President Barack Obama, conceding that ordinary Americans are skeptical of his plan to overhaul the nation's health care system, sought Wednesday to convince the public that the changes would benefit them and strengthen the economy.
"Reform is about every American who has ever feared that they may lose their coverage if they become too sick or lose their job or change their job," Obama said at a prime-time news conference from the East Room of the White House. "It's about every small business that has been forced to lay off employees or cut back on their coverage, because it became too expensive. It's about the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid."
Obama used the event, the fifth full-scale White House news conference of his 6-month-old presidency, to try to reclaim a debate that has been slipping away from him in recent days.
With Republicans and some moderate Democrats on Capitol Hill balking at both the specifics of the legislation and Obama's timetable for House and Senate passage of the bills, the White House is now trying to rally legislative support and public opinion by linking health care to the nation's economic health and offering the promise of tangible benefits to Americans.
"If we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit," he said. "If we do not reform health care, your premiums and
out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket." He acknowledged that Americans were anxious, saying, "Folks are skeptical, and that is entirely legitimate."
For Obama, the stakes could not be higher. Health legislation is his highest legislative priority, and his success or failure could shape the rest of his presidency. But while he is under pressure from leading Democrats to delve more deeply into the negotiations, by taking positions on specific policy issues, he largely resisted doing so on Wednesday night.
But the president did weigh in on a controversial idea percolating in the House of Representatives to tax the wealthiest Americans to help pay to extend coverage to the nation's 47 million uninsured. At first, House Democrats were weighing a tax on Americans making more than $280,000 a year; now there is talk of imposing the tax on those households earning $1 million or more, an idea Obama said he favored because it would not put the burden of paying for the bill on the middle class.
"To me, that meets my principle, that it's not being shouldered by families who are already having a tough time," he said.
Obama also signaled that he might be open to another idea under consideration in the Senate: taxing employer-provided health benefits, as long as the tax did not fall on the middle class.
On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, said Democrats remained on track to reach a deal on major health care legislation. But she acknowledged that the process had slowed in response to concerns among conservative Democrats about the cost of the bill, and that some House Democrats were reluctant to embrace the income surtax on high-earners without knowing whether the Senate would go along.
Indeed, even as Pelosi insisted that Congress was closer than ever to achieving a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's health care system, Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, a leader of the Blue Dogs, a conservative faction of Democrats, issued a statement saying that a deal was still a long way off. And a senior Democratic aide on Capitol Hill said party leaders now believed it was essential for Obama to be more specific about what he wanted in a health care bill — and not just exhort Congress to pass one.
"The president needs to step in more forcefully and start making some decisions," said the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be publicly identified as criticizing Obama. "Everyone appreciates the fact that Obama has devoted so much time to health care. The bully pulpit is powerful. But in view of the deadlines Congress has missed, we would like to hear more from the president about what he wants in this bill."
Source
President Barack Obama said Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, his nominee as health secretary, will try to forge a bipartisan consensus on revamping the U.S. health- care system, one of the nation’s “great challenges.”
The president also said that Nancy-Ann DeParle, the former chief of Medicare and Medicaid during the Clinton administration, will lead a new Office of Health Reform in the White House and work with Sebelius in shepherding the administration’s health- care initiatives through Congress.
“Health-care reform that reduces costs while expanding coverage is no longer just a dream we hope to achieve -- it’s a necessity we have to achieve,” Obama said at the White House, where he introduced Sebelius and DeParle.
The nomination of Sebelius, 60, comes as Obama puts health care on a parallel track with the economy as a top priority for his administration. The move also signals Obama’s attempt to build a bipartisan consensus in Congress. Sebelius, a Democrat, is in her second term as chief executive working with a Republican-dominated legislature in Kansas.
Obama last week proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and reducing government payments to drug companies and insurers to fund a $634 billion “down payment” toward overhauling the U.S. health-care system and expanding coverage.
‘Fiscal Imperative’
Even with the nation facing a deepening recession, Obama said in his address to Congress last week and again today that revamping health care can’t wait.
“We must realize that fixing what’s wrong with our health care system is no longer just a moral imperative but a fiscal imperative,” he said in his announcement.
Congressional Republicans already have signaled opposition to the tax increases and Obama has said he expects a fight over his budget plans.
Obama said that the health-care overhaul will require a bipartisan consensus that Sebelius, given her experience as a Democratic chief executive in a largely Republican state, has a chance to forge.
“I don’t think anybody has a silver bullet when it comes to health care,” Obama said. “But what I do know is this that people of good will collectively recognize that the path that we’re on is unsustainable.”
Fundamental Question
One of the biggest issues facing Obama is whether the government should directly provide health benefits by establishing a public health plan to compete with private insurers, said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health LLC, a health consulting firm in Washington.
The health-care industry likely will argue that “you can’t have a level playing field” if it has to compete against the government for insurance business, Mendelson said. “That’s going to be a very important decision” to be made by the administration as it goes forward.
The administration also announced it is releasing $155 million from the economic stimulus package to fund 126 new health centers intended to help many of the 46 million Americans without health insurance. The money will come in the form of grants from the Department of Health and Human Services.
If approved by the Senate, Sebelius would take over a department whose jurisdiction includes Medicare health plans for the elderly and disabled and Medicaid health programs for the poor. The two programs account for $743 billion in spending, or about 21 percent of the federal budget.
Link to Economy
“This isn’t a partisan challenge, it’s an American challenge and one we can’t afford to ignore.” Sebelius said. “We can’t fix the economy without fixing health care.”
The nomination ended almost a month of uncertainty over who would assist Obama in developing and promoting his health plan. His previous nominee, former Senator Thomas A. Daschle, withdrew after questions were raised about his payment of back taxes.
Daschle was slated to take dual roles as health and human services secretary and head of the health reform office.
Obama plans an administration health-care summit on March 5, where doctors, hospital representatives, health-care advocates, business, labor and academicians will debate the course and pace of a revamped health-care system.
During his presidential election campaign, Obama promised to restructure insurance markets to provide more people coverage. He said at the time that he wants to give people more affordable options and bar insurers from denying people coverage because of their medical conditions.
Other Agencies
Sebelius would also oversee the Food and Drug Administration, which approves drugs and polices the U.S. food supply that’s under fire for tainted peanuts entering the food chain, and the National Institutes of Health, which holds responsibility for medical research. Obama hasn’t named people to head those agencies.
DeParle, 52, currently is a managing director of CCMP Capital Advisors LLC, a New York-based private equity firm with interests in health care. She sits on the boards of Medco Health Solutions Inc., a pharmacy benefit manager based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey; heart-device maker Boston Scientific Corp., of Natick, Massachusetts, and health information technology company Cerner Corp., of Kansas City, Missouri.
DeParle also is a director of CareMore Holdings LLC, Novel Environment Power, and Legacy Hospital Partners, all private companies owned or managed by CCMP Capital Advisors, according to corporate filings.
White House Confidence
Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said the administration doesn’t believe her board memberships will present a conflict of interest. “The White House has confidence in her and her abilities,” he said.
During President Bill Clinton’s administration, she led the two largest government health programs, Medicare and Medicaid. Before that she worked for Clinton as associate director for health and personnel of the Office of Management and Budget.
Until last year DeParle was a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a panel appointed by Congress to provide independent opinions on payment and policy issues. She sits on the board of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is an adjunct professor of health care systems at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
