Health care reform? Let's hope.

For that same reason, we must also address the crushing cost of health care.

This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes. In the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages. And in each of these years, one million more Americans have lost their health insurance. It is one of the major reasons why small businesses close their doors and corporations ship jobs overseas. And it's one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget.

Given these facts, we can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold.

Already, we have done more to advance the cause of health care reform in the last thirty days than we have in the last decade. When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for eleven million American children whose parents work full-time. Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives. It will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American by seeking a cure for cancer in our time. And it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that is one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.

This budget builds on these reforms. It includes an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform -- a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American. It's a commitment that's paid for in part by efficiencies in our system that are long overdue. And it's a step we must take if we hope to bring down our deficit in the years to come.

Now, there will be many different opinions and ideas about how to achieve reform, and that is why I'm bringing together businesses and workers, doctors and health care providers, Democrats and Republicans to begin work on this issue next week.

I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. It will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.

- President Obama, last night, to Congress

Kind of light on specifics, but this was an inspirational speech, not a particularly substantive one.

From this I derive the following:

1. [The new budget, which no one has seen yet] includes an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform -- a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American. "Commitment." This would be what? It sounds like it's somewhat short of actually taking action on the problem. On the other hand "we must have quality, affordable health care for every American" is certainly going in the right direction.
2. Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives. I used to oppose electronic health records, but after filling out three different "history" forms for my recent surgery (one for the general practitioner, one for the surgeon and one for the hospital), on inconsistent forms, none of which, I am convinced, were read by anybody, I've changed my mind. Everyone knows that the least reliable way to collect health information is self-reporting. People lie, to be blunt. A coherent, accessible actual history would be much more useful, and in all probability save lives. Not to mention money. Ask yourself. Do you want the guy who's going to cut into you, not to mention the guy who's going to put you to "sleep" under heavy sedation, to have the real facts, such as we can know them, about your body and your health history?
   
3. It's a commitment that's paid for in part by efficiencies in our system that are long overdue. You think we pay too much for health care? I do. Review previous posts. Why can France produce superior results for half of what we spend per capita? Hum? Can we flush out inefficiencies? Time will tell.
4. Now, there will be many different opinions and ideas about how to achieve reform, and that is why I'm bringing together businesses and workers, doctors and health care providers, Democrats and Republicans to begin work on this issue next week. The allusion to radically differing ideas is well taken. (And the Republicans, as well as a lot of people who are apparently profiting by the current "system," so far as I can tell, do not want reform at all.) That's the gloomy statement. The optimistic statement is next week.
5. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year. That's the best part. The idea that we have to fix this not some vague time in the future, but now.