Obama intensifies health reform drive

TRUMPETING nurses’ support for a healthcare overhaul while lamenting a worsening toll of uninsured, US President Barack Obama kept up the pressure yesterday for congressional action.

“We don’t need more partisan distractions,” Obama said at the White House, just 14 hours after his Wednesday night address to Congress and a national television audience. “We have talked this issue to death... The time for talk is winding down.”

The White House event was organised with the American Nurses Association, to showcase the group’s backing for Obama’s drive to revamp the nation’s healthcare system. Obama says his plan would give people who have health insurance greater security, set up a marketplace for affordable access to coverage for those without and reduce healthcare costs for all.