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Obama’s Health Care Speech to Congress: “It’s Our Moral Imperative”

Read a quick summary and watch the speech.

ABOUT AN hour ago, President Obama finished his health care speech before Congress where he announced a health plan proposal that 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”.

Let’s flesh out each of these three goals a bit.

I. Security and Stability
By this, Mr. Obama says that his plan will regulate private heath insurers such that they can not exclude those with pre-conditions (current or former health problems), can not refuse to pay if prior undeclared health problems are discovered, or limit how much money the insurer pays out each year or over a lifetime.

II. Insurance for All
It’s proposed that everyone must get health care insurance, as they do car insurance. Small businesses or individuals can join an exchange that pools large numbers of people so that they have pricing leverage with private insurers. Or there would be a public provider option, but one not subsidized by the government — it would have to compete with private insurers — but without a profit motive and with smaller executive paychecks, would be able to offer insurance at lower cost than is presently in the market.

III. Cost Management
The projected cost for the proposal is approximately $900 billion over ten years; however, the claim is that only 1/10th of 1% cost savings per year will pay for that (along with fees assessed insurance companies for high-end insurance). Mr. Obama is confident that various cost-cutting measures will exceed this tiny benchmark. Those who can not afford insurance will be assisted.

There’s plenty more to know, and the speech is worth watching:

Last Updated on April 11, 2023 by Joe Garma