Obama blasts opposition ‘scare tactics’ on healthcare plan

US president Barack Obama has condemned the wild “scare tactics” peddled by enemies of his healthcare reform plan in a passionate defence of his signature domestic priority.

Obama thrust himself into a fierce public debate over his plans to bring health coverage in reach of all Americans in a campaign-style town hall meeting in New Hampshire meant to mobilise grass roots support for his plan. “The way politics works sometimes is that people who want to keep things the way they are will try to scare the heck out of folks, and they’ll create bogeymen out there that just aren’t real,” Obama said. Obama also recounted the story of his own mother, Ann Dunham, who lost her fight to cancer nearly a decade and a half ago as she battled insurance companies.

“It is... personal for me,” Obama told the crowd.