Asia-Pacific
Obama appeals for public support on health care
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-03-09 00:22
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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama ratcheted up his attacks against insurance companies Monday in a last-ditch attempt to get a reluctant public and skittish Democrats behind his health overhaul legislation.
Obama contended that insurers have calculated that they'll make more money by denying coverage to some and jacking up rates on others.
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 In this March 3, 2010 file photo, accompanied by health care professionals, President Barack Obama speaks about health care in the East Room of the White House in Washington. With the fate of his signature legislative initiative far from certain, President Obama will take his last-ditch push for health care reform on the road Monday. [Agencies] |
"And they will keep doing this for as long as they can get away with it," Obama said in excerpts of a speech he will deliver later Monday in Philadelphia. "So how much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it?"
Obama's pitch in Philadelphia, along with a stop in St. Louis Wednesday, comes as the president begins an all-out effort to pass his health care proposals. The next two weeks will prove decisive, with the White House pushing for House action by March 18, when Obama leaves for an Asia trip.
Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, recently released a brief showing that lack of market competition makes it beneficial for insurers to drop customers or ignore new business and raise rates on remaining customers instead. Goldman's conclusions were based on a conference call with an industry expert at a major insurance broker.
Obama cited the broker's comments that insurance companies sometimes see it as more profitable to drop or deny coverage to some and raise prices on others.
Insurers have blamed rising rates on the growing price tag of prescription drugs, hospital stays and other medical costs.
Obama is trying to persuade the public to back his plan to remake the nation's health care system, while also urging uneasy lawmakers to cast a "final vote" for the massive legislation in an election year.
Though his plan has received only modest public support, Obama has implored lawmakers to show political courage and not let a historic opportunity slip away.
Democratic leaders are narrowing in on a strategy that calls for House Democrats to go along with a health care bill the Senate passed in December. Obama would sign it into law, but senators would promise to make changes on issues that have concerned House Democrats. Because Senate Democrats lost the 60-seat majority needed to stop GOP filibusters with the Massachusetts Senate race, the changes would have to be made under rules that require only simple majority votes.
