Talking Point

Now is the time for real health care choices that guarantee quality affordable health care for all, with standard,
comprehensive benefits that meet our needs.

All Americans would have a guaranteed choice between quality public and private plans.

If you have insurance you like, you can keep it. If you don’t have insurance you like, or don’t have it at all, you’ll have real choices.

Employers must provide quality private coverage or chip in to fund the public plan.

We’ll save $1 trillion in health care spending over 10 years.

Conservatives have blocked real reform—protecting the greedy practices of the insurance companies, which
put profits before people.

Bush and his fellow conservatives blocked bipartisan legislation—twice—that would have provided health care to 4 million uninsured children.

Conservatives banned Medicare from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices.

Billions in wasteful subsidies are doled out to private insurance and drug companies through Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage, the programs that provide drug prescription coverage for seniors.

Conservatives promote caps on jury awards in malpractice cases that would do nothing to lower health care costs but would help insurance companies.

While premiums are up for working families, insurance company profits rose an amazing 1,084% in five years.

Skyrocketing medical costs are pricing care out of reach for families and business, leaving us without good health insurance choices.

Since 2000, family health insurance premiums have risen 57%.

47 million Americans are uninsured, up from 38 million in 2000, including 9 million kids.

Only 60% of American businesses offered health benefits in 2007, down from 69% in 2000.

More than half of all personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills.

There are seven basic principles that should be a part of any health care proposal. We need to find a system that will:
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• Provide health care to all Americans regardless of income;
• Allow individuals to keep their insurance when they change jobs;
• Ensure that no one could be denied coverage for preexisting health conditions;
• Allow individuals to see the doctor of their choice;
• Result in lower drug costs;
• Promote prevention and early intervention; and
• Help control soaring health care costs.

Our country's current health care system wastes hundreds of billions of dollars in administrative and advertising expenses, and in efforts to shift or deny payment. Medicare's administrative costs are four times cheaper than private insurance companies.

Costs are out of control, and our current system is broken. Health care costs are increasing far faster than wages. There are already 45 million people without health insurance, and the number is rapidly rising. Millions more cannot afford comprehensive coverage. And Americans who can afford health insurance now are worried about losing it if they change jobs or if it becomes too expensive.

In talking about health care, emphasize quality, choice and affordability. The moral argument that everyone should have health care is important, but it doesn't work on its own. People are worried about rising costs and cutbacks in the coverage they have now, and they worry that a government-financed system will provide less choice and lower quality care.

It's time to eliminate the donut hole in the Medicare Part D prescription plan and replace Part D with a program that's simple, cost-effective and guaranteed. With the savings from negotiated prices with drug companies, we could eliminate the donut hole entirely without any extra costs to seniors or taxpayers.

Conservative corruption exacerbated the Part D disaster. Part D was written by two Republicans who were literally negotiating their next jobs with the pharmaceutical industry as they worked to create Part D.

They inserted a provision that actually forbid Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.

It makes no sense to create a law that mandates Americans overpay for anything. Yet that's precisely what conservatives did with prescription drugs under Part D.

By privatizing healthcare, conservatives sold out America's seniors. They handed over billions to corporations and stuck seniors with confusing plan choices, coverage gaps, and billions in out-of-pocket expenses.