Obama on health care reform

Obama's Labor Day Speech was given at a labor rally in Ohio and in it he touched on health care reform. Saying he didn't want to give away what he will say on Wednesday to Congress, he did reaffirm some broad principles:

We've never been this close. We've never had such broad agreement on what needs to be done. And because we're so close to real reform, the special interests are doing what they always do-trying to scare the American people and preserve the status quo.

But I've got a question for them: What's your answer? What's your solution? The truth is, they don't have one. It's do nothing. And we know what that future looks like. . . .

But that's not the future I see for America. I see reform where we bring stability and security to folks who have insurance today. Where you never again have to worry about going without coverage-if you lose your job, change your job or get sick. Where there is a cap on your out-of-pocket expenses, so you don't have to worry that a serious illness will break you and your family. Where you never again have to worry that you or someone you love will be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.

I see reform where Americans and small businesses that are shut out of health insurance today will be able to purchase coverage at a price they can afford. Where they'll be able to shop and compare in a new health insurance exchange-a marketplace where competition and choice will continue to hold down cost and help deliver them a better deal. And I continue to believe that a public option within the basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs.

I see reform where we protect our senior citizens by closing the gaps in their Medicare prescription coverage that costs millions of older Americans thousands of dollars every year out of their own pockets; reforms that will preserve Medicare and put it on a sounder financial footing by cutting waste and fraud and the hundreds of billions of dollars in unwarranted public subsidies to an already profitable insurance industry.

I want a health insurance system that works as well for the American people as it does for the insurance industry. They should be free to make a profit. But they also have to be fair. They also have to be accountable.

Security and stability for folks who have health insurance. Help for those who don't-the coverage they need at a price they can afford.

Finally bringing costs under control. That's the reform we need.

I'm trying to accept that we probably are not going to get the public option this go round. I think that's unfortunate, because without it we lose a major way of reducing costs. But when I review what we probably will get, it is certainly better than we have now.

And it will be historical and a major change. I'll try to think of it as a victory and not a cave-in to the Republicans and their gorilla warfare to defeat Obama.

For a while, I was even thinking we would be better off not passing anything now and come back later with a better bill. But that wouldn't happen for several more years; and in the meantime millions would continue without insurance, others would be dropped from what they have, and it would only get worse. This way it will get better, even though insurance companies will make obscene profits, our overall health care costs will go up.

Let's hope the next go round will see a single payer plan as the solution rather than concluding we can't afford health care. To do so, we have to elect even more progressive Democrats.

Ralph