it s a similar type of construct that the medical program has itself. and the reason for that is because the individuals who are in the medicare program understand and appreciate if you don t have folks in the plan initially it costs more for everybody. there is an incentive for seniors to sign up the day they turn 65. we have another question from the audience. will owen is a stay at home dad and a navy veteran. my question for the secretary is why are we talking about repeal and replace? why shouldn t we just talk about repeal? it s my that the federal government has no business in the business of delivering health care. [ applause ] thanks for the question and thanks for your service. we could just be repealing it. the fact is that would leave
we have another question from karen gotlieb, a registered nurse. the proposed plan allows insurers to charge 30% more to those with a lapse in coverage. working with the free clinics for over 20 years, we have seen countless patients go on and off insurance because of unsteady employment. many can t afford premiums due to circumstances beyond their control and often have to make hard choices. how do you plan to help our patients in this situation? thanks and thanks for the work you have done as a nurse. as an orthopedic surgeon for over 20 years, nurses were important to me and my practice. this is an important question because it gets to the issue of how you are gng to price insurance and whether or not coverage is going to
sure. and now you re questioning their, his ability to do his job and the results of this, of this report. so how do you square the two no. well, a couple points. this isn t about who the director of the congressional budget office is. this is about how we get care and coverage for the american people. what they want is health care. they couldn t care less, no offense, to keith hall, but they couldn t care less hot director of the congressional budget office is, so we want to focus on care for the american people. second, we believe strongly, and if i put my former budget committee hat on, that there needs to be significant reform at the cbo. and we put something in here i hope somebody pecicks up becaus there are a lot of issues. we have our first question
wealthy? millions believe repealing obamacare will harm us financially and medically. [ applause ] thanks for the question and clearly that s not our goal and our goal is to make certain that every american has the financial feasibility to purchase what they want for themselves and their family. that s the plan that is in place. contrasted with what we have right now. we have a plan that many individuals performed coverage and pay the premiums and won t allow them to obtain the care that they need. again you have 20 million americans who said the rules of this game are ones that i don t want to play. i m not interested in having that. they say nonsense. i will pay a penalty. the government is forcing me to buy something and if i don t buy t i would rather pay the penalty than buy what the government wants me to buy. shouldn t we have a system that works for everybody? that s the goal we have. that s one tax issue.
at same income level. previous administration identified individuals in certa certain certain sector of our society, you have to make more than the guy down the street making the exact same as you. that sounds dangerous to me. another question. from brooklyn, age of 30 diagnosed with breast cancer and now cancer-free and we re happy about that. proposed health care legislation requires that people with preexisting conditions are still covered, however if the mandate is removed, how will insurance companies be able to afford to pay for people with preexisting conditions like me? wonderful news that you re now cured. that s great. we used to celebrate that in our