Sometimes I get a little frustrated because this is one of those situations where it’s so obvious that the system we have isn’t working well for too many people and that we could just be doing better. We’re not going to have a perfect health care system; it’s a complicated system, there are always going to be some problems out there. But we could be doing a lot better than we’re doing right now. We shouldn’t be paying 50 percent more, 75 percent more than other countries that are just as healthy as we are. We shouldn’t have prescription drugs 77 percent higher in costs than ours. And we shouldn’t have people who are working really hard every day without health care or with $8,000 deductibles — which means they basically don’t have health insurance unless they get in an accident or they get really sick.
That just doesn’t make sense. And the stories I get are heartbreaking, all across the country, from people who are just having a really tough time and it’s going to get tougher. So we’ve got to have the courage to be willing to change things. I know that sometimes people have lost confidence in the country’s ability to bring about changes, but I think this is one of those times where we’ve really got to step up to the plate, and it will ultimately make Medicare stronger, as well as the whole health care system stronger.
So thank you very much, everybody. (Applause.)
MR. CUTHBERT: One of the most difficult parts of working on an effort like health care reform is to keep in touch and keep up to date. May we suggest a Web site: healthactionnow.org, that’s healthactionnow — all one word — dot org. It will tell you how to get in touch with your congressman and the people who are debating this whole issue, and tell you how to keep involved until the very end, which we hope is soon.
Mr. President, Mr. CEO, Madam President, and everybody here and at home on the tele-town hall, we thank you all for participating. Keep up the good work, and we’ll talk with you again. I’m Mike Cuthbert in Washington. Have a good day.
(Source: White House)