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“Without the Affordable Care Act, I simply could not have retired at 62.”

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Health Care Blog

  • Health Insurance Reform: What's In It For You?

    Posted by Jesse Lee on July 29, 2009 at 11:52 AM EDT

    At 11:55 this morning in Raleigh, North Carolina, the President will be holding a town hall on health insurance reform and will hone in on 8 core insurance consumer protections that help define how this legislation will affect you directly. You can listen to audio of the town hall here once it starts, or most likely catch some of it on cable news, but in the meantime we have distilled those protections into a single, simple page for you. Thinking through the stories of frustration, anxiety, and even tragedy that you have lived and heard about regarding health insurance, you'll find that these new fundamental protections provide a profound change in how Americans experience health care.
    As the President says in the email below that he sent to White House subscribers this morning, the misinformation will be flying fast and furious over the next month, so it is important to put this stake in the ground telling people what reform is really about. A friend, a family member, or a contact might forward you some anonymous email making ridiculous claims about this or that provision – you can forward this information to them first so they know what is real and what is fake. Read the President's email below and send our page to your friends and family via email, Twitter, Facebook or whatever other methods you can think of. (Sign up for future White House emails here.)
    Good Morning,
    If you’re like most Americans, there’s nothing more important to you about health care than peace of mind.
    Given the status quo, that’s understandable. The current system often denies insurance due to pre-existing conditions, charges steep out-of-pocket fees – and sometimes isn’t there at all if you become seriously ill.
    It’s time to fix our unsustainable insurance system and create a new foundation for health care security. That means guaranteeing your health care security and stability with eight basic consumer protections:
    • No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
    • No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
    • No cost-sharing for preventive care
    • No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
    • No gender discrimination
    • No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
    • Extended coverage for young adults
    • Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid
    Learn more about these consumer protections at Whitehouse.gov.
    Over the next month there is going to be an avalanche of misinformation and scare tactics from those seeking to perpetuate the status quo. But we know the cost of doing nothing is too high. Health care costs will double over the next decade, millions more will become uninsured, and state and local governments will go bankrupt.
    It’s time to act and reform health insurance, drive down costs and guarantee the health care security and stability of every American family. You can help by putting these core principles of reform in the hands of your friends, your family, and the rest of your social network.
    Thank you,
    Barack Obama
     

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  • A Tele-Town Hall on Health Insurance Reform at the AARP

    Posted by Jesse Lee on July 28, 2009 at 5:19 PM EDT

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    download .mp4 (159.8 MB) | read the transcript

    Speaking to tens of thousands of AARP members today, the President told them that "We’ve made a lot of progress over the last few months... I know it's not easy. I know there are folks who will oppose any kind of reform because they profit from the way the system is right now." Forty-four years to the day after Medicare was passed, he pointed out that opponents used the same sort of scare tactics back then: "They'll run all sorts of ads that will make people scared. This is nothing that we haven't heard before.," He noted that at the time opponents called Medicare "socialized medicine," but over the past four decades it has helped seniors live longer, healthier, and more productive lives.
    President Barack Obama, center, with AARP Chief Executive Officer A. Barry Rand, left, and AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen, right, participates in an AARP tele-town hall on health care
    (President Barack Obama, center, with AARP Chief Executive Officer A. Barry Rand, left, and AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen, right, participates in an AARP tele-town hall on health care Tuesday, July 28, 2009. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.)
    And as consensus builds for comprehensive health insurance reform, we are closer than ever before to passage thanks to groups like AARP, an organization which has been at the forefront of the fight for reform. The President held a tele-town hall today at AARP headquarters to answer questions from seniors about how reform will affect them. In his opening remarks, the President outlined the main pillars in his plan for health insurance reform:
    And that's why I want to start by taking a new approach that emphasizes prevention and wellness, so that instead of just spending billions of dollars on costly treatments when people get sick, we're spending some of those dollars on the care they need to stay well: things like mammograms and cancer screenings and immunizations – common-sense measures that will save us billions of dollars in future medical costs.
    We're also working to computerize medical records, because right now, too many folks wind up taking the same tests over and over and over again because their providers can't access previous results.  Or they have to relay their entire medical history – every medication they've taken, every surgery they've gotten – every time they see a new provider. Electronic medical records will help to put an end to all that.
    We also want to start rewarding doctors for quality, not just the quantity, of care that they provide. Instead of rewarding them for how many procedures they perform or how many tests they order, we'll bundle payments so providers aren't paid for every treatment they offer with a chronic – to a patient with a chronic condition like diabetes, but instead are paid for how are they managing that disease overall. And we'll create incentives for physicians to team up and treat a patient better together, because we know that produces better outcomes.
    And we certainly won't cut corners to try to cut costs, because we know that doesn't work. And that's something that we hear from doctors all across the country. For example, we know that when we discharge people from the hospital a day early without any kind of coordinated follow-up care, too often they wind up right back in the hospital a few weeks later. If we had just provided the right care in the first place, we'd save a whole lot of money and a lot of human suffering, as well.
    Finally, we'll eliminate billions in unwarranted subsidies to insurance companies in the Medicare Advantage program – giveaways that boost insurance company profits but don't make you any healthier. And we'll work to close that doughnut hole in Medicare Part D that's costing so many folks so much money. Drug companies, as a consequence of our reform efforts, have already agreed to provide deeply discounted drugs, which will mean thousands of dollars in savings for the millions of seniors paying full price when they can least afford it.
    The President then took questions via email, phone, and from the audience. One question was about whether insurance companies will be required to cover people with pre-existing conditions, which the President answered with a resounding yes:
    Number one, if you've got a preexisting condition, insurance companies will still have to insure you. This is something very personal for me. My mother, when she contracted cancer, the insurance companies started suggesting that, well, maybe this was a preexisting condition; maybe you could have diagnosed it before you actually purchased your insurance. Ultimately, they gave in, but she had to spend weeks fighting with insurance companies while she's in the hospital bed, writing letters back and forth just to get coverage for insurance that she had already paid premiums on. And that happens all across the country. We are going to put a stop to that. That's point number one.
    Point number two: We're going to reform the insurance system so that they can't just drop you if you get too sick. They won't be able to drop you if you change jobs or lose your job, as long as you're willing to pay your premiums. They are – we're going to make sure that we eliminate sort of the lifetime cap that creates a situation – a lot of times people get sick, then they find out the fine print says that at a certain point they just stop paying, or they'll pay for your hospitalization but they don't pay for your doctor, or they pay for your doctor but not your hospitalization.
    We want clear, easy-to-understand, straightforward insurance that people can purchase. So that's point number one.
    Point number two is, in addition to those reforms, we want to make sure that we set up what's called a health insurance exchange so that anybody who wants insurance but can't get it on their job right now, they can go to this exchange; they can select a plan that works for them or their families – these are private-option plans, but we also want to have a public option that's in there – but whatever you select, you will get high-quality care for a reasonable cost, the same way Congress, members of Congress, are able to select from a menu of plans that they have available. And if you're very – if the plan that you select is still too expensive for your income, then we would provide you a little bit of help so that you could actually afford the coverage.
    So the idea behind reform is: Number one, we reform the insurance companies so they can't take advantage of you. Number two, that we provide you a place to go to purchase insurance that is secure, that isn't full of fine print, that is actually going to deliver on what you pay for. Number three, we want to make sure that you're getting a good bargain for your health care by reducing some of the unnecessary tests and costs that have raised rates.
    Even if you have health insurance, your premiums have gone up faster than wages over the last 10 years. Your out-of-pocket costs have gone up about 62 percent, which means that for people who aren't on Medicare right now, people let's say 54 to – or 50-64, a lot of those folks are paying much higher premiums than they should be – hundreds or thousands of additional dollars that could be saved if we had a system that was more sensible than it is right now.
    As a perfect example of the scare tactics spread by those looking to protect the status quo, one questioner from North Carolina repeated a myth spread by her home state Member of Congress recently. The audience had a laugh as the President dispelled it:
    Q: I have heard lots of rumors going around about this new plan, and I hope that the people that are going to vote on this is going to read every single page there. I have been told there is a clause in there that everyone that's Medicare age will be visited and told to decide how they wish to die. This bothers me greatly and I'd like for you to promise me that this is not in this bill.
    THE PRESIDENT: You know, I guarantee you, first of all, we just don't have enough government workers to send to talk to everybody, to find out how they want to die.
    I think that the only thing that may have been proposed in some of the bills – and I actually think this is a good thing – is that it makes it easier for people to fill out a living will.
    Read the transcript for his full explanation of how this provision actually works, as well as his full answers to a whole range of questions seniors have been asking.
     

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  • Streaming at 1:30: The President Holds a Town Hall at AARP

    Posted by Katherine Brandon on July 28, 2009 at 12:57 PM EDT

    At 1:30 today, the President will participate in a tele-town hall on health care reform at AARP headquarters. The President will take questions from the audience, and through a conference call with tens of thousands of AARP member.
    As you may remember, the AARP recently endorsed the President’s plan to close the Medicare "doughnut hole" as part of the health care reform bill. The historic compromise with pharmaceutical companies will lead to an $80 billion reduction in costs, providing relief for millions of seniors. But this isn’t the only way the President’s plan will benefit Americans, whether you have insurance or not. You can read more about his plan in an op-ed published today by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Here is an excerpt where she explains how the administration’s plan will work to reduce costs, while providing quality care and choice – core principles that have helped develop the consensus we've seen emerging:
    First, to provide Americans with more affordable choices, we’ll set up a marketplace where you can compare plans and pick the one that’s right for you. None of the plans would be allowed to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. And one of the options should be a public plan that would increase competition and keep private insurance companies honest.
    Second, we have to align incentives for doctors and hospitals so that they’re rewarded based on the quality of care they provide, not on how many tests or procedures they prescribe.
    Third, we need to move from a sickness system to a wellness system. By investing in prevention and emphasizing healthy lifestyles, we can save money while improving health.
    Finally, reform must not add to our deficit over the next ten years. To that end, we have already identified hundreds of billions of dollars in savings – savings from money that’s already being spent on health care, but is funding waste and overpayments to insurance companies.
     

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  • The First Lady Visits Caroline Family Practice

    Posted by Katherine Brandon on July 28, 2009 at 10:31 AM EDT

    The First Lady visited Caroline Family Practice Community Health Center yesterday, where she participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to honor the opening of the new clinic. The clinic opened last week, after using $1.3 million in Recovery Act funds, part of $2 billion designated to upgrade and expand community health centers, to convert an abandoned grocery store into a medical facility.
    (First Lady Michelle Obama participates in a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Bowling Green Community Health Care Center in Bowling Green, VA, Monday, July 27, 2009. Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)
    Before giving her remarks, the First Lady met with two primary care physicians, a dentist, a medical student, a pediatrician, and a patient to listen to their health care experiences, and ask a few questions. The First Lady was particularly interested in the shortage of primary care physicians in this country. Community health centers play a critical role in our health care system, providing primary care to 17 million people – people who likely would not otherwise receive care. The Caroline Family Practice is located in Bowling Green, a rural area north of Richmond, which has been federally designated as a medically underserved area. As the First Lady explained, this clinic provides patients with access to the primary and preventative care they need, instead of forcing them to resort to expensive emergency room visits:
    And one of the main reasons for this is the reason why we're all here today – and it's because that right now, today here in America, 60 million people in this country don't have adequate access to primary care. They don't have any access at all. Many of them are uninsured and can't afford any kind of health care at all. That's a good chunk of them. Many actually have insurance, but live in underserved areas, like this one – inner cities or small rural towns where there aren't any primary care providers to speak of. They have to drive hours.
    So what happens to folks in America in this situation is that they don't get check-ups. They don't get regular, routine screenings that keep us healthy. When they get sick, their only option is to wait until it gets so bad that they have to visit the emergency room. And then they wind up lurching from illness to illness, and crisis to crisis, getting emergency care instead of health care. And we wind up spending billions of dollars each year to treat diseases that – for far less money – we could prevent in the first place.
    We will spend thousands of dollars for an emergency room visit and hospital stay for a child, for example, having an acute asthma attack that could have been prevented by a $100 doctor's visit and a $50 inhaler. We'll spend tens of thousands to treat complications from diabetes that could have been prevented by a couple hundred dollars worth of counseling on nutrition and blood sugar monitoring. And today, chronic – and preventable – illnesses like diabetes and obesity, heart disease and high blood pressure consume 85 percent of all health care spending in this country. That's what we're spending our money on here.
    The First Lady explained that we need more emphasis on providing care, and educating people so that we can prevent disease, instead of just treating it. This is what reform is all about – providing access to quality, affordable care to all people. She stressed that health insurance reform is critical for all of us, even those who are currently satisfied with their insurance:
    But the question becomes, even if you're in that situation, what happens if you lose your job, and then your coverage goes away, and then you can't find a new job right away? Those are some of the stories I've heard. Or if you want to change jobs, but your new employer doesn't offer any insurance at all because more and more employers are finding it difficult to keep up with the cost of health care? Or what if you decide you want to change insurance plans, but your new insurer decides that you have a preexisting condition, or your age or your gender or your health status means that they need to charge you a fortune for that insurance? What if you get sick, and they decide you're too expensive to insure? That happens. And then they drop your coverage completely. See, these are the things that happen to hardworking, responsible people who've done exactly what they thought they should do. It's happening every single day across this country.
    And of course, there are plenty of folks who won't experience any of these misfortunes. There really are. They're blessed. And despite rising costs and declining coverage, some of them are convinced that things are just fine right now. But even if that were true, even if the status quo were acceptable to us, then the question becomes, what about 10 years from now?
    If we don't pass reform, within a decade we'll actually be spending one out of every five dollars we earn on health insurance. In 30 years, when my kids are ready to come into the world, it will be one in every three dollars spent on health care. So think about that – one in every three dollars by the time our kids get to be where we are. And without reform, what we spend on Medicaid and Medicare – government programs – will eventually be more than what our government spends on anything else – anything else – that we spend today.
    Right now, premiums are rising three times faster than wages – right now, today. And if we don't pass reform, they're going to keep on rising in this way. So think about how much we'll be paying 10 years from now without reform. That's what we have to project. Folks who have insurance they like now could find themselves overwhelmed with sky-high premiums and much higher out-of-pocket costs
     

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  • Weekly Address: Health Insurance Reform, Small Business and Your Questions

    Posted by Jesse Lee on July 24, 2009 at 11:59 PM EDT

    The President discusses a key factor that has been considered in the development of the health insurance reform proposals that are being considered: the impact of reform on small business.
    The White House Council of Economic Advisers released a major report on the subject in conjunction with this address – read the report as a web page, in pdf form, or through Slideshare.
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    download .mp3 |download .mp4 (58.5 MB) | read the transcript
    During the address, the President asks that small business owners and employees give us their comments and questions on the report. What are your experiences with health care as somebody involved in small business, and what are your thoughts and questions on the new CEA report in light of those experiences?
    Give us your response here through WhiteHouse.gov, or if you are a member of the social network LinkedIn, go take part in the discussion CEA Chair Christina Romer initiated there. Romer will be answering some of most penetrating responses in a live video discussion on Wednesday at 3:00 PM EDT.
    UPDATE: This event has now concluded.

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  • Watch, Discuss, Engage: Secretary Sebelius on Health Insurance Reform

    Posted by Katherine Brandon on July 24, 2009 at 12:57 PM EDT

    Yesterday, the President took questions directly from the American people at a town hall focused on health care in Ohio. Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will be hosting a live video chat at 1:45 to answer your questions from all over the country on health insurance reform. Watch it streamed live, and join the conversation on WhiteHouse.gov and Facebook.
    [NOTE: This event has now concluded]

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