Refinitiv Newscasts - Biden speaks on healthcare and energy, departs West Coast 1

Arcosa

22/04/2022 23:27

Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_43mez2qe&referenceId=1_43mez2qe&pageId=RefinitivNewscasts
Source: Reuters

Description: President Biden delivers remarks on lowering costs for average
families and will call on congress to pass plans to lower healthcare and
energy costs. 
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3vCLZx3

Video Transcript:

 >> Green River College, please welcome to the stage Senator Maria Cantwell,
Senator Patty Murray, and representative Kim Schrier. >> Hi, everybody. Thank
you so much for being here at Green River College, and thank you, Mr.
President for coming to the beautiful Pacific Northwest on Earth Day, and
thank you for protecting our ancient forests. But we're here today to also
talk about how Washingtonians had been hit with extremely high drug costs. In
our state on average, the cost of insulin has tripled over the last 10 years
from $230-$275 per patient per month. It's unconscionable that one in four
people with diabetes have to skip insulin refills just because they can't
afford it. People should not be forced to choose between these life-saving
drugs and food for their family. And so we have to go after the policies that
will help protect Washingtonians. And that is why I plan to continue our focus
on the middleman, the Min, the privacy, the Pharmacy Benefit Managers who sit
in the drug chain of supply and basically negotiate drug prices in secret. We
need to know on drug pricing, the transparency. We know and we need to find
out who's making all of that money and driving up these prices. We need to
hold them accountable. And that is why we are trying to get a Federal Trade
Commission to investigate the bad actions of Pharmacy Benefit Managers, but
believe it or not, there are Republicans on the Commission who've been
appointed that are trying to block this investigation. Well, you have my word.
I'm going to do everything we can to get President Biden's nominee to the
Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya, appointed as soon as possible so we
can break that tie vote and make sure the FTC does its job and protects
consumers and those with insulin drug pricing in the United States of America.
We need to do everything we can for consumers, and we will investigate PBMs
trust me. Now, I'd like to turn it over to my colleague, a champion for
families in the United States of America. She's leading the charge on making
sure we get affordable childcare in the United States of America. Who better
than our own Patty Murray? Give her a great Green River welcome. >> Thank you
so much. It's great to be here with my great colleagues. I'm delighted to be
here at Green River College. And as a former community college instructor
myself, I know how important places like this are to help make sure everyone
lives up to their full potential. And is it a great to have a First Lady in
the White House who feels the same way. I'm really glad that President Biden
is with us here today so he can hear directly from Washington State families
about how and why we have all got to be completely focused on lowering costs
for working people every day, especially as families see these higher prices
at the pump and at the grocery store. Just yesterday, I actually met with some
parents and providers in Seattle to talk about the childcare crisis. And Mr.
President, it is a crisis. Even before this pandemic childcare costs more than
college tuition in Washington State and that is really outrageous. When
families cannot find or afford childcare that they need, it's bad for kids and
parents and workers and businesses. And I know it's especially hard on moms
who disproportionately left our workforce in order to take care of their kids.
The reality is, when parents can't work because of childcare, that's not just
a problem for them. It's a problem for our small businesses who can't fill
their positions. It's one less link in our supply chain to get things moving
along. And ultimately it is just one more strain on our economy. So President
Biden, I'm really glad he is in my corner fighting for childcare. We can fix
this and we must fix this. In the Senate right now we're actually working to
pass our childcare plan that will lower the cost of childcare for working
families by thousands of dollars per year and give parents more options so
they can actually find that childcare where they live and raise wages for our
childcare workers as well. And by the way, that plan is fully paid for by
making sure that the very wealthiest pay their fair share.  APPLAUSE  Helping
people and solving problems is our job and we can help working families by
putting money back in their pockets and taking a little stress off their
shoulders. And that's why I'm here today fighting to lower drug costs as well.
For years now, drug costs have been skyrocketing. I have heard from so many
people here in our state from Seattle to Spokane who work hard, they play by
the rules, they save their money, but they still have to make impossible
choices to afford the lifesaving medicine that they need. And that's the
thing. Life-saving medicine doesn't save any lives if people can't afford it.
Every day, people in this country  APPLAUSE  probably right here in this room
are wondering if they would be better off rationing their prescription and
risking their lives just to make ends meet. And that is simply unacceptable.
So here's where Congress and the president can step in. We're pushing for
meaningful steps to bring down drug costs and crackdown on pharmaceutical
companies that are driving prices up. And that will mean stopping companies
from gaming the system and blocking cheaper generic drugs. Finally, giving
Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices.  APPLAUSE  Permanently capping
insulin at $35 a month for our patients  APPLAUSE  and extending the relief we
passed, which is saving millions of patients, thousands of dollars on their
health premiums every year. Now, I'm going to keep fighting for all of this. I
know President Biden will as well, which is why I'm so grateful to have him
here with us today and in the White House fighting to help us bring down costs
on everything from prescription drugs to childcare and bring some relief to
our families here in Washington state. And I'm really grateful to have other
Washington state champions for families in the house as well like Dr. Schrier,
who is a powerful voice for people in our state, especially for our patients.
I cheered when you got the insulin cap passed in the house. I'm going to keep
pushing with you to get this done in the Senate. So please join me in
welcoming my great friend, a great fighter, Congresswoman Schrier.  APPLAUSE 
>> Wow, look at everybody here. This is so exciting. Thank you, senators. I am
thrilled to be here today with President Biden to talk about the need to bring
down costs for American families, especially healthcare costs. Joining us
today are some very special people. My former patient work Hufford, who I see,
and his mother, Nina, and his sisters are here as well. We have Juliana
Graceffo and her mother, Elisa, Jonathan Halverson, and his mom, Michelle and
Preston and Sophia Milly and their father, Chris, and my endocrinologist Irl
Hirsch, who works every day to make sure that his patients can afford their
insulin. Healthcare costs are very personal to all of us. In fact, it's been
37 years, it's a long time since my pediatrician told me that I had Type 1
diabetes. It was April Fool's Day. I'll never forget it. At that time, insulin
was cheap, really cheap. But the cost of insulin has skyrocketed. This tiny
two-teaspoon bottle that I use used to cause $40. Now it costs over 300, and
most of us need more than one bottle per month. And here's the thing. When
people can't afford insulin, they try to make that bottle lasts as long as it
possibly can. So they ration their insulin taking just enough to stay alive,
but not enough to keep them healthy. And that is dangerous, not just
dangerous, that is sometimes deadly. And no one should ever have to make that
choice. That's why I was proud to vote for a bill last month that will cap
insulin prices at $35 per month  APPLAUSE . But you know we're not done. It is
why I have been working for the past three years to bring down the cost of
other prescription drugs and the cost of health care in general. Mr President,
I am so happy to be able to work with you on a whole host of ways to bring
down costs for American families so that they can feel secure financially and
optimistic about their futures. It is such an honor to have you here in
Washington's 8th district, this congressional district today.  APPLAUSE 
Because we want to hear more about how you are working hard to just give
families a little more breathing room. I am excited to introduce Juliana and
Elisa Graceffo. You can hear Juliana's story. It seems Juliana and I have
parallel lives, just 40 years apart. We were both diagnosed with diabetes as
teenagers. We were both inspired by our doctors to go into medicine. And so to
Juliana, I will say what my doctor, my endocrinologist said to me 40 years
ago, I look forward to having you as a colleague. Thank you.  APPLAUSE  >>
Green River College, please welcome your Governor, Jay Inslee.  APPLAUSE  >>
Thank you. Good afternoon. What a great Earth day in the state of Washington
to have a President of the United States who understands one of the best ways
to avoid health care costs is to prevent our kids from getting asthma. And
this is a president who's fighting climate change so our kids don't have to
breathe pollution. That's a great president. And we are so appreciative of him
being here.  APPLAUSE  Now we just had an event at Seward Park amongst the
old-growth trees and he laid out the comprehensive strategy he has to prevent
our kids from having to breathe pollution. And he has done some incredible
stuff fighting climate change. Now I want to be great when Congress sends them
another bill so he can continue this effort. So we're looking forward to that.
Now I do want to share with you and I'm sharing with the President some of the
good work we're doing in the State of Washington. We are leading the country
in the ability to keep healthcare costs down in a variety of ways. I am proud
that our state is one of the first, maybe the first to limit insulin costs to
$35. I'm proud of that. That's a good step forward.  APPLAUSE  I'm proud that
we have actually set a limit on the amount of some of the most expensive
drugs. I'm proud that we are now bundling our payments. So we pay for results,
we pay for health, not just procedures that can keep people healthier and
reduce costs. And I'm proud that we've actually increased our subsidization
for people so that they can get Obamacare and thank you President Obama and
our legislators for Obamacare, thank you very much for what we're doing. I am
proud to have the first public option in the United States. So we can really
have new options for our people. We have a lot to be proud of when it comes to
healthcare costs in the state of Washington. But to this audience at this
incredible college, I request, we need you as nurses, we need you as medical
assistants, we need you as phlebotomist. We need you to come into these ranks
because one of the reasons is we want to make sure we have well paid nurses,
taking care of healthy patients and we need your talents to do that. Thank
this college, thank the President United States for being a great friend
Washington State, good luck, happier day take care. >> Please welcome the
President of the United States, Joe Biden, accompanied by Elisa and Juliana
Graceffo. >> Hello. My name is Elisa Graceffo. I am a mom of three kids from
Sammamish Washington to about 30 miles north of here. On Christmas Eve in
2008, my oldest daughter Juliana, standing here. She was then four, she became
pale and lethargic. She was feeling so bad that she skipped our Christmas Eve
dinner. We thought it was the flu. She continued to feel worse and worse
throughout that evening and by the middle of the night, she started having
difficulty breathing. We called 911 and an ambulance came and took us to
Seattle Children's Hospital. When we arrived, the ER doctor asked if anyone
had checked Juliana's blood sugar? No one had and when they checked it, it was
over 700. A normal blood sugar ranges between 90 and 100. The ER doctor told
me immediately that Juliana had type 1 diabetes, which is an auto-immune
disease in which the body attacks the insulin producing cells of the pancreas.
This restricts her ability to get energy from food. Type 1 diabetes lasts a
lifetime and people with type 1 must take insulin to live. Juliana spent the
next 36 hours in a coma state called diabetic ketoacidosis and the pediatric
ICU before they were able to stabilize her. We then spent the next three days
in the hospital learning how to take care of a young child with this disease.
It's a 24/7 process of checking blood sugars, counting the carbohydrates of
everything your child eats so you can calculate the right amount of insulin to
give and then giving insulin shots. Blood sugars going too high or too low can
have devastating short term and long term consequences. Living with type 1
diabetes is a family affair. One of my philosophies in life which I try to
impart to my children, is that when life gives you lemons, you should make
lemonade. Our family has been involved in raising awareness and funds for type
1 diabetes research to help prevent, treat, and cure type 1. Since shortly
after Juliana was diagnosed. We are proud that through our team Juliana
efforts, we have raised nearly half-million dollar for diabetes research. But
it's hard to make lemonade when the cost of some of the ingredients can be so
high and steadily increase, no one should suffer or die in America because
they cannot afford insulin. That is unacceptable. Fortunately for us today,
Juliana is in high school and thriving. But as a parent, the worry never
ceases. For the millions of other families across America, there is no time to
lose. We need to act. Thank you for this opportunity. I'd to invite my
daughter, Juliana, to share a few words now. >> Thank you, mom. It is an honor
for my family and me to be here today to talk about the importance of insulin
affordability. My name is Juliana Graceffo and I'm a senior at Eastlake High
School in Sammamish, Washington. As my mom just recounted, I have been living
with type 1 diabetes since I was four years old. Here in fact is the insulin
pump that delivers the essential insulin hormone which I need to survive to my
body through this tube and into my skin. Once my family got over the initial
shock of this diagnosis and gained some confidence in how to manage it day to
day, we turned our attention to advocacy. As a high school freshman, I
represented Washington State with a group that went to Washington DC to lobby
Congress to pass the Special Diabetes Program, which provides a $150 million
in research funding over a three-year cycles to this cause. We were successful
in getting that passed.  APPLAUSE  Thank you to senators Maria Cantwell and
representative Schrier for their support on that. The federal government has
such a huge role to play in advancing basic research on diabetes and so many
other areas. We have seen real results too. When I was four, type 1 diabetes
treatment consisted of 10 or more finger poke blood tests a day, 10-15 insulin
injections a day with regular syringes. Today, I wear a continuous glucose
monitor on my skin which tests my blood sugar level every five minutes and
this data is wirelessly transferred to my insulin pump, which then uses
advanced software algorithms to calculate incidence insulin dosages on my
behalf then delivers the necessary insulin through a tube into the site on my
skin. None of this progress would've been possible without the support of the
federal government and private organizations. But the common element in these
improved treatments is insulin. We have better ways to dose and deliver the
required insulin, but we still need the insulin itself. Here during my 14
years and counting as a diabetic, we have seen nothing but increase after
increase in the cost of insulin, a human hormone whose DNA sequence exists in
the public domain. In fact, this cost has tripled over the past decade, while
the insulin itself is largely unchanged. We need something to change. I am
honored to introduce someone who is working to deliver that change. A
president who understands the hopes and dreams of families like mine across
this country. Please welcome President Biden.  APPLAUSE  NOISE  >> My
Colleagues. I'm taking her back to Washington. We're going to get the rest of
my bill passed, let me get it done.  LAUGHTER  APPLAUSE . >> Yes you will,
thank you. >> By the way, I don't want to embarrass you because she's off to
Notre Dame next year.  APPLAUSE  I've done the commencement there a couple of
times. I told her she is in mountain campus. I don't want her to say, "Joe
who", when I come up to see her.  LAUGHTER  Promise? >> Promise. >> Lovely.
Thank you very much.  APPLAUSE  >> Thank so much. >> Thank you very much.
Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for that introduction and as my mother would say,
God love you. You're saving lives by pointing out what needs to be done. I
want to start it off though by pointing out a couple of things. Number 1, as
was mentioned earlier, my wife Jill is a community college professor. I
believe she's the only,  APPLAUSE  first lady ever to work full-time and she's
still working full-time as a community college professor. That's why she's not
with me today. One of the things we're also working on just parenthetically.
This is a great college. It really is.  APPLAUSE  Thanks to Patty leadership
of the governor, you are one of the best systems in the country. I want you to
know though, that we know and I know firsthand my wife, she's an English
professor and teaches writing as well. The number of students who come back to
schools like this and the community colleges were Jill teaches Northern
Virginia Community College are coming back having not been in school for a
long time on many times. Coming back because they want to better their lives,
breaking their necks to get here. Some of them, the average age of my wife's
students is 28 years of age. That's the average age. People coming back from
coming through difficult circumstances they find themselves in, and back East,
a number of immigrant families coming through. The cost is still, no matter
how the states try to control it, still matters. One of the things that it,
didn't do all I wanted to do but just able to assign a new budget bill that
increases the Pell Grants by $400 a year  APPLAUSE . The largest increase in
ten years, we have to do more. Look, I want to say a special thank you to
governor who is here for his welcome and his partnership across a broad range
of issues. I strength by including strengthening the economy and the fighting
the pandemic. But you know, I referred to him and he knows this to be true
because when I was back seeking the nomination, he is the environmental
governor of a Nation  APPLAUSE . This guy is leading the whole country
 APPLAUSE . You have one heck of a congressional delegation  APPLAUSE .
Starting with my friend Patty Murray. When we passed the Recovery Act, the
first bill we passed. I went to Patty and I said I wanted to do the child tax
credit which was something that hadn't been done. Patty had been fighting for
it for years and years. I got it past, we got it passed and reduced child
poverty in America by 40%. But because of a couple of folks,  APPLAUSE 
because we don't have this, we lack one Democrat and 50 Republicans from
keeping them from passing this time around. But it really fundamentally
changed the lives of millions of people Patty, you know, it better than I do.
But it reduce child poverty by 40%. She's talked about earlier the cost of
childcare. I was a single dad for five years. My wife and daughter were killed
in an automobile accident. I commuted every day, 250 miles, 270 miles a day
from Wilmington to Delaware to Washington DC on Amtrak. Everybody thought I
did it because I just wanted to be home, that's true. But I did it because I
couldn't possibly afford childcare. I was a United States senator. I had to do
[inaudible 00:51:30] for 36 years of being listed as the poorest man in the
Senate  LAUGHTER . But I was making a lot of money as a senator from my
perspective. I didn't think I should be making any money other than my salary
as a senator. And I could not possibly afford even back in 1972 and three, I
could not afford childcare. That's why I went home every single night. Over
200,000 miles worth of my career and folks there's easy answers. We can do all
the Patty and I and others have been talking about and not one person in
America making less than $400,000 and you will see a single solitary increase
in their taxes. Not one, not a single increase and folks sometimes we'd call
by some of my interesting Republican friends, we're all Democrats are all
socialist. I'm a capitalist and I think if you can make a billion dollars or a
million dollars or a 100 millions, you'll be able to do it. But pay your fair
share. I come from the corporate state of the world, Delaware. More
corporations are incorporated in Delaware than every other state in the union
combined. And I got elected six times, as senator now we are standing there.
Here's the point and the fortune 500 companies, 40 of them last year, they
made $40 billion and didn't pay a single solitary penny in taxes. It's not
right. It's just not fair. All you got do is just pay a fair share and we can
do all of this and so much more. But that's not what my permanent being here
tonight. Today, I should say and Senator Cantwell, she'd been a champion in
this state to keep playing in a bipartisan infrastructure law and delivering
high-speed Internet all across the state of Washington. And we are going to
out-compete the rest of the world, she understands how we do. We've got to
have you have access, access to that information. Think about it. During the
pandemic, how many of your few parents had to drive your kids into a
McDonald's parking lot to get into internet to be able to do homework, not a
joke. This the United States of America for God's sake. The United States of
America, because of this lady and others we are going to see every single
place in this country, rural, urban and sub-urban has access for high-speed
Internet. The Shire who represents a district, a doctor, an MD, who knows what
folks go through in our healthcare system and knows how to make it better.
This includes how to fill their nursing shortage to help colleges like this
one train and prepare the next generation of nurses and healthcare workers. My
wife and I went to Delaware Community College now in Northern Virginia,
teachers, an awful lot of nurses. And by the way, docs are okay. I've been a
significant consumer of healthcare my career. Unfortunately. I was
hospitalized for the better part of seven months or two cranial aneurysms and
an embolism and my son Beau came back as a decorated war hero from the state
from Iraq after a year of stage four glioblastoma and spent 15 months in the
end just hanging on and you know doctors let you live. Nurses male and female.
I'm not saying any of you in nursing programs they make you want to live. Not
a joke. I think it's a single most underrated profession in the United States
of America. I really mean it. When I was a Walter Reed all those months I'd
lay there and at ICU and look at the monitors. Those lines go flat, you're in
trouble. But seriously after a while and you've seen this doc just get tired,
when in pain. just get tired just want to stop and my nurses. I remember to
this day their names. They come in and they changed the pillow. They rub my
head, they do something to keep you moving. Talk to you. That's why what I did
was they said everybody comes out in an intensive care unit. The joke is in
hospitals is they either get taken out and the nurses never see me and either
taken out in a bag and they never want to come back. I used to go back once a
month and have dinner for the nurses and every night on the night shift there
to thank them. So any of you who have anybody I'm not sure how many are part
of the college, but any you studying nursing. >> We are over here. >> God's
loves you. I really mean it. No one want disappointed because a male nurses
who has consequences of the female nurses. Not a joke. Anyway, I just wanted
to mention that I wanted to thank Congressman Kilmer for the nearby district,
the sixth district, I guess. He's leading the charge and the economy makes
sure that they will leave no community behind. And we're also joined today by
Larson and [inaudible 00:57:22]. No I got it. Benny. Who's a real champion for
working families. And while she couldn't be here today, Congresswoman Jaipur
was doing an incredible job instead she's visiting, she's been a great partner
of mine and worked really closely to me. And she's visited her family now and
she'll be back shortly. But folks were all laser-focused on lowering the cost
for you and your families across the board in a big way to do that as lower
the cost of health care. Health care, especially in area prescription drugs.
Governor is this state has already gotten insulin down to 35 bucks for I guess
as a year you've done so far. Is that right? Well, either early this month,
President Obama came back to the White House. He's a good friend. He came back
to the White House for the first time in a long time to celebrate the 12th
anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. We talked about how hard it was to get
it done in the first place and why we were so determined to get it done. It
was there the people who desperately needed had no alternatives and deserve to
be treated with as my dad what he used most is everyone is entitled to be
treated with dignity. Everyone there's no loss of dignity, like not being able
to take care of child who's sick, or a wife or a spouse or husband. And the
countless Americans lie in bed at night staring up at the ceiling, wondering
what happens if I get sick? What happens if I get prostate cancer and my wife
gets breast cancer? What do we do? How do we take care of the family? Who's
going to pay for it? What's going to happen? Thousands and thousands of
Americans stare at that ceiling. So we did it with the idea that an American
healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. And with the help of our
leaders here and our Federal state level, we began to make some good on the
proposition of fighting independent and improving the Affordable Care Act
after it got passed. If we can hold for a second here, remember, my colleagues
may remember, I was out of office one year as vice president, at the end of
the term in the 2018 elections. And you remember the other team wanted to do
away with Obamacare. They had scores of court cases, scores of votes to try to
eliminate it. But what happened was, a lot of people didn't know Barack is a
humble guy. I used to say to him after we won that Affordable Care fight, I
see, you had to take a victory lap. Let people know what happens. We don't
have time. Guess what? I went into 58 races that year to campaign where there
was an incumbent Republican and a Democrat running. I don't want to run with
the Republicans so I won't eliminate the Affordable Care Act. And what I
pointed out was, if in fact that Republican won that year and it took back the
Congress, what was going to happen? Anyone with a pre-existing condition could
not get coverage again. Not just an Affordable Care Act, but couldn't get
coverage in your personal insurance you're paid for. And all of a sudden
people went, we want 44 of those races. On the one thing, knowing they're
going to eliminate the idea that if you have a pre-existing condition, you
couldn't get coverage. Now you can under the Affordable Care Act. Within the
first months of my administration, we passed the landmark American rescue
plan. Law that not only helped us get COVID-19 under control and our economy
back on track, but more millions of people insured under the Affordable Care
Act. We made it easy for people to sign up for coverage in the middle of a
pandemic. We opened a special enrollment period and gave millions of Americans
more time to enroll in the Affordable Care Act. We crowd Drupal the number of
navigators out in the communities helping folks know how to sign up to get the
coverage. Here in Washington State, about 240,000 folks sign up for ACA
coverage, just last year in additional 240,000, and we're continuing to expand
Medicaid in states. There were a total of 36 states who said even though the
Federal Government is saying we're going to cover for free at the beginning,
and they have to eventually sign-on to help pay for it. Well, we added two
more states. That's millions of people who have now Medicaid coverage. Over 31
million Americans now have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
That includes nearly 900,000 people across the state of Washington. Four out
of five Americans can find quality coverage for under $10 a month in the
Affordable Care Act. We made it cheaper to purchase a premium plans on the
Affordable Care Act. The average family today since we passed that law in our
administration are saving $2,400 in annual premiums and getting better
coverage. That's $200 savings every month. Align them to add more money
available for other needs in their lives. With inflation, with Putin's gas
tax, with the groceries because of loss of access to the wheat fields in
Russia and in Ukraine. Prescription drugs and other necessities and $200 can
make a difference in a month. The bottom line is this, the Affordable Care Act
is stronger now than it's ever been. And we're strengthening even further.
Earlier this month, I signed an executive order directing the Federal Agency
to continue doing everything they can in their power to expand the quality and
affordable health care coverage. This work builds on what we've done to end
the surprise charges you often see on medical bills, particularly in
hospitals. Any of you who have been hospitalized, I hope they haven't had to
do but if you've been lately and you found out your coverage doesn't cover a
certain particular doctors, but you tend to get a surprise bill for a couple
of thousand bucks because without your knowledge they had another doctor
looking at what you needed to do. No surprise bills anymore. They can't do
that. No more surprised medical billing. And separately, we're fixing what was
referred to as the family glitch. With that is a combination facing five
million Americans who can't get financial help or get coverage under the
Affordable Care Act. Here's the problem. Under the current rules, a working
mom is told that as long as she can afford employer-based coverage herself,
she can't qualify for premium subsidies in Affordable Care Act to afford
coverage for the rest of her family. And so we changed that. We proposed
starting next year, working families will get the help they need to afford
family coverage under the Affordable Care Act. And as a result, these families
will save hundreds of dollars a month. With this change, it's estimated that
200,000 presently uninsured Americans will gain coverage. Nearly one million
Americans will see their coverage become more affordable. This is considered
one of the best things and biggest thing my administration will do, is lower
costs and expand coverage. I talked about it and it was mentioned by several
who spoke before me about just a little breathing room. I was raised in a town
in Delaware, and it was a nice neighborhood. It was a three bedrooms,
split-level home, when they were developing suburban areas housing
development. Then with four kids, a mom and a dad and my grandpa living with
us. And the walls were thin. And you could hear, I remember one day it's true
story, one day I could hear my dad was really restless, getting up and down,
and I asked my mom the next morning before I went to school what was wrong
with dad. And she said, "They told him, honey, that they're not going to cover
insurance anymore in his job." Health insurance. Like I said, it's about
dignity, it's about worrying about your family. So we need to keep this fight
up. And as you know, I get criticized by the press because I'm not partisan
enough. Well, this is not your father's Republican Party as I said. They
continue to attack the Affordable Care Act, I want to eliminate it. They're
unrelenting, multiple core challenges, sabotage from previous administration
over 70 attempts to repeal the law by Republicans in Congress,70 times. In
fact, just last month, Republican Senator John, assuming Ron Johnson Wisconsin
said, "If the Republicans back in power and take back the House of Senate,
they should repeal the Affordable Care Act again." Twelve years later,
Republicans still haven't stopped their attacks on this life-saving law. So
pay close attention. If they have their way, it means 100 million Americans
with pre-existing condition once again be denied health coverage. Not a
hyperbole, it's a fact, will be denied health care coverage by their insurance
companies. That's what the law was before Obamacare. In addition, tens of
millions of Americans could lose their coverage including young people who are
no longer be able to be covered by their parents' plans up to age 26. Premiums
are going to go through the roof so it's a lot of at stake. Well, I've got a
better idea. Instead of destroying the Affordable Care Act, let's keep
building on it. Extend the American rescue plans subsidies that we've already
passed, allowing premiums and lower previous expanded coverage. Close the
Medicaid coverage gap that locks nearly four million Americans out of coverage
just because they're in states and refused to expand Medicaid and let's do
something that will bring down prices, lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Let me note parenthetically, the only thing that Medicare cannot negotiate
with healthcare providers on are drugs. They can tell you that they're only
going to pay X amount of money for doctor visits, Y amount of money for a
particular operation, etc. But the only thing they can't negotiate are
prescription drugs except for one area. We insisted long time ago that the
department that relates to the military. You have a great guy running the
Veterans Affairs now. Veterans Affairs can say," We're not going to pay you
any more than X or Y for this particular drug." But you can't do that for
anything else. Medicare can't do that anywhere else. In America, we pay the
highest prescription drug cost of any developed nation in the world. As a
fact, it's about two-and-a-half to three times higher than they paid for the
same exact drug, the same manufacturer in other countries. For example, the
anti-cancer drug to treat Leukemia and Lymphoma cost $1,400 a month in the
United States. Some of you may know that. The same exact drug, the same exact
company, same distribution costs $6,000, not $14,000 in France. Same company,
American company, same exact amount. It's unconscionable. Today, one in four
Americans who need prescription drugs struggle to afford them. Nearly 30
percent of people needing essential drug doses that they're supposed to take.
Thirty percent skip their doses because they want to extend life of the drug
that they need. Many people use over-the-counter drugs instead, cut pills in
half because they can't afford them. There's others who simply not fill their
prescriptions at all. As I said, for God's sake, this is the United States of
America. What are we doing? It's simply wrong, especially since it doesn't
cost the drug companies nearly as much to make the drug or the research that
went into it. There's a system they have noted in Germany and other countries
that a drug company can charge the price is set when they in fact, try to
bring the drug on market, like in our case, the FDA approve it. And way it
works is they go," How much did you invest to come up with a drug? How much
did you put in?" And they allow a healthy profit of 10, 20, 30, 40 percent,
and say that's what you can sell it for in our country unless you invest more
to improve the drug and show you put more into it. Otherwise, it can't go
above the cost of inflation. Look, the incident we were talking about, how
much it costs to make that vial of insulin? Ten dollars, T-E-N, $10 to treat
diabetes, $10. A condition that affects millions of Americans, including a
Congresswoman. Some families have to pay hundreds of dollars a month. Some
even over $1,000. The average cost is $863 a month assuming $683 a month for a
lifesaving insulin. You just heard Wilson and Julia talk about trying to
afford insulin to treat the Type 1 diabetes. Imagine what it's like if you
don't have insurance and you don't have the cash to look at your child,
knowing what they need and there's not a **** thing you can do about it. Not
only your child will put in jeopardy, you're deprived of your dignity. How do
you look at your child and deal with it? There's no excuse. None. We're not
asking drug companies to do anything that they can't afford. If you think it
doesn't affect you? It does. Everyone has less money in their pocket today
because of the high cost of healthcare. Over the past decade, healthcare costs
have gone up 50 percent and a major reason they increase is the cost of the
drugs and healthcare. Folks, we may not agree on everything. I think it's safe
to say that all of us, whenever our background, our age or where we live we
agree that prescription drugs are outrageously expensive. So here's what I'm
proposing. I met with the 12 largest drug manufacturer, and I did the
initiative of the last President Obama, when I was vice president allowed me
to do, to deal with the cost of this. And I met with them, and I said, what if
you find the cure for a particular drug, what should you be able to charge for
major cancer facility? I said, whatever the market will bear, they said no. I
said here's the deal, here's what I think you should do. If you have to spend
millions of dollars, you should be able to recoup everything you put into it.
But if it's way beyond the cost, the average American, the federal government
should step up, and compensate you for it. So that the in fact, the American
people can still have lifesaving drugs. So here's what I'm proposing with the
help of the members of Congress. First, let's cap the cost of insulin at $35 a
month, that's still means cost him 10, three-and-a-half times much of cost.
Second, let's end the days when companies could increase prices with no
oversight, and no accountability. A drug company increase their prices faster
than the rate of inflation, guess you have to face a steep tax. We're saying
that why we couldn't let utility companies do it. Utilities can't count all of
a sudden, raise their cost of utilities. We're saying drug companies, you're
finally going to be held accountable when you raise prices for the American
people. You should be able to make a significant profit , but not gouge.
Third, let's cap the amount that seniors on Medicare have to spend for
prescription drugs each year. If you're on Medicare, you won't have to spend
more than $2,000 out of pocket which is a lot of money. And that's not more
than a 170 bucks a month. No matter how many prescriptions you're taking
because of Medicare would take up progress. Drug companies, insurance
companies, Medicare, will pick up the rest of the cost. And finally, let's
give Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices, for every other
type of health care. It uses it to leverage lower prices for American seniors.
But for prescription drugs, the only prescription drug Medicare is prohibited
by law from negotiating, to get the best deals for seniors. And by the way,
10% of the drug come in, we're just saying Medicare is not going to buy it.
They're not going to buy it, beyond a certain price. That means you can't
continue to manufacture and ask a billion dollars for it. But the federal
government's not going to pay for it. It's a long past time we get rid of
these absurd limitations. Let Medicare negotiate fair prices, reflect the cost
of the research, and develop the need for a significant profit, but also
affordable for seniors. Let me close with this. I grew up in a family when
prices went up for things that were daily requirements like the gallon
gasoline, it became a discussion at the kitchen table, it mattered. It was
always on the margins. We felt it. That's why I'm so focused on doing
everything I can to lower the cost of gas and energy, and accelerate our
transition to clean energy. And I also know there are other basic needs that
affect the standard of living for most families. I was a single dad as I said,
for five years. I couldn't afford childcare, no way I could, but I had a
sister, and a brother. We have an expression in my family for real, not a
joke. If you have to ask, it's too late, think about. So my wife and daughter
were killed and my boys came home from the hospital, I found out my sister and
her husband already moved into my house. I had purchased an old farmhouse, a
colonial farmhouse in Northern Delaware, and had a little barn on it as well,
it was only a couple of acres. My brother came in and spent money changing the
barn, and the upstairs in the barn, and into the apartment. My brother and
sister moved in, and I'd drop my kids off every morning when I go to the train
station with my mom. But look, as I said, I had a good job. How do people make
it? But I know childcare is hard, it costs a lot of money. That's why with
your members of Congress led by Patty, who's an absolute leader on this. I
want to cap the cost of childcare for families making under a $125,000 to 7%
of your income. We can do these without raising taxes depending on anyone as I
said, making over 400,000 bucks. The bottom line is this, when I was running
for the president, you heard me say a 1,000 times, you probably got tired and
you're tired of it now, that we're going to boost the economy around you, the
American middle class, because when the middle class does well, the poor have
a way up, and the wealthy do very well. They never heard when the middle class
is doing well. And when dealing with people, and the place we have been left
out and left behind. We're making progress. Over the course of my presidency
so far, 14 months, we've created 7.9 million good paying jobs, more jobs
created in 14 months than any presidency in a year ever. The unemployment rate
is 3.6% down from 6.4% when I took office was. The fastest decline in
unemployment, the start of any presidency ever recorded. Washington State,
you've added 218,000 jobs, and unemployment dropped from 6.3% to 4.2%. Last
year in 2021, and all this was going on, we cut the deficit. All my friends
talk about how they care about the deficit, we cut it $350 billion last year.
And this year in 2022 mark it down because you remind me of this, by $1.3
trillion. That stays on course with the largest one year reduction of a
deficit in history. This is particularly important now as we work to reduce
pressure on inflation. From Washington State to all across America we've gone
from on the mend to on the move. We're coming at our challenges from position
of strength. I'm more optimistic. I'm more optimistic about America today than
I've been in my whole life, my whole career. Because I see a future that's
within our grasp. And think about this now, we're the only nation on earth
that has always come out of every crisis we've ever met, stronger than we went
in it. No other nation in the world can say that. It's because of you, because
of the ingenuity, and determination of the American people. We've just looked
at opportunity and seized it. That's exactly what we're doing today. So as my
grandfather figured he used to say, with the grace of God, the goodwill of the
neighbors, and the quick not rising. We're going to do better, it's going to
be hard for a while, getting through the cost of gasoline and energy because
of Putin, and the war. But we're going to do it. And with your help, and I
said, all the folks who are students here, I wish you well. We need you badly.
And the reason I'm so optimistic, think about it. You are the least prejudice,
the most involved, the most concerned generation in American history. You
really are. Thank you. God bless you all. Appreciate it. Thanks