The White House released a partial transcript of President Obama's remarks tonight before a joint session of Congress:
I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined
to be the last. It has now been nearly a century since Theodore
Roosevelt first called for health care reform. And ever since, nearly
every President and Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, has
attempted to meet this challenge in some way. A bill for comprehensive
health reform was first introduced by John Dingell Sr. in 1943.
Sixty-five years later, his son continues to introduce that same bill
at the beginning of each session.
Our collective failure to meet this challenge - year after year, decade
after decade - has led us to a breaking point. Everyone understands
the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live
every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy. These are
not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans.
Some can't get insurance on the job. Others are self-employed, and
can't afford it, since buying insurance on your own costs you three
times as much as the coverage you get from your employer. Many other
Americans who are willing and able to pay are still denied insurance
due to previous illnesses or conditions that insurance companies decide
are too risky or expensive to cover.
***
During that time, we have seen Washington at its best and its worst.
We have seen many in this chamber work tirelessly for the better part
of this year to offer thoughtful ideas about how to achieve reform. Of
the five committees asked to develop bills, four have completed their
work, and the Senate Finance Committee announced today that it will
move forward next week. That has never happened before. Our overall
efforts have been supported by an unprecedented coalition of doctors
and nurses; hospitals, seniors' groups and even drug companies - many
of whom opposed reform in the past. And there is agreement in this
chamber on about eighty percent of what needs to be done, putting us
closer to the goal of reform than we have ever been.
But what we have also seen in these last months is the same partisan
spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have toward
their own government. Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare
tactics. Some have dug into unyielding ideological camps that offer no
hope of compromise. Too many have used this as an opportunity to score
short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our
opportunity to solve a long-term challenge. And out of this blizzard
of charges and counter-charges, confusion has reigned.
Well the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed.
Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas
of both parties together, and show the American people that we can
still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on
health care.
The plan I'm announcing tonight would meet three basic goals:
It will provide more security and stability to those who have health
insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don't. And it will
slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses,
and our government. It's a plan that asks everyone to take
responsibility for meeting this challenge - not just government and
insurance companies, but employers and individuals. And it's a plan
that incorporates ideas from Senators and Congressmen; from Democrats
and Republicans - and yes, from some of my opponents in both the
primary and general election.
***
Here are the details that every American needs to know about this plan:
First, if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who
already have health insurance through your job, Medicare, Medicaid, or
the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to
change the coverage or the doctor you have. Let me repeat this:
nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.
What this plan will do is to make the insurance you have work better
for you. Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance
companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. As
soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance
companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when
you need it most. They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary
cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a
lifetime. We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for
out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one
should go broke because they get sick. And insurance companies will be
required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and
preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies - because there's no
reason we shouldn't be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon
cancer before they get worse. That makes sense, it saves money, and it
saves lives.
That's what Americans who have health insurance can expect from this plan - more security and stability.
Now, if you're one of the tens of millions of Americans who don't
currently have health insurance, the second part of this plan will
finally offer you quality, affordable choices. If you lose your job or
change your job, you will be able to get coverage. If you strike out
on your own and start a small business, you will be able to get
coverage. We will do this by creating a new insurance exchange - a
marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop
for health insurance at competitive prices. Insurance companies will
have an incentive to participate in this exchange because it lets them
compete for millions of new customers. As one big group, these
customers will have greater leverage to bargain with the insurance
companies for better prices and quality coverage. This is how large
companies and government employees get affordable insurance. It's how
everyone in this Congress gets affordable insurance. And it's time to
give every American the same opportunity that we've given ourselves.
***
This is the plan I'm proposing. It's a plan that incorporates ideas
from many of the people in this room tonight - Democrats and
Republicans. And I will continue to seek common ground in the weeks
ahead. If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be
there to listen. My door is always open.
But know this: I will not waste time with those who have made the
calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve
it. I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old
tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent
what's in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the
status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.
Everyone in this room knows what will happen if we do nothing. Our
deficit will grow. More families will go bankrupt. More businesses
will close. More Americans will lose their coverage when they are sick
and need it most. And more will die as a result. We know these things
to be true.
That is why we cannot fail. Because there are too many Americans
counting on us to succeed - the ones who suffer silently, and the ones
who shared their stories with us at town hall meetings, in emails, and
in letters.
