In an ongoing attempt to connect directly with
Americans, President Barack Obama used online media during a town hall
meeting that focused on health care. Held before a live audience at
Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., President Obama
took questions from the audience and answered questions submitted via
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
President Obama opened the town hall meeting, which was moderated by
White House senior adviser for public engagement, Valerie Jarrett, by
discussing the increasing costs of premiums.
“In the last nine years, premiums have risen three times faster than
wages,” the president said. “If we do nothing, they will rise even
higher. In recent years, over one-third of small businesses have
reduced benefits and many have dropped coverage altogether since the
early ‘90s. If we do not act, more will lose coverage and more will
lose their jobs. Unless we act, within a decade, one out of every five
dollars we earn will be spent on health care. And for those who rightly
worry about deficits, the amount our government spends on Medicare and
Medicaid will eventually grow larger than what our government spends
today on everything else combined.”
President Obama also revealed his plans for providing universal health
care for Americans. “What we’re working on is the creation of something
called a Health Insurance Exchange — a marketplace which would allow
you to one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and
prices, and choose the plan that’s best for you,” he said. “None of
these plans would be able to deny coverage on the basis of a
pre-existing condition, and all should include an affordable, basic
benefit package. And if you can’t afford one of the plans, we should
provide a little help to make sure you can. I also strongly believe
that one of the options in the Exchange should be a public insurance
option — an option funded by premiums, not the government. This public
option is important because if the private insurance companies have to
compete, it will keep them honest and help keep prices down.”
Before taking questions from the audience and individuals online,
President Obama urged Americans to take advantage of the opportunity to
change the health care system.
“We are at a rare moment when we have been given the opportunity to
remake our world; a chance to seize our future,” he said. “And as
difficult as that sometimes is, what is inherent about the American
spirit is the fact that we do not cling to the past in this country. We
always move forward. And that movement doesn’t begin in Washington — it
begins with Americans from every corner of this country who stand up
and face that future unafraid. And if we do that now — with health
care, with energy, with education — then someday we will look back at
this moment as the time when we did what’s necessary to leave our
children an America that is as bold, ascendant and imaginative as the
America we inherited from our parents.” –amir shaw
