Obama speaks out on issues
KCPNews
KPC (questioners): Health care is an important issue for most voters. More and more physicians are turning to national health insurance as a solution to our health insurance coverage gaps. According to a survey reported last month by Indiana University, of more than 2,000 doctors surveyed, 59 percent said they support legislation to establish a national health insurance program such as “Medicare for all” to insure all Americans. Why do you think your plan which continues our current patchwork of both public and private insurance is better than expanding Medicare into a “Medicare for all” universal health insurance plan?
Obama: I have said in the past if I were designing a system from scratch I would probably prefer a single-payer system. I think the administrative advantages are significant and by having patients in a single system they are much more likely to benefit from preventive care because the person providing the care has an incentive (to keep people in the system well). There are significant advantages.
The problem is we are not starting from scratch. A sizable percentage of the population gets health insurance from their employers and I think we are going to have to see changed attitudes before we would see a single payer system. I also think there is some advantage to the marketplace being involved and increased competition. So I have said if you are in an employer based plan currently, then we will work with your employer to lower premiums. If you don’t have health insurance then you can buy into a plan that is similar to the plan I have as a member of Congress, and there won’t be exclusions for preexisting conditions. If you can’t afford the plan, then we will subsidize you.
There will be tight regulations on insurers to make sure that we are reimbursing for preventive services, that we are emphasizing the management of the care of the chronically ill more effectively and that we are investing in information technology to reduce bureaucracy, reduce error and improve quality. If we do all those things, we can save as much as $100 - $150 billion per year that we can then use to subsidize those currently without care. These principles have to be applied to Medicare and Medicaid, as well…
This is the most effective way to provide the help people need immediately, and I think this is something we can accomplish within my first term as president of the United States of America.