奥巴马总统在白宫玫瑰园就《平价医疗法案》英语演讲稿.docx

奥巴马总统在白宫玫瑰园就平价医疗法案英语演讲稿THE PRESIDENT: Everybody, have a seat.MS. BAKER: Hello. My name is Janice Baker. I havethe privilege to say that Im the firstperson in the state of Delaware to enrollfor health insurance through the new marketplace. (Applause.) Like many consumers out there, it took me a number of frustratingattempts beforeI could apply for and select my plan. I kept trying because I needed access to thenew healthcare options.I had applied to three privateinsurance companies only to be rejected due to preexistinghealthconditions. I am too young for Medicare,but Im too old not to have some health issues. Iwas able to find a policy I am thrilled with, saving $150 a month, andmuch lower deductiblesthan my previous policy that I held through my smallbusiness.Im here today to encourage otherpeople like me who needs access to quality, affordableinsurance, and to tellthem to have patience with such a new system. Without this ability toget this insurance, Iknow that a single hospital stay could have bankrupted me and mybusiness.Thank you all. And I am now honored to introduce thePresident of the United States. (Applause.)THE PRESIDENT: Great job.MS. BAKER: Thank you. Thank you.THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you,everybody. Well, thank you, Janice.And thanks to everybody here for coming onthis beautiful day. Welcome to the WhiteHouse.About three weeks ago, as thefederal government shut down, the Affordable Care Actshealth insurancemarketplaces opened for business across the country. Well, weve now gottenthe government backopen for the American people, and today I want to talk about how weregoing toget the marketplaces running at full steam, as well. And Im joined today by folks whohave eitherbenefited from the Affordable Care Act already, or who are helping theirfellowcitizens learn about what this law means for them and how they can get covered.Of course, youve probably heardthat HealthC –- the new website where people canapply for healthinsurance, and browse and buy affordable plans in most states –- hasntworkedas smoothly as it was supposed to work. And the number of people who have visitedthe site has beenoverwhelming, which has aggravated some of these underlying problems.Despite all that, thousands ofpeople are signing up and saving money as we speak. ManyAmericans with a preexisting condition,like Janice, are discovering that they can finally gethealth insurance likeeverybody else.So today, I want to speak toevery American whos looking to get affordable healthinsurance. I want you to know whats available to youand why it may be a good deal for you.And for those whove had some problems with the website, I want to tellyou what were doingto make it work better and how you can sign up to getcovered in other ways.But before I do that, let meremind everybody that the Affordable Care Act is not just awebsite. Its much more. For the vast majority of Americans - for 85percent of Americanswho already have health insurance through your employer orMedicare or Medicaid -– you dontneed to sign up for coverage through awebsite at all. Youve already gotcoverage. What theAffordable Care Actdoes for you is to provide you with new benefits and protections that havebeenin place for some time. You may not knowit, but youre already benefiting from theseprovisions in the law.For example, because of theAffordable Care Act, young people like Jasmine Jennings, andJessica Ugalde,and Ezra Salop, all of whom are here today, theyve been able to stay ontheirparents plans until theyre 26. Millions of other young people are currently benefiting fromthat part ofthe law. (Applause.) Another part of the Affordable Care Act isproviding seniors withdeeper discounts on their prescription medicine. Billions of dollars have been saved byseniorsalready. Thats part of thelaw. Its already in place. Its happening right now.Already, because of theAffordable Care Act, preventive care like mammograms and birthcontrol are freethrough your employers. Thats part ofthis law. (Applause.) So there are a widerange of consumerprotections and benefits that you already have if youve got healthinsurance.You may not have noticedthem, but youve got them, and theyre not going anywhere. Andtheyre not dependent on a website.Heres another thing that theAffordable Care Act does. In stateswhere governors andlegislatures have wisely allowed it, the Affordable CareAct provides the opportunity for manyAmericans to get covered under Medicaidfor the first time. So in Oregon, forexample, thatshelped cut the number of uninsured people by 10 percent just inthe last three weeks. Thinkaboutthat.re Americans whonow have health care. (Applause.) That doesntdepend on a website.Now, if youre one of the 15percent of Americans who dont have health insurance - eitherbecause you cantafford it or because your employer doesnt offer it, or because youre asmallbusinessperson and you have to go out on the individual market and buy it onyour ownand its just too expensive - October 1st was an important date. Thats when we opened thenew marketplaceswhere people without health insurance, or who cant afford healthinsurance, orwho arent part of a group plan, can finally start gettingverage.And the idea is simple. By enrolling in what were calling thesemarketplaces, you becomepart of a big group plan - as if you were working fora big employer - a statewide group planthat spreads risk between sick peopleand healthy people, between young and old, and thenbargains on your behalf forthe best deal on health care. What wevedone is essentially create acompetition where there wasnt competitionbefore. We created these big groupplans, and nowinsurers are really interested in getting your business. And so insurers have created new healthcareplans with more choices to be made available through these marketplaces.And as a result of this choiceand this competition, prices have come down. When you addthe new tax credits that many people are eligible forthrough the law, then the prices comedown even further. So one study shows that through new optionscreated by the Affordable CareAct, nearly 6 in 10 uninsured Americans willfind that they can get covered for less than $100 amonth. Think about that. (Applause.)Through the marketplaces, you canget health insurance for what may be the equivalentof your cell phone bill oryour cable bill, and thats a good deal.So the fact is the product of theAffordable Care Act for people without health insurance isquality healthinsurance thats affordable. And thatproduct is working. Its reallygood. And itturns out theres a massivedemand for it. So far, the nationalwebsite, HealthC, has beenvisited nearly 20 million times. Twenty million times. (Applause.) And theres great demand atthe state level as well, because there are abunch of states that are running their ownmarketplaces.We know that nearly one-third ofthe people applying in Connecticut and Maryland, forexample, are under 35years old. They understand that they canget a good deal at low costs,have the security of health care, and this is notjust for old folks like me - that everybodyneeds good quality healthinsurance. Are than halfa million consumers across thecountry have successfully submitted applicationsthrough federal and state marketplaces. Andmany of those applications arent just for individuals, its fortheir entire families. So evenmorepeople are already looking to potentially take advantage of the high quality,affordableinsurance that is provided through the Affordable Care Act.So let me just recap here. The product is good. The health insurance thats being providedisgood. Its high quality and itsaffordable. People can save money,significant money, bygetting insurance thats being provided through thesemarketplaces. And we know thatthedemand is there. People are rushing tosee whats available. And those who havealready hada chance to enroll are thrilled with the result. Every day, people who were stuck withsky-highpremiums because of preexisting conditions are getting affordableinsurance for the first time, orfinding, like Janice did, that theyre savinga lot of money. Every day, women arefinally buyingcoverage that doesnt charge them higher premiums than men forthe same care. (Applause.)Every day, people are discovering that newhealth insurance plans have to cover maternitycare, mental health care, freepreventive care.So you just heard Janices story- she owns her own small business. Sherecently became thefirst woman to enroll in coverage through Delawaresexchange. And its true, it took her afewtries, but it was worth it after being turned down for insurance threetimes due to minorpreexisting conditions. So now shell be covered, shell save 150 bucks a month, and shewonthave to worry that one illness or accident will cost her her business that shesworked sohard to build.And Janice is not alone. I recently received a letter from a womannamed Jessica Sanford inWashington State. And heres what she wrote: “I ama single mom, no child support, self-employed, and I havent had insurance for15 years because its too expensive. Myson hasADHD and requires regular doctor visits and hist $250per month. I have had anongoingtendinitis problem due to my line of work that I havent had treated. Now, finally, weget to have coverage becauseof the ACA for $169 per month. I wascrying the other day when Isigned up. Somuch stress lifted.”Now, that is not untypical for alot of folks like Jessica who have been struggling withouthealthinsurance. Thats what the AffordableCare Act is all about. The point is, theessence of thelaw - the health insurance thats available to people - isworking just fine. In somecases,actually, its exceeding expectations - the prices are lower than we expected,the choice isgreater than we expected.But the problem has been that the website thatssupposed to make it easy to apply for andpurchase the insurance is not workingthe way it should for everybody. Andtheres nosugarcoating it. The websitehas been too slow, people have been getting stuck during theapplicationprocess. And I think its fair to saythat nobody is more frustrated by that than I am - precisely because theproduct is good, I want the cash registers to work. I want the checkoutlines to be smooth. So I want people to be able to get this greatproduct. And theres no excusefor theproblems, and these problems are getting fixed.But while were working out the kinks in thesystem, I want everybody to understand thenature of the problem. First of all, even with all the problems atHealthC, the website isstill working for a lot of people - just not asquick or efficient or consistent as we want. Andalthough many of these folks have found that they had to wait longerthan they wanted,plete the process theyre very happy with thedeal thats available to them, just likeJanices.Second, I want everybody toremember that were only three weeks into a six-month openenrollment period,when you can buy these new plans. (Applause.) Keep in mind theinsurancedoesnt start until January 1st; thats the earliest that theinsurance can kick in. No one whodecidesto purchase a plan has to pay their first premium until December 15th. And unlike theday after Thanksgiving salesfor the latest Playstation or flat-screen TVs, the insurance plansdont runout. Theyre not going to sell out. Theyll be available through the marketplace- (applause) - throughout the open enrollment period. The prices that insurers have set willnotchange. So everybody who wants insurancethrough the marketplace will get insurance,period. (Applause.) Everybody who wants insurance through the marketplace will getinsurance.Third, we are doing everything wecan possibly do to get the websites working better, faster,sooner. Weve got people working overtime, 24/7, toboost capacity and address the problems.Experts from some of Americas top private-sector tech companies who, bythe way, have seenthings like this happen before, they want it to work. Theyre reaching out. Theyre offering tosend help. Weve had some of the best IT talent in theentire country join the team. Andwerewell into a “tech surge” to fix the problem. And we are confident that we will get all theproblems fixed.Number four - while the websitewill ultimately be the easiest way to buy insurancethrough the marketplace, itisnt the only way. And I want toemphasize this. Even as weredouble ourefforts to get the site working as well as its supposed to, were alsoredoubling ourefforts to make sure you can still buy the same quality,affordable insurance plans availableon the marketplace the old-fashioned way- offline, either over the phone or in person.And, by the way, there are a lotof people who want to take advantage of this who are morecomfortable workingon the phone anyway or in person. So letme go through the specifics as tohow you can do that if youre having problemswith the website or you just prefer dealing witha person.Yesterday, we updated the websiteshome page to offer more information about the otheravenues to enroll inaffordable health care until the online option works for everybody. So youllfind information about how to talkto a specialist who can help you apply over the phone or toreceive adownloadable application you can fill out yourself and mail in.Wevre staff tothe call centers where you can apply for insurance over thephone. Those are already - theyve beenworking. But a lot of people havedecided first to go tothe website. Butkeep in mind, these call centers are already up and running. And you can getyour questions answered byreal people, 24 hours a day, in 150 different languages. The phonenumber for these call centers is1-800-318-2596. I want to repeat that -1-800-318-2596. Waittimes have averagedless than one minute so far on the call centers, although I admit that thewaittimes probably might go up a little bit now that Ive read the number out loudon nationaltelevision. (Laughter.)But the point is the call centersare available. You can talk to somebodydirectly and theycan walk y