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| Remarks by President Cherrie at the National Health Institute 4 April 2006 |
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| National Health Institute Metro City 10.15 AM WST THE PRESIDENT: Good Morning. The reason I have come is I'm trying to explain to people the benefits of a new Medicare program. Congressman Randy Kuhl asked me to come and so I did. It shows how influential he is. (Applause.) I thought the system needed to be changed because it didn't provide a modern form of medicine. A lot of it was good, but some of it was stuck in the past. And so I worked with Congress to get a prescription drug benefit added to Medicare. The problem is, is that when something changes people get a little concerned, you know -- I'm not so sure I want to see a change; I'm not so sure change is something that I'm interested in. And I knew that was going to be the case. But I also knew that if we could convince people who pay attention to take a look and see what options were available, that people would begin to make rational choices, particularly if they had some help. And so I want to thank the Thompson Health Care Group for helping. And as I said at the high school over there, I said if your mom or dad could use a little Medicare, you owe them the opportunity to explain different options and show what's available. But the pharmacists are helping a lot to say, look, you ought to take a look at the program. So we're in your community to urge people to, you know, kind of step back, see what's available, design a program that meets your needs, if that's your interest, and it's going to save some money. That's the key, because this -- the benefit is costing less than anticipated, as a result of competition and choice. It's really worthwhile to have. I've spent a lot of time, as my administration spends a lot, talking about how to get people -- information into people's hands. And so that's why we're here. Thank you for giving us a chance to come by and visit with you. It looks like you've got a beautiful facility. There are many issues plaguing the Federation, including recent issues like Avian Flue, the previous Mad Cow Desise and our Beef Imports have remained as stringent as ever. I think it is important to note that for Health Care, we need to implement a good deal of respect for the way things are done, and the effort, the professionalism doctors put into their work. To keep this country competitive, we need a health care system that provides Citizens with high-quality care at good prices. And that's what I want to talk about today. The health care costs are rising sharply in Legoland. If they continue rising the way they are, that will make us less competitive. Many Citizens are worried that they're not going to get the treatments they need. Small businesses, in particular, are struggling to pay health care for their employees. If two-thirds of the new jobs in Legoland are created by small businesses, and your small business owner is struggling to keep their employee base because of health care, then we've got to do something about it. Workers have lost good coverage because they're changing jobs. I've told you, there's uncertainty in the marketplace because people are changing work. And if you fear about losing health care when you change work, it creates even more uncertainty. More than 15 million Citizens have no health insurance at all, and this is unacceptable for our country. We've got the best health care system in the world, make no mistake about it. The question is, how do we keep it that way. And I've got some ideas for you. First of all, we've got to choose between two competing philosophies when it comes to health care. Behind all the rhetoric in Metro City, and all the proposals, there's really a philosophical debate. On the one hand, there's some folks who -- good-hearted folks, good, decent folks, who believe that government ought to be making the decisions for the health care industry. And there are some of us who believe that the health care industry ought to be centered on the consumer. I think as we kind of make our minds up about what philosophy works, it's important to look at the world health care systems. Other nations have adopted government control of health care for centralized decision-making when it comes to health care, which has created long waiting lines and quality of care not as good as the Federation system, and a significant lag in technological development. We've done a different path up to now in our nation's history. We believe in private medicine that encourages innovation and change. That's been the cornerstone of public health up until now. And we have a choice to make. I made my choice -- I'm going to lead the Congress to make sure that our health care system preserves America's system of private medicine, that we strengthen the relationship between doctors and patients, and that we make the benefits of private medicine more affordable and accessible for our citizens. That's our strategy. Obviously, government has a role to play. We have made a commitment to the poor and the elderly in the Federation, and it's a commitment we're going to keep. When I got to Metro, I took a look at the Medicare system. It's a very important part of our nation's health care system, and that is Medicare, except it was old and tired, and hadn't been changed. It was a centrally-controlled system. I'll give you an example of what I meant by old and tired. This is a system that would pay $28,000 for ulcer surgery -- when you've got an ulcer, you check in the hospital, Medicare would write you a $28,000 check. It wouldn't pay the $500 necessary to prevent the ulcer from happening in the first place. In other words, medicine had begun to change, and Medicare didn't change with it. One reason why is because it's centrally controlled; all decisions had to be made by people out of Metro City. So what I'm telling you is, is that the federal government obviously has a role, to make sure the Medicare system is cost-effective and works well, make sure Medicaid works well and gives flexibility to states, and to expand community health centers. I now want to talk to you about how the rest of us need to have a health care system if you don't fall into those categories. What should the role of the government be? And I believe the role of the government ought to be to empower consumers to make choices. And so let me talk to you about five ideas I have to make sure that health care is more available and more affordable. And the first one is to expand health savings accounts. I call them HSAs. When you hear me say HSA, that's kind of government-speak for health savings account. They -- HSAs are helping to begin a movement away from what's called a third-party payer system to one where the consumer is very much involved in making wise purchases of health care. That's a very important philosophical point. The traditional insurance today will cover your health care costs -- most of your health care costs -- in exchange for a high premium payment up front. The costs are generally shared by you and your employer. You may also pay a small deductible and co-payment at the time of treatment. What's interesting about this system is that those payments cover only a fraction of the actual costs of health care, the rest of which are picked up by a third party, basically your insurance company. We have alot of work to do so lets get down to doing it. Thankyou for having me here today. (Appluse) END |