EXCERPTS OF THE PRESIDENT’S REMARKS ON HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM TODAY AT ARCADIA UNIVERSITY
As Prepared for Delivery

Every year, insurance companies deny more people coverage because they have a pre-existing condition. Every year, they drop more people’s coverage when they’re sick and need it most. Every year, they raise premiums higher and higher. Just last month, Anthem Blue Cross in California tried to jack up rates by nearly 40%. In my home state of Illinois rates are going up by as much as 60%. And you just heard from Leslie, who was hit with a 100% rate increase. 100%. One letter from her insurance company and her premiums doubled. Just like that.

You see, these insurance companies have made a calculation. The other day, on a conference call organized by Goldman Sachs, an insurance broker told Wall Street investors that insurance companies know they will lose customers if they keep raising premiums. But since there’s so little competition in the insurance industry, they’re ok with people being priced out of health insurance because they’ll still make more by raising premiums on the customers they have. And they will keep doing this for as long as they can get away with it.

So how much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it? How many more Americans have to lose their health insurance? How many more businesses have to drop coverage? How many more years can the federal budget handle the crushing costs of Medicare and Medicaid? When is the right time for health insurance reform?

These massive hikes are going on in the individual market where people have to go out on their own and ask a private insurance corporation for insurance. For people who get their insurance through their employer, the hikes have not been as dramatic. And. because most people get their insurance through their employer, they don't see what is happening to the self-employed and unemployed and those whose employer's don't provide health care insurance. I think this is one of the main reasons that polling suggests that the American people are skeptical about Obama's health care reforms. It's good for Obama to highlight these cases because they are educational, but I think he will get the most mileage by educating people about how much their employer-based insurance has gone up and how that is related to their stagnant wages and salaries. Technically, that information is readily available if people examine their paycheck stubs and calculate their pay increases over the last decade. But, most people don't bother. They suffer in silence and, to some degree, ignorance, of the true cost of health care inflation in their lives. To crack public opinion, you need to let people know how badly they're being screwed because a lot of people don't realize how much money they're losing.

And since we are on the topic, I rely on your generosity to be able to run this blog and yet I still don't make enough to get health insurance. I had hoped that by now we'd have passed something through Congress that would enable to buy something I can afford, but that hasn't happened because of the massive resistance of the Republican Party. So, I am asking you to please consider making a donation to the site not only to help me keep it up and running, but so that maybe I can get a policy that will cover me in case I get sick. Two things this year have really made me worried about this. I turned 40 years old, and I became a father for the first time.. Those types of things get you thinking about your mortality. And thank you to everyone who has ever supported the site. I can't thank you enough.