MR. STEWART: Thank you, sir. Our first question comes, Mr. President, from one of OFA's dedicated community organizers, Dream Gunther in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It's a question that's on a lot of folks' minds within OFA and I think across the country: How can we help pass health care reform, and what is the strategy to move it forward? (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: It is a good question. We are closer to a health care reform system that works for all Americans than we have ever been. Never before have you seen a bill pass through the House and then a bill pass through the Senate and where 90 percent of those bills -- those two bills overlap. Democrats in the House and the Senate have been in discussions over the last several weeks to finalize a package that represents the best ideas of both the House and the Senate.
Here's what we know will be in it: It provides coverage to at least 30 million Americans who don't have it. Many of those are small business owners or workers for small businesses. It creates an exchange, a marketplace, where people who don't have health insurance or small businesses that want to get a better deal can pool their purchasing power and then negotiate with insurance companies to drive down costs and drive down premiums -- the same way, by the way, that federal workers and members of Congress, by the way, and people who work for big companies are able to get a better deal because they're part of a bigger pool.
It has insurance reforms that benefit everybody potentially who has health insurance or currently doesn't have health insurance so that we put an end to, for example, the practice of not being able to get health insurance because of a preexisting condition. (Applause.) We make sure that they can't just drop you when you get sick and you need insurance the most.
And we've got a whole series of measures for cost reductions in the health care system over the long term, by reducing waste and unnecessary tests that are duplicative and end up wasting money, by ensuring that there's strong prevention funding so that children are getting regular checkups and they can go to see a doctor instead of going to the emergency room.
So -- and by the way, all of it is paid for, and not only is it deficit-neutral but the Congressional Budget Office, which is the bipartisan office that's the scorekeeper for how much things cost in Congress, says it's going to reduce our costs by a trillion dollars.
Now, those two bills weren't identical, so it was important for folks in both the House and the Senate to sit down and figure out what's the final bill that the Democrats believe in and want to move forward. The next step is what I announced at the State of the Union, which is to call on our Republican friends to present their ideas. What I'd like to do is have a meeting whereby I'm sitting with the Republicans, sitting with the Democrats, sitting with health care experts, and let's just go through these bills -- their ideas, our ideas -- let's walk through them in a methodical way so that the American people can see and compare what makes the most sense.
And then I think that we've got to go ahead and move forward on a vote. We've got to move forward on a vote. (Applause.) But as I said at the State of the Union, I think we should be very deliberate, take our time. We're going to be moving a jobs package forward over the next several weeks; that's the thing that's most urgent right now in the minds of Americans all across the country. And that will allow everybody to get the real facts, both about the health care crisis that we face, why it's so important for deficit reduction, why it's so important for families all across the country. It allows us to see are there, in fact, some better ideas out there?
When I was at the Republican caucus somebody told me they had an idea to provide universal coverage and it wouldn't cost anything. (Laughter.) Which -- I thought, that's great; I want to see that. Now, I did say I want to make sure that's there are some independent health care experts and economists and doctors who would confirm this. But if they can confirm it, why wouldn't I want to take that -- I wish I'd thought of that before. (Laughter.)
But here's the key, is to not let the moment slip away. (Applause.) And I have to say -- I have to say part of what makes health care so hard, and why we are the only advanced nation on Earth that doesn't have some form of universal health care, is because even when the system doesn't work people still want to kind of cling on to the devil they know because they're worried about the devil they don't. It's very easy to scare folks. I mean, if you go out there right now and you ask the average person -- and some of you have done this, talked to your friends, talked to your neighbors -- they're certain that they would have to go into a government plan, which isn't true, but that's still a perception a lot of people have. They're still pretty sure that they'd have to give up their doctor. They're still pretty sure that if they're happy with their health care plan that it's bad for them. They're still positive that this is going to add to the deficit.
So there's a lot of information out there that people understandably are concerned about. And that's why I think it's very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let's go ahead and make a decision. And it may be that -- you know, if Congress decides -- if Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not. And that's how democracy works. There will be elections coming up and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns one way or the other during election time. All right? (Applause.)
linkHe simply told the Dems that if they don't pass it, they'll have to answer to voters.
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