Fear of Clowns

The jumbotron conveyed an unfortunate message:

Stable & Secure Health Care
WOLVES
www.whitehouse.gov

But I'm sure most of us physically present (about 15,000 based the venue being about 3/4 full) knew the speech was delivered from The Minnesota Timberwolves' home court and presumably it wasn't as prominent to televised audiences.

There was also quite a bit of misplaced applause that should have been boos. Maybe I'm over-aware of it as I've grown to be enamored by Republican cheers for terrorists ("These terrorists are hell-bent on destroying our way of life! (audience: YEA! CHEER! APPLAUSE!) An example from today,

Maybe your employer doesn't offer coverage. Maybe you're self-employed and you can't afford it because it costs you three times more in the marketplace than it does for big companies. (Applause.)

But the speech was excellent. It was like his stump speeches which came across as conversational even though they were prepared. By my estimate there was a forty or fifty to one ratio of pro- to anti-reformers and only a few heckles I noticed. All but one were from people yelling that stopping our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the best way of paying for the changes, and I'd like to think the speech was good enough to get at least some of the anti-reformers thinking the ideas presented constituted a plausible approach to solving our healthcare problems. The same for those conservatives who may have ust been there to see the POTUS. I didn't catch the one clearly contrarian heckle, but the heckler left on his own accord, obviously spurred by the boos and groans of those close enough to hear what he said.

All but a handful of visually identifiable (by tee-shirt or button) detractors appeared to be the type of intelligent person only flawed by their irrational worship of the All-Knowing Free-Market God, not the crazies with the signs outside. Or maybe the status-quo special interests didn't have enough time to organize the crazies into the venue and we'll see them at future rallies.

You can read the whole thing here, and here is my abridged version.

... I don't need to tell you that our health care problems don't stop with the uninsured. How many of you who have insurance have ever worried that you might lose it if you lost your jobs or you changed jobs or you had to move? (Applause.) How many stories have you heard about folks whose insurance company decided to drop their coverage or water it down when they get sick and need it the most? (Applause.) How many of you know somebody who paid their premiums every month only to find out that their insurance company wouldn't cover the full cost of their care like they thought they would get? (Applause.)

... These stories are wrong. They are heartbreaking. Nobody should be treated that way in the United States of America, and that's why we're going to bring about change this year. (Applause.)

It has now been nearly a century since Teddy Roosevelt first called for health reform. It's been attempted by nearly every President and Congress since. And our failure to get it done -- year after year, decade after decade -- it has placed a burden on families, on businesses, and on taxpayers, and we can't stand it any longer. We cannot sustain it any longer. (Applause.)

If we do nothing, your premiums will continue to rise faster than your wages. If we do nothing, more businesses will close down; fewer will face -- fewer will be able to open in the first place. If we do nothing, we will eventually spend more on Medicare and Medicaid than every other government program combined. That's not an option for the United States of America. So Minnesota, I may not be the first President to take up the cause of health care reform, but I am determined to be the last. We are going to get it done this year. (Applause.) We are going to get it done this year.

The good news -- here's the good news: We are closer now to reform than we've ever been. We've debated this issue for better than a year now. And there's actually some solid agreement on about 80 percent of what needs to be done. That's never happened before. (Applause.) We've got -- our overall efforts have been supported by an unprecedented coalition of doctors and nurses and hospitals and seniors' groups -- even drug companies, many of whom were opposed to reform in the past. This time they recognize, you know what, this is not going to be stopped; we've got to get on board.

Now, what we've also seen in these last few months is the same partisan spectacle that has left so many of you disappointed in Washington for so long. (Applause.) We've heard scare tactics instead of honest debate. Too many have used this opportunity to score short-term political points instead of working together to solve long-term challenges. (Applause.)

I don't know if you agree with me, but I think the time for bickering is over. (Applause.) The time for games has passed. Now is the time for action. Now is the time to deliver on health care for every American. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!

Now, because even after the speech [to Congress a few days ago] there's been a lot of misinformation out there, I want you to know about this plan that I announced on Wednesday so that when you go talk to your neighbors and your friends, and you're at the water cooler or buying Starbucks or whatever it is that you're doing -- (laughter) -- I want you to be able to say to people, here's what's going on.

The plan I announced will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. (Applause.) It will provide insurance to those who don't. (Applause.) And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government. (Applause.)

Let me give you some details. First of all, if you're among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, or you've got health insurance through Medicare or Medicaid or the VA, nothing -- nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change your coverage or your doc. All right? I want you to be clear about that. Let me repeat: Nothing in this plan requires you to change what you have if you're happy with it.

What this plan will do is to make your insurance work better for you. (Applause.) So under this plan -- under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a preexisting condition. (Applause.) When I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick, or water it down when you need it the most. (Applause.) They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. (Applause.) We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, nobody should go broke because they got sick. (Applause.) And insurance companies -- insurance companies will be required to cover, at no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies -- (applause) -- because there's no reason we shouldn't be catching diseases like breast cancer or colon cancer before they get worse. That makes sense, it saves money, it saves lives. (Applause.)

Now, if you're one of the 10 million -- tens of millions of Americans who don't currently have health insurance, the second part of this plan is going to finally offer you affordable choices. So if you lose your job or change jobs or want to start a business, you'll be able to get coverage. (Applause.) You will have confidence that affordable coverage is out there for you, and we will do this not, contrary to what folks say, by some government takeover of health care. We will do this by setting up a new insurance exchange -- a marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for an affordable health insurance plan that works for them. And because there will be one big group -- because there will be one big group, these uninsured Americans will have the leverage to drive down costs and get a much better deal than they get right now. (Applause.) That's how large companies do it. That's how government employees get their health insurance. That's how members of Congress get good deals on their insurance. You should get the same deal that members of Congress get. (Applause.)

Now, if you still can't afford the lower-priced insurance available in the exchange, we're going to provide you or a small business owner tax credits so that they can do it. And in the first few years that it takes up to the -- it takes to set up the exchange -- because it will take a few years to get this all set up, even after it passes -- but in the meantime, we want to make sure people get some immediate help, so we're going to immediately offer Americans with preexisting conditions who can't get coverage right now, we want to give them some low-cost coverage that will provide them protection from financial ruin if they become seriously ill. (Applause.)

Now, I've also said that one of the options in the insurance exchange, one of the options -- most of the folks who are going to be offering insurance through the exchange are going to be private insurers -- Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, all these. Well, I think one of the options should be a public insurance option. (Applause.) Now let me be clear. Let me be clear. Let me be clear: It would only be an option. Nobody would be forced to choose it. No one with insurance would be affected by it. But what it would do is, it would provide more choice and more competition. (Applause.) It would keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable, to treat their customers better.

I mean, think about it. It's the same way that public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students. That doesn't inhibit private colleges and universities from thriving out there. The same should be true on the health care front. (Applause.)

... I'm not going to back down from the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we're going to provide you a choice. (Applause.) And I will make sure that no government bureaucrat or insurance company bureaucrat gets between you and the coverage that you need. That's a promise I will make. (Applause.)

Now -- now, a lot of you might think this plan sounds pretty good, or when you're talking to your friends or neighbors, they might say, yes, that sounds all right, but let me ask you this: How are you going to pay for it? And that's a legitimate concern. We've got -- we inherited some big deficits and some big debt. And we've had a big economic crisis that has required us to take some extraordinary steps. So we're going to have to get control of our federal budget. We have to do it.

So it's a legitimate question, but here's what you need to know:

First of all, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits -- either now or in the future. No ifs, ands, or buts. (Applause.) Part of the reason I faced these trillion-dollar deficits when I walked into the door of the White House is because there were a lot of initiatives over the last decade that weren't paid for -- from the Iraq war to tax breaks for the wealthy. I will not make the same mistake when it comes to health care. (Applause.)

... As I said on Wednesday night, this is also true when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid. And Medicare is one of these issues that has been really distorted in the debate. So I want -- I spoke directly to seniors on Wednesday; I want to repeat what I said. We have stood up for four decades for the principle that after a lifetime of hard work, our seniors should not be left to struggle with medical bills they can't pay. (Applause.) That's the essence of Medicare. That's how Medicare was born. It remains a sacred trust. It needs to be passed on from one generation to the next.

That's why not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan -- not one dollar. (Applause.) We will not be lowering benefits for senior citizens. The only thing that we will be doing is eliminating hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud, as well as subsidies that are going to insurance company HMOs -- (applause) -- subsidies that pad their profits but don't improve care.

... So don't pay attention to these scary stories about how your benefits will be cut. That will not happen on my watch. (Applause.) In fact, the folks who are making the accusations, they're the ones who have been talking about cutting Medicare in the past. I will protect Medicare. (Applause.)

I'm not going to -- I'm not going to allow the special interests to use the same old tactics to keep things the way they are. I'm not going to let people misrepresent what's in my plan. (Applause.) I will not accept the status quo. (Applause.) Not this time. Not now.

Minnesota, we are closer to reform than we've ever been before, but this is the hard part. This is when the special interests and the insurance companies and the folks who think, you know, this is a good way to bring Obama down -- (boos) -- this is when they're going to fight with everything they've got. This is when they'll spread all kinds of wild rumors designed to scare and intimidate people. That's why I need your help. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!

(see part 1: my experience)

// posted by Erik @ 9/12/2009 04:03:00 PM
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