Health Care Blog
Health Reform and the Middle Class
Posted by on July 10, 2009 at 11:37 AM EDT[UPDATE: Read more from Terrell McSweeny, Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President.]As the Vice President was beginning his roundtable with HHS Secretary Sebelius and White House Health Reform Director DeParle, the Middle Class Task Force was releasing its new report : "Why Middle Class Americans Need Health Reform."
It may seem to go without saying that the middle class needs health reform as much as anybody, but the report reveals statistics that put the urgency of that need in a new, harsh light. The report’s analysis of diminishing coverage for the middle class is a good example:Diminishing CoverageMiddle class Americans and their families are facing a growing challenge in obtaining or maintaining their health insurance coverage.- Over a quarter of the uninsured are middle class Americans.
- The number of non-elderly middle class Americans who are uninsured has grown over time, from 11.1 million in 2001 to 12.5 million in 2007. Looking forward, without health reform, the number of middle class Americans without health insurance could be as high as 18.2 million in 2019.
- In part, high rates of the uninsured among middle class Americans arise because middle income workers have a higher chance of not being offered health insurance through their job. In fact, of the 10.7 million non-elderly adults in the middle class bracket who are uninsured, nearly 90 percent are employed.
- Nearly one in four middle class employees are not offered health insurance by their employers – and of those that are not, more than half remain uninsured. In comparison, only one in six high-income employees are not offered health insurance by their employers.
- Part of the reason that middle income Americans are less likely to be offered coverage is because they are more likely to work in small businesses – 53 percent of middle income Americans work in small businesses, compared with 46 percent of higher income Americans. Of those who work in small business, 40 percent are not offered insurance.
(Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius speak at a healthcare roundtable in room 350 of the EEOB, Friday, July 10, 2009. Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)Learn more about Health CareThe Consensus Grows: Hospitals for Health Reform
Posted by on July 8, 2009 at 12:45 PM EDTThis morning marked another major milestone for health reform, as Vice President Biden, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and representatives of the hospital industry came together to announce a major investment from hospitals in the effort. The contribution is yet another step towards ensuring reform will be deficit-neutral and a key to long-term fiscal sustainability."As part of this agreement," the Vice President explained, "hospitals are committing to contributing $155 billion -- $155 billion -- in Medicare and Medicaid savings over the 10 years to cover health care cost reform -- over the next 10 years." He further explained how the agreement is another example of how reform is in everybody’s interest: "As more people are insured, hospitals will bear less of the financial burden of caring for the uninsured and the underinsured, and we'll reduce payments to cover those costs, in tandem with that reduction."Having warmly welcomed the hospital CEOs and representatives, Vice President Biden honed in on the significance of this latest step towards consensus:Folks, reform is coming. It is on track; it is coming. We have tried for decades -- for decades -- to fix a broken system, and we have never, in my entire tenure in public life, been this close. We have never been as close as we are today, and things remain on track.We have these hospitals working with us, and we have the pharmaceutical industry working with us; we have doctors and nurses and health care providers with us; we have the American public behind us. And everyone sees that we need change. And in my view, we're going to get that change, and we're going to get it this year.
(Vice President Joe Biden announces that the nation's hospitals will give up $155 billion in future Medicare and Medicaid to help defray the cost of President Obama's health care plan, in room 350 of the EEOB, Wednesday, July 8, 2009. Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)And he explained how the agreement came about:The hospital industry knows, and the people with me here today know, and the President knows, that the status quo is simply unacceptable. Let me say that again -- the status quo is simply unacceptable. Rising costs are crushing us. They're crushing families, crushing businesses, crushing state budgets -- and they are crushing the health care industry itself.Hospitals have acknowledged that significant health care savings can be achieved by improving efficiencies, realigning incentives to emphasize quality care instead of quantity of procedures. And in the last several weeks, they've been working with Chairman Baucus and are coming forward with a proposal that produces real savings in federal health care spending -- savings that will be applied toward the President’s firm goal -- firm goal of enacting health care reform that is deficit-neutral -- health care reform that is deficit-neutral.Learn more about Health CareWeekly Address: On the 4th of July, Overcoming America's Challenges
Posted by on July 3, 2009 at 11:59 PM EDTThe President recounts America’s great history of overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges, and pledges to lead America in continuing that tradition. Focusing on creating a clean energy economy, comprehensive health reform, and revitalizing an education system in need of change, the President pledges not to leave these decades-old problems to yet another generation to solve.Viewing this video requires Adobe Flash Player 8 or higher. Download the free player.Learn more about Energy and Environment, Health CareFull Video: A National Discussion on Health Care Reform
Posted by on July 1, 2009 at 9:21 PM EDTAfter days of taking video questions online, and with massive online discussions unfolding during the event, the President took questions on health reform directly from the public in an online town hall.Viewing this video requires Adobe Flash Player 8 or higher. Download the free player.download .mp4 (737.8 MB) | read the transcript
For a taste, here's the transcript of the first question:MS. JARRETT: I'm going to be in charge. Thank you very much, Mr. President.So in my opening remarks, Mr. President, I mentioned that when you released your YouTube video over the weekend, we received literally hundreds of video questions from all across the country. Your staff looked through all those questions and have selected a cross-section that represents a broad cross-section of the kinds of questions that came up.I want to emphasize that the President has not seen the questions ahead of time. (Laughter.) Absolutely not.And so we're going to begin with a video question, Mr. President, if you look at the screen.THE PRESIDENT: All right.VIDEO Q Hi, my name is Steve White. I'm in Spring Valley, New York. And my question for the President is: Why are we considering a health care plan which maintains the private insurance companies with their high overhead costs, instead of a single-payer plan, which would eliminate the high overhead costs, saving the American taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars, while covering everyone in our country? Thank you.THE PRESIDENT: Sure. Well, it's a terrific question. I'm not sure if everybody could hear it, but the gist of the question is, why have we not been looking at a single-payer plan as the way to go?As many of you know, in many countries, most industrialized advanced countries, they have some version of what's called a single-payer plan. And what that means is essentially that the government is the insurer. The government may not necessarily hire the doctors or the hospitals -- a lot of those may still be privately operated -- but the government is the insurer for everybody. And Medicare is actually a single-payer plan that we have in place, but we only have it in place for our older Americans.Now, in a lot of those countries, a single-payer plan works pretty well and you eliminate, as Scott, I think it was, said, you eliminate private insurers, you don't have the administrative costs and the bureaucracy and so forth.Here's the problem, is that the way our health care system evolved in the United States, it evolved based on employers providing health insurance to their employees through private insurers. And so that's still the way that the vast majority of you get your insurance. And for us to transition completely from an employer-based system of private insurance to a single-payer system could be hugely disruptive. And my attitude has been that we should be able to find a way to create a uniquely American solution to this problem that controls costs but preserves the innovation that is introduced in part with a free market system.I think that we can regulate the insurance companies effectively; make sure that they're not playing games with people because of preexisting conditions; that they're not charging wildly different rates to people based on where they live or what their age is; that they're not dropping people for coverage unnecessarily; that we have a public option that's available to provide competition and choice to the American people, and to keep the insurers honest; and that we can provide a system in which we are, over the long term, driving down administrative costs, and making sure that people are getting the best possible care at a lower price.But I recognize that there are lot of people who are passionate -- they look at France or some of these other systems and they say, well, why can't we just do that? Well, the answer is, is that this is one-sixth of our economy, and we're not suddenly just going to completely upend the system. We want to build on what works about the system and fix what's broken about the system. And that's what I think Congress is committed to doing, and I'm committed to working with them to make it happen. Okay?Learn more about Health CareA National Discussion on Health Care Reform
Posted by on June 27, 2009 at 3:40 PM EDTThe weather isn't the only thing heating up in DC this summer. Health care reform is already a hot topic, and as legislation moves through Congress, Americans across the nation have questions about how costs will be brought under control to make quality affordable health care accessible to everyone.That's why the White House is taking another step to connect with people outside of Washington and answer some of the most common questions you have. In the coming days, we're going to focus on your questions about health care, with President Obama and some of his top health care advisors providing answers.On Wednesday, the President will hold another online town hall to answer more of your questions. This online town hall will be a little different than the last one. This time around, we are engaging online networks outside of WhiteHouse.gov, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.You can get started today by watching the President's video and posting your 20-30 second video response here:Viewing this video requires Adobe Flash Player 8 or higher. Download the free player.download .mp4 (17.8 MB)
On Monday, Nancy-Ann DeParle will be hosting a live-streamed, online chat to discuss health care reform (like the recent one with Van Jones). Join the White House's Facebook page to get the time once it is finalized.It is safe to say that we are going to get a ton of questions from a lot of sources and won't be able to answer every one. But over the coming days, we'll use this blog, online chats and the President's town hall on Wednesday to address some of the most common issues we see.*******Some tips:Don't know how to respond to the President's video with your question? Check out this tutorial from YouTube about how to create your own and add it as a response.If you are a Twitter user, you can also ask your question with this hashtag: #WHHCQ or head to Facebook and ask your question there.Learn more about Health Care, TechnologyGet Tested
Posted by on June 27, 2009 at 9:51 AM EDTFor the 14th commemoration of National HIV Testing Day, we wanted to share this video of the President and First Lady with you:Viewing this video requires Adobe Flash Player 8 or higher. Download the free player.download .mp4 (13.7 MB)
One in five Americans currently living with HIV doesn't know it. If our President and First Lady can get tested – you can too.To find a testing site near you visit http://www.hivtest.org or text your zip code to KNOWIT (566948).And to learn more about HIV testing and what you can do to spread the message, visit cdc.gov and aids.gov.Learn more about Health Care
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