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This is the United States of America. No longer will you be locked into living in your State because you fear losing your insurance should you relocate to another State.
You'll have complete coverage to choose any doctor, any hospital, in any State you choose.
And with new and innovative healthcare initiatives and plans we will be able to save billions by encouraging Americans to quit smoking, drink moderately and sensibly, and to start to think of nutrition and good eating habits as a way of life.
Some will say we can't do all of this. Some will say it's too big a change.
Is going to the doctor when you need to go to the doctor too big a change?
Is going to the hospital and actually being admitted to the hospital for a serious condition, too big a change?
Is NOT having to declare bankruptcy because you, your spouse or your child experienced an unexpected injury or illness, too big a change?
Is getting something as simple as an annual dental checkup or an annual eye exam too big a change?
When President Kennedy proclaimed that we were going to the Moon in back and would do it in eight years time, he didn't talk about how we couldn't afford it. He talked about how we couldn't afford not to pursue that incredible national goal.
When General Eisenhower gave the final go-ahead for D-Day he didn't announce to the nation how we shouldn't go forward with it because it might be too expensive. Europe's and our own nation's survival depended upon its success. Failure was not an option.
If your first question is how as a nation can we afford it, I say this: "How can we NOT afford to do this". Doing nothing is NOT an option.
And make no mistake. The system I propose will be based upon the free market and capitalistic principals that have made our nation great. Doctors will be able to for the first time be fully reimbursed on a fair, equitable, and even generous basis. And they will be paid expeditiously and on time. Hospitals will operate profitably because everyone will have healthcare coverage.
50 million to 70 million Americans with no healthcare, and with 14,000 more losing their healthcare everyday is unacceptable. I don't accept it. You shouldn't accept it. Our nation shouldn't accept it. And I'm going to change it. No American will be without healthcare insurance.
Some have projected that my plan will cost too much. How much is too much for one's life, one's livelihood and one's ability to get a job and hold a job? How much is an individual's health worth?
Some have said that my plan will cost $1 trillion over ten years. I disagree. And why did we not have this "cost discussion" about the cost of the Iraqi War which will have cost an estimated $3 trillion by the time the last American soldier leaves Iraq, if one wishes to include all the "lost opportunity costs" of that endeavor and the medical bills that we will be paying for, for decades to come. That $3 trillion expenditure, which seems to have been allocated not from a budget but rather "out of thin air" would apparently pay for about 30 years of my proposed healthcare plan.
As for my adversaries, many of them will talk about taxes, taxes, taxes, in order to scare the American people and in order to protect their Corporate benefactors. I ask this question: "Would you rather pay a small percentage more in taxes per year or would you rather keep paying $5000 to $15,000 to the insurance companies, for a plan that can leave you bankrupt anyway.
