Center Supports President Obama's Health Care Plan

We support President Obama's Health Care Plan because it improves on our current system, which is already the best health care system in the world. Unfortunately, too many people fall through the cracks without health insurance. That is the true power behind the president's plan: to put more competition into the health insurance marketplace to get insurance premiums down so more people will have health insurance and thus access to good health care.

Just as the president is aggressively addressing our energy and environmental concerns, so too is he getting to the root of protecting human health. And we know that this is personal for him because of the experience of his mother. It is personal for us too.

Some of the president's statements:

"For the government, the growing cost of Medicare and Medicaid is the biggest threat to our federal deficit, bigger than Social Security, bigger than all the investments that we've made so far."

"I know that there are millions of Americans who are happy, who are content with their health care coverage -- they like their plan, they value their relationship with their doctor. If you like your doctor, you'll be able to keep your doctor; if you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan."

"And we should change the warped incentives that reward doctors and hospitals based on how many tests and procedures they do. Doctors didn't get into the medical profession to be bean counters or paper pushers. They're not interested in spending all their time acting like lawyers or business executives. They became doctors to heal people, and that's what we have to free them to be able to do."

"So what we're working on is the creation of something called the Health Insurance Exchange, which would allow you to one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, choose the plan that's best for you."

"I also strongly believe that one of the options in the Exchange should be a public insurance option. And the reason is not because we want a government takeover of health care -- I've already said if you've got a private plan that works for you, that's great. But we want some competition. If the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it'll keep them honest and it'll help keep their prices down."

(The White House)