Obama asks Americans to set aside health-care fears

By Sheldon Alberts, Washington Correspondent, Canwest News Service

WASHINGTON — facing possible defeat on his signature domestic policy priority, President Barack Obama appealed on Wednesday for Americans to put aside fears about health care reform and back sweeping changes that include the creation of a government-run medical insurance program.

During a prime time news conference in which he linked passage of health care legislation to the nation’s overall economic stability, Mr. Obama also claimed his administration’s controversial US$787-billion stimulus package and financial industry bailouts had all but rescued the American economy from collapse.

“As a result of the action we took in those first weeks (in office), we have been able to pull our economy back from the brink,” Mr. Obama said.

The president’s declaration of victory in the fight to save the economy came amid a wave of recent criticisms that the stimulus has done little to stem the tide of job losses. It’s expected the U.S. unemployment rate could rise above 10% later this year.

“We still have a long way to go,” Mr. Obama acknowledged. “I’ll be honest with you – new hiring is always one of the last things to bounce back after a recession.”

With Congress now wavering on White House demands to pass a US$1-trillion-plus health care bill before the fall, Mr. Obama warned a failure to overhaul the system now will lead to ballooning costs and force millions of more Americans to lose their coverage over the next decade.

“If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket,” Mr. Obama said. “If we do not act, 14,000 Americans will continue to lose their health insurance every single day. These are the consequences of inaction.”

Answering Republican opponents who this week predicted the health care issue would be his “Waterloo,” Mr. Obama made a defiant prediction: “We will do it this year.”

Mr. Obama’s decision to spend precious political capital by making a personal health care plea to Americans – it was his fourth prime time press conference since taking office in January — came as the White House struggled to keep conservative Democrats from abandoning him on the issue.

The most contentious elements of the health plan include a proposal to pay for health reform by taxing the wealthiest Americans, and the politically risky idea of launching a publicly-run health insurance system that competes directly with U.S. private insurers.

Already, leaders of one key House of Representatives Committee have put off voting on a version of the legislation after admitting they lacked enough support from Republicans and Democrats to get it passed.

In the Senate, meantime, Democrats who control the committees crafting health care legislation say Mr. Obama’s August deadline for passage of a bill is too ambitious. They argue there is no need to rush, especially with Americans increasingly wary of the price tag.

“I think it’s important that there be pressure (from the president). Otherwise sometimes things tend to drift,” said Senator Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat and a member of the Senate finance committee.

“But this is hard. There’s just no way around it.”

Countered Mr. Obama: “If you don’t set deadlines in this town, things don’t happen. The default position is inertia.”

The nervousness among some Democratic lawmakers has been triggered, in part, by a series of polls showing the country is not sold on Mr. Obama’s plan.

A Rasmussen survey released Wednesday showed just 44% of Americans in favour of health reform proposals – even though a detailed bill has yet to emerge from Congress – while 53% are against.

But Mr. Obama cast the U.S. health system as broken and increasingly unaffordable. Americans spend $2.5-trillion a year on health care and yet 47-million residents go without medical insurance.

Ballooning costs of existing government health programs – Medicare for Americans 65 and over, and Medicaid for the poorest U.S. citizens – are weighing down the federal balance sheet, Mr. Obama said.

“Let me be clear: if we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit,” he said.

Mr. Obama has accused Republicans of fuelling public concern with misleading claims that his reforms would set the U.S. on a path to government-run, single-payer health care — with Canadian medicare being offered as the ‘socialized’ medicine Americans must avoid at all costs.

“What the heck do we want to become England or Canada for,” Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and failed Republican presidential candidate, said Wednesday in a televised interview.

Mr. Obama dismissed the idea of a government takeover of health care, saying a public insurance system would complement, not replace, private companies.

“It will keep government out of health care decisions, giving you the option to keep your (private) insurance if you’re happy with it,” he said.

Other Republicans have cast the health care battle as their best chance to deal Mr. Obama, whose personal approval ratings have slipped under 60%, a crippling political blow just six months into his presidency.

“We need to put the brakes on this president. He’s been on a spending spree since he took office,” Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, told NBC’s Today Show.

“It’s not personal. But we’ve got to stop his policies … They’re loading trillions of dollars of debt onto the American people.”

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health+care+fears/1817740/story.html