America's health care system provides some of the finest doctors and more access to vital medications than any country in the world. And yet our system has been faltering for many years with the increased cost of health care.
President Obama stands ready to work with everyone because that's what the American people expect and deserve - not for the short term political advantages but the long term health of our country. We don't spend time trying to figure out what's in the minds of Republicans we try to keep our focus on the American people.
I think that we have a number of different health care challenges in our country and certainly addressing the uninsured is one and the second is making sure that those with health insurance actually get the care that they assume they'll have available to them if they get sick.
You know there are people making a lot of money in this country who can actually afford their own health care. We are in a situation where we got a safety net in place in this country for people who frankly don't need one. We got to focus on making sure we got a safety net for those who actually need it.
The fact is if we do our job right if we keep worrying not about polls but about the jobs of the American people about their health care about their ability to educate their kids stay in their homes and own their homes send their kids to college the basic pillars of a middle-class life if we keep worrying about the future and building a stronger future for this country these things will take care of themselves.
The issues that matter to me are the social safety nets for people health care middle-class concerns. We need to take care of the middle class and the poor in our country.
People are ready to say 'Yes we are ready for single-payer health insurance.' We are the only industrialized country in the world that does not have national health insurance. We are the richest in wealth and the poorest in health of all the industrial nations.
If any country was a mine-shaft canary for the reintroduction of cholera it was Haiti - and we knew it. And in retrospect more should have been done to prepare for cholera... which can spread like wildfire in Haiti... This was a big rebuke to all of us working in public health and health care in Haiti.
It's wonderful that so many people want to contribute to fighting aids or malaria. But if somebody isn't paying attention to the overall health system in the country a whole lot of money can be wasted.
We've taken on the major health problems of the poorest - tuberculosis maternal mortality AIDS malaria - in four countries. We've scored some victories in the sense that we've cured or treated thousands and changed the discourse about what is possible.
I think the British people are very very attached to the idea that the health service is free at the point of use. But there is no reason why every doctor nurse and teacher in this country has to be employed by the state.
We designed both our state employee health plans and the one we created for low-income Hoosiers as Health Savings Accounts and now in the tens of thousands these citizens are proving that they are fully capable of making smart consumerist choices about their own health care.
America has the best doctors the best nurses the best hospitals the best medical technology the best medical breakthrough medicines in the world. There is absolutely no reason we should not have in this country the best health care in the world.
For the amount of money that the country is going to spend this year on health care you can go out and hire a doctor for every seven families in the US and pay the doctor almost $230 000 a year to cover them.
My personal feeling if I can interject a political note is that I don't think it is right that basic health care is a privilege. It shouldn't be. It should be a right of all human beings. And certainly in the richest country in the world.
In today's world it is shortsighted to think that infectious diseases cannot cross borders. By allowing developing countries access to generic drugs we not only help improve health in those nations we also help ourselves control these debilitating and often deadly diseases.
Yes Democrats can prove that America pays more for health care than other countries yes they have won the dispute that private health insurance is needlessly expensive. But what they've lost is the argument that we are a society.
The filth and noise of the crowded streets soon destroy the elasticity of health which belongs to the country boy.
The only principles of public conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a man are to sacrifice estate ease health and applause and even life to the sacred calls of his country.
Restoring responsibility and accountability is essential to the economic and fiscal health of our nation.
In order to lead a country or a company you've got to get everybody on the same page and you've got to be able to have a vision of where you're going. America can't have a vision of health care for everybody green economy regulations - can't have a bunch of piece-meal activities. It's got to have a vision.
Good health is not something we can buy. However it can be an extremely valuable savings account.
I've been to enough other countries in the world to know what happens when you have socialized single-payer health care. It works. People don't get sick as much. They don't lose their life savings with a catastrophic illness like cancer or AIDS.
I think all Americans believe in human rights. And health is an often overlooked aspect of basic human rights. And it's one that's easily corrected. The reason I say that is that many of the diseases that we treat around the world I knew when I was a child. My mother was a registered nurse. And they no longer exist in our country.