In case you could not stay awake during the 7.5 hour televised summit, MSNBC gives the following notable quotes from today's Health Care Summit. You can find more at the following link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35585513/ns/politics/?ns=politics
"This is a car that can't be recalled and fixed and ... we ought to start over." — Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
“Rather than start at the outset talking about legislative process and what’s going to happen in the Senate and the House and this and that… let’s talk about the substance: How we might help the American people deal with costs, coverage, insurance, these other issues. And we might surprise ourselves and find out that we agree more than disagree. And that would then help to dictate how we move forward. It may turn out on the other hand there’s just too big of a gulf.” — President Obama
"We all agree on prohibiting insurance companies from arbitrarily canceling insurance policies. That's a no-brainer. There's strong agreement on both sides of the aisle." — Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La.
“This will take courage to do.” — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
A ‘broken’ system – and bankruptcy ahead
"Right now, it's projected that premiums for families with health insurance -- not people without health insurance, but with health insurance -- will almost certainly double over the next decade, just as they doubled over the past decade.” — President Obama
“If all we’re doing is adding more people to a broken system then costs will continue to skyrocket, and eventually somebody is going to be bankrupt, whether it’s the federal government, state governments, businesses or individual families." — President Obama
“In 2008, about 750,000 bankruptcies were filed. About 70 percent of those bankruptcies were filed because of health care costs. Eighty percent of the people who filed for bankruptcy because of health care costs had health insurance. America is the only country in the world where if you get sick or hurt, you’re going to have file for bankruptcy.” — Senate Majority Leader Harry ![]()
“Everybody here understands the desperation that people feel when they're sick. And I think everybody here is profoundly sympathetic and wants to make sure that we have a system that works for all Americans,” — Obama
The costs of action or inaction
"I even have one constituent -- you will not believe this, and I know you won't, but it's true -- her sister died. This poor woman had no dentures. She wore her dead sister's teeth, which of course were uncomfortable and did not fit." — Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.
"Harvard just completed a study that shows 45,000 Americans die every year because they don't have health insurance, almost 1,000 a week in America." — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
"We can't afford this. That is the ultimate problem here." — Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.
Whom do you trust?
“There are [consumer protections] in every state…. Do we distrust our governors? Do we distrust our state legislatures?.... Should people in Washington decide exactly how this works and what [insurance] you can and cannot buy?” — Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
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