Remarks by President Trump in a Listening Session on Healthcare
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for being here today. It's a great honor for you to share your personal stories of struggle under the enormous strain imposed on you by the very, very failed and failing Obamacare law. Secretary Price and I, along with my entire administration, and a lot of people in the
You represent the millions of Americans who have seen their Obamacare premiums increase by double digits and even triple digits. In
Many Americans lost their plans and doctors altogether, and one-third of the counties -- think of it, one-third only have one insurer left. The insurance companies are fleeing. They're gone; so many gone.
We're not going to have one-size-fits-all. Instead, we're going to be working to unleash the power of the private marketplace to let insurers come in and compete for your business. And you'll see rates go down, down, down, and you'll see plans go up, up, up. You'll have a lot of choices.
You'll have plans that nobody is even thinking of today. They will have plans that today nobody has even thought about, because the market is going to enforce that, with millions and millions of people wanting healthcare. More competition and less regulation will finally bring down the cost of care, and I think it will bring it down very significantly. Unfortunately, it takes a while to get there, because you have to let that marketplace kick in, and it's going to take a little while to get there. Once it does, it's going to be a thing of beauty. I wish it didn't take a year or two years, but that's what's going to happen, and that's the way it works. But we're willing to go through that process.
Working together, we'll get the job done. And I have to say this just in closing, and then I want to hear some of your stories, and we'll let the press stay for your stories if you like. But the press is making Obamacare look so good all of a sudden. I'm watching the news -- looks so good. They're showing these reports about "this one gets so much and this one gets so much."
First of all, it covers very few people. And it's imploding. And '17 will be the worst year. And I said it once, I'll say it again -- because Obama is gone -- things are going to be very bad this year for the people with Obamacare. They're going to have tremendous increases.
And the
So the press is making it look so wonderful so that if we end it, everyone is going to say, "Oh, remember how great Obamacare used to be, remember how wonderful it used to be, it was so great." It's a little bit like
The fact is, Obamacare is a disaster. And I say this to the
So with that, I'd like to introduce some of the folks and you could say a few words about your experience with Obamacare. And perhaps the press will even report it. (Laughter.)
Would you like to start?
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you.
Our food source is in jeopardy because of this healthcare law. It's my basic --
THE PRESIDENT: I know. Sorry. Don't worry. Don't worry. This is what's happening. It's gone up three times, and then you have to pay -- if you don't want to use it, you have to pay. That's the all-time beauty. If you don't want to use it, you have to pay. And, Tom, you have to pay big league, right? Some people say, well, if I use it, I use it, I'm paying too much. If I don't use it, I have to pay a penalty. And do you have to pay penalties? Do you ever do that, or you have to --
THE PRESIDENT: And it's gone up triple.
THE PRESIDENT: And before Obamacare, you actually had good healthcare.
THE PRESIDENT: A lot of people -- nobody ever takes that into account. I'm not saying the system before was good, because it wasn't, but millions of people had great healthcare that they loved.
Now, when you start deducting those millions of people from the so-called people that are happy, you have a very small number of people that are happy. That, I can tell you.
How about you?
PARTICIPANT: Well, we're kind of the same story as Carrie. In 2009, I left a full-time job to be a stay-at-home mom to two kids. For our family, it was never an option to get government assistance; we just don't believe our neighbors should work harder so that we don't have to. So my husband said, if you can pay for our insurance -- which at the time was
From 2009 to 2015, that private insurance went up by 102 percent. Finally, his employer told us in 2015, when it went up the final time an additional 34 percent, that they couldn't carry our family anymore, so I had to enter back into the workforce but I couldn't find a job that offered health insurance. So we entered under Obamacare, and we believed the sales pitch that, "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor."
So even though we were going to have to pay
And I think what makes our family story unique is, we're by no means wealthy. In 2014, when we entered the exchange, we made
THE PRESIDENT: So it's been a rough go.
PARTICIPANT: It has, it's been hard.
THE PRESIDENT: How have you found Obamacare?
PARTICIPANT: We'll be so happy to see it gone. I mean, it's almost put our family in financial ruin, and I think that's the story for a lot of people.
THE PRESIDENT: It's put businesses in financial ruin.
PARTICIPANT: That's right.
THE PRESIDENT: It's one of the biggest costs -- it has been disastrous for businesses.
Go ahead, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
I myself am from
THE PRESIDENT: So your insurance was good before Obamacare.
THE PRESIDENT: Many people are like that. Many, many plans were great before Obamacare. They were so happy. And that doesn't justify the system before Obamacare, but people are miserable now, and it's putting people out of business and it's putting them in the poorhouse.
Go ahead.
THE PRESIDENT: Very unfair.
THE PRESIDENT: And you represent a lot of people in the same situation.
THE PRESIDENT: It's very unfair.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it turns out it's so expensive it's almost not socialism when you think about it. (Laughter.) You have to pay so much.
What do you think? Go ahead.
And I went from a
THE PRESIDENT: And a higher deductible.
One of the reasons I felt like I can do this -- totally taking a leap of faith -- is because I think -- I know you're going to get this taken care of. So I thought it's only going to be for a year. I will be on this program, I will opt out of traditional healthcare, or health insurance. And I think you're going to get it done.
THE PRESIDENT: You have a lot of people in
THE PRESIDENT: You're paying the penalty?
So I was in my mid-20s when I said, you know what, I've got to get -- we've got to get square with this, I have to have independent insurance. So, I have.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. The people of
Go ahead.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Louis.
Especially as an
THE PRESIDENT: Good school.
Seventeen million African Americans, it's shown, that probably have been aborted since Roe v. Wade. And I supported you in the presidential election, gave several speeches in
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. That's so nice. Thank you, I appreciate it. Great job.
Yes, go ahead.
THE PRESIDENT: I'll be in
THE PRESIDENT: I'll see you there.
But the one thing I've been seeing across
THE PRESIDENT: So you've seen a big problem, and the way out of the problem is to do a plan much more like the plan we're going to get done.
THE PRESIDENT: We'll get that out -- without penalties too, by the way. People don't mention all of the facts.
You know, the other thing about what we're talking about -- we really have a three-phase plan. They only want to talk about the first phase. The first phase is just the most basic of phases, and then you have phase two, which is largely done by our Secretary, and then you have phase three, which is a lot of the bells and whistles. But they don't want to talk about the bells and whistles. So they're really comparing things to something that won't be there for long.
And the reason we have to do it that way is because of
I appreciate it. Thank you, doctor, very much.
Yes, sir. Go ahead.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
And I don't think -- the rate increase is just astronomical, and I'm in the county that only has one option --
THE PRESIDENT: Will you be able to continue, in the years to come, if you have to keep going like this?
THE PRESIDENT: You know what that means? That means somebody is going to make a lot of money. You know that. They're going to make a lot of money. (Laughter.) Somebody is going to -- well, a few. You're not going to make it. They're going to make it. There are people very happy about this situation.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate. Thank you, Joel.
Doctor?
And so the
THE PRESIDENT: And do they even reach it with the high deductibles? They don't even reach it for the most part.
I actually read the bill that's been produced that's coming out of the House now, and I really like a lot of the changes in it. I think that this is going to correct a lot of the issues that Obamacare has had. So I really appreciate what you all are doing.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate it, doctor. Thank you. Say hello to your wife.
THE PRESIDENT: Very nice. Thank you.
Gina.
Before ACA, we had insurance that was eventually cancelled, and I had written a letter to our senator just asking him, what do I do? Do I quit my job completely so that we can obtain a subsidy -- a job that I love, as a nurse in a hospital that I love? Or do I uproot my family and try to find a job with benefits that doesn't even cover the medical --
THE PRESIDENT: So the healthcare is -- the Obamacare forced you to actually -- in a sense, forces you, economically and almost potentially, to get another job.
THE PRESIDENT: Even though you like your job.
THE PRESIDENT: Meaning the deductible was so high that, essentially, unless you had a really big problem, you wouldn't even be able to use it.
The deductible was so high that essentially unless you had a really big problem, you wouldn't even be able to use it.
THE PRESIDENT: It's really not having insurance at all. A lot of Obamacare, you don't really have insurance because the deductibles are so high that you really don't have insurance, if you think about it.
All right. Thank you very much. Good luck.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: What do you have there? I wished I looked that good. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: (Laughter.) That's very nice. Thank you. Thank you. I wish I looked that good.
Frankly, I think that the system was broken before the last administration got their hands on it. I started my company 21 years ago, and I had a vision of wanting to provide 100 percent full family healthcare for as long as I had a company, because I really felt in my heart that it was the right thing to do. I was one of the last holdouts. But, sadly, after about 15 years, I really had a choice of either having a company or being able to provide my employees that level of healthcare. And that's sad. I tell my wife all the time -- you can have anything you want, we just can't everything we want. We have the best healthcare system in the world -- we do -- but it needs to be fixed -- whether it's small business owners, like myself -- I'm a manufacturer, I'm on several boards in the Midwest in manufacturing.
What we'd like to see is not a government-operated market, but a free market. I sell (inaudible) equipment for a living. We have a trade show every year, and there's hundreds and hundreds of people selling competitive products. If we had a healthcare show in my town, there would be three or four people under that roof. And as a businessman yourself, you know what that does to driving down costs or the lack thereof. So we would like to see more of a free-market solution, going back to what made this country great -- entrepreneurialism instead of empowerments; work ethics instead of welfare. And that's what we'd like to ask you for. And I'd like to say thank you very much.
THE PRESIDENT: As you know, that's what we're doing largely, but we also have to take care of people that can't afford to be in a position like you are. So we're going to do that. Largely, I think beyond everything, if you look at what's going to happen -- the competitive bidding -- every element of what we're doing is competitive bidding, but we have to take care of people who need the help. And there are a lot of people like that.
THE PRESIDENT: We're going to help a lot of people, but we are going to be very much free market people. They can afford -- and they'll be off the cost.
Go ahead, Stan.
So anyway --
THE PRESIDENT: Other than that, you like him a lot, right? (Laughter.)
So it got to the point where I ended up -- not only with my businesses -- I have to drive a school bus to keep my wife at home with my kid that was ill. So now I own three businesses, I drive a school bus, and I'm an elected official, to be able to continue to do the things that I need to do with healthcare. The last three -- well, the last three years --
THE PRESIDENT: So it's gone through the roof.
So I'm sitting there at Christmas going, okay, my deductible has been met for six or eight months, and I'm going to turn around and have to do it again for the same disease, for the same symptoms, for the same everything.
THE PRESIDENT: That's interesting. Tom, could you answer that? That would be interesting.
SECRETARY PRICE: It's all about the risk and spreading the risk with insurance over a period of time. But it is a challenge for individuals with chronic disease, there's no doubt about it.
THE PRESIDENT:
THE PRESIDENT: Those days are gone, but they're coming back.
THE PRESIDENT: Well,
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you, Stan.
THE PRESIDENT: Would you have anything to say, Tom, generally speaking?
SECRETARY PRICE: Well, let me start, Mr. President -- really powerful about the consequences of the current law, and you hear people's lives that have been affected in remarkably adverse ways that sometimes you don't think about as it relates to healthcare -- whether it's businesses that haven't been able to survive, or individuals who need to take three, four, five jobs; moms that can't be with their kids when they want. This is about real people. It's about real patients.
And so working with you and your leadership, we are really excited about the opportunity to put in place a patient-centered system where patients and families and doctors are making decisions, and not
THE PRESIDENT: What about the concept that -- and everybody knows it's happening -- that Obamacare is imploding, that if we don't do anything, it's not even going to be around in another year? The insurance companies are fleeing. But now it seems to be getting this wonderful press like it's a wonderful thing, and it's a horrible thing actually, and getting worse. And '17 will be, by far, the worst year so far.
SECRETARY PRICE: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Because a lot of things were put into '17. But '17 is going to be worse, and I assume '18 will be worse even than '17. So it's essentially gone. How do you respond to that? Because I've been telling you, "Why don't we wait? Just let it implode, and let's not take the blame." I've been telling you that as an option. It's not an option I like, frankly, but it's certainly an option. How do you respond to that?
SECRETARY PRICE: I think '18 can be better if we implement the law and we utilize the regulatory process to make some --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm not saying that. I'm saying, if we don't implement the law, what happens with Obamacare? What's going on with Obamacare?
SECRETARY PRICE: What you'll see is a magnification of all these stories around this table: more businesses being harmed, more individuals not having the kind of income that they -- disposable income that they would use, more moms and dads not able to care for their kids in the way that they believe to be most appropriate, more people getting insurance but no care. This is about real people's lives, and that's why it's so important.
THE PRESIDENT: Getting insurance but not being able to use it because the deductibles are so high.
SECRETARY PRICE: That's exactly right.
THE PRESIDENT: And you hear these stories where they're paying a fortune for insurance, and then you hear how high their deductible is. And unless they have a tragedy in their family, they're never going to be able to use it.
SECRETARY PRICE: Yes, this fellow has to --
SECRETARY PRICE: That's like not having insurance.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, keep working it.
SECRETARY PRICE: Exactly.
THE PRESIDENT: He's been working very hard, and he's doing a great job.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Mr. President, I think what unequivocally these great Americans see in high relief is you're someone who puts people over politics. And I just want to thank all of them for coming, and in front of the national media, talking about the real world and impacts of Obamacare. You've said it consistently over the last two years that Obamacare has failed. But these people are emblematic of the Americans that Obamacare has failed. And I just am so grateful for their time, but so grateful for your compassionate leadership in driving the
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mike. Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much.
Q Mr. President, do you have any message for those who are concerned about losing their insurance, whether it be
THE PRESIDENT: It will get better. If we're allowed to do what we want to do, it will get better -- much better. Hopefully it will get very good.
Q So will it take long?
THE PRESIDENT: It takes a period of time. Thank you, press.
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