President Obama's Speech on Health Care - Talking Points

In case you missed President Obama's Address to the Joint Session of Congress on Health Care on Wednesday, September 9, 2209...the following are talking points:

When the President is finished speaking tonight, everyone who listens will understand that hisplan has at its core two overriding goals: to bring stability and security to Americans who haveinsurance today, and affordable coverage to those who don’t.

• The President’s plan will bring reforms that will reduce the unsustainable growth in thecost of health care, which has doubled in the last decade and will continue to rise at thatuntenable pace unless we act.

From the beginning of this process, the President has said that he believes reform should bebipartisan. And the plan he outlines tonight will be consistent with that goal – it will containRepublican proposals and Democratic proposals.

• So the Republicans will have to decide whether they are genuine in their wish to work ina bipartisan manner, or whether they will continue to vote against proposals they havesaid are key to reform.

He will clearly lay out what health reform means to Americans – both those that have insurancenow and those that don’t. He will also be clear about what health reform doesn’t mean –clearing up the confusion that has been fomented by the special interests and defenders of thestatus quo.

• He will also answer the big questions about how to move the health reform process forward andmake clear exactly what he considers real reform to be.

It is important to recognize how far we have come.

• Four of the five House and Senate committees have marked up bills. Today SenatorBaucus, who chairs the fifth committee, announced that his committee will move tomarkup shortly. Among those bills there is, essentially, 80 percent agreement, and eachof them is in line with the principles the President has laid out.

We are entering a new phase in the debate.

• Now is the time to begin pulling together the various strands of the bills that have beenwritten and the solutions that have been proposed to create a final product that lowerscosts, ensures that Americans cannot be denied coverage because they get sick, andprovides access to affordable health care for all.
• As the President will say tonight, he is not the first president to take up the cause of health reform but he is determined to be the last.

Members heard a lot from their constituents over August – including stories from people whoare struggling with the rising cost of health care or who have been denied coverage becausethey or someone in their family got sick. One thing has become crystal clear to any memberwho really spent time talking to constituents last month: Doing nothing is not an option.

After this speech, opponents of health reform will need to either propose their own plan orexplain why they think it is best to do nothing while health care costs continue to rise 3 timesfaster than wage, millions of Americans continue to be denied coverage because they got sick,and insecurity continues to grow. In just 2 years, 1 in 3 Americans experienced a gap incoverage. What the President will offer the country is stability and security in our healthinsurance system.

On Gov. Palin’s Attacks:

• Every non partisan organization that has looked at her claims says they are false. And the ideasin her op‐ed are both scary and risky. Eliminating Medicare and giving our seniors vouchersinstead is a bad idea that we shouldn’t adopt.