history is clear: for decades rising health care costs have unleashed havoc on families, businesses, and the economy. And for decades, whenever we have tried to reform the system, the insurance companies have done everything in their considerable power to stop us. ”

“ Over the better part of the past year, a great debate has taken place in Washington and across America, about how to reform our health care system to provide security for people with insurance, coverage for those without insurance, and lower costs for everyone. ”

“ We're fighting hard to reform our health care system. And soon, we'll put forward a plan to provide real security and health care for every American family. And already, special interests are trying to carve the plan to bits. ”

“ In the weeks ahead, you'll hear from special interests who do very well in the present system and who prefer the deadlock of political systems to the reform of health care. For months, those who do well in the present system and those who want for political reasons to beat health care reform, have blitzed the American people with mountains of false information about our health care plan. They say it means Government regulation of the whole system. They say it means taking away benefits from Americans. But the truth is what we want is private insurance for everyone. ”

“ We're seeing consumers get a break from unfair rate hikes and patients get the care they need when they need it and young adults getting the security of knowing that they can start off life with one less cost to worry about. At long last, this is what health care reform is achieving. ”