Obama Sees Election as Referendum on Reform

That would result in a person who can’t afford health insurance having to just “hope you don’t get sick.”

“And I will never turn Medicare into a voucher,” he said to loud applause. “No American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies. They should retire with the care and dignity they have earned.”

The president also defended his own law saying it extended the solvency of Medicare by eight years “by reducing the cost of health care, not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more.”

He also appeared to push back on the 2010 conservative electoral wave that stemmed from the contentious year-long legislative battle to pass his health care law.

“We the people recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what’s in it for me; a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism is unworthy of our founding ideals and those who died in their defense,” he said.

Rich Daly writes for Modern Healthcare, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.