President Obama said today that health care is a politically challenging issue, but struggling Americans deserve a vote as soon as possible on a package designed to address the system's many problems.
"I have therefore asked leaders in both of houses of Congress to finish their work and schedule a vote in the next few weeks," Obama told a group of health care professionals gathered at the White House. "From now until then, I will do everything in my power to make the case for reform."
Shortly after his 20-minute speech, the White House announced that Obama will travel to Philadelphia on Monday and St. Louis on Wednesday.
In touting his health care plan today, Obama did not used the word "reconciliation," the legislative process congressional Democrats may try to use to avoid a Senate Republican filibuster.
But he did demand an up-or-down vote, and recited a list of programs that have passed as part of reconciliation bills, including ones devoted to children's health care, unemployment insurance, welfare reform, and the George W. Bush tax cuts -- "all of which had to pass Congress with nothing more than a simple majority."
Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said the public opposes the Democratic health care plan because "it spends too much, taxes too much, increases premiums too much and increases the deficit too much."
Camp also described reconciliation as "the nuclear option," and that "big social policy changes should have bipartisan support."
Obama pointed out that both the House and Senate passed health care plans last year by substantial margins, including 60 votes in the Senate.
House and Senate Democrats were in the process of merging the bills in January when Republican Scott Brown won a special election for a U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts. That win gave Republicans the numbers to filibuster a Democratic-only health care bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other Republicans have called on Obama to scrap Democratic attempts to forge a comprehensive health care bill, and pursue an incremental approach to address specific problems.
In his White House remarks, said the challenges of health insurance are interrelated, and "health reform only works if you take care of all these problems at once."
Obama promoted the revised health care plan he proposed last week by saying it is designed to give individuals more control over their health care, not the government and not insurance companies. He added, "I don't believe we can afford to leave life-and-death decisions about health care to the discretion of insurance company executives alone."
The plan's goals: Block insurance companies from dropping coverage of people who are sick or have pre-existing conditions, lowering the costs of premiums by expanding the insurance pool, and increasing he choices for all Americans. Obama said he would finance his plan by eliminating waste in the system, and raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
The revamped plan excises "provisions that were more about winning individual votes in Congress than improving health care for all Americans." Those include the Senate provision that basically exempted the state of Nebraska from Medicaid costs.
It also incorporates Republican ideas, Obama said, including efforts to root out waste and fraud, and rule changes on medical malpractice lawsuits.
Whether people oppose or support the comprehensive health care plan, Obama said, the time for talk should be over, however, he said.
"Every idea has been put on the table," Obama said. "Every argument has been made. Everything there is to say about health care has been said and just about everyone has said it."
The "long and wrenching debate" over the sensitive topic of health care should not be decided on sheer political decisions, Obama said.
"We can't just give up because the politics are hard," Obama said. "I know there's a fascination, bordering on obsession, in the media and in this town about what passing health insurance reform would mean for the next election and the one after that."
Instead, Obama cited stories of cancer patients who face high medical bills, but no insurance.
Health care has now become a test of the U.S. political system.
"At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem, but our ability to solve any problem," Obama said. "The American people want to know if it's still possible for Washington to look out for their interests and their future. They are waiting for us to act."
