Obama makes last push for healthcare reform

President Barack Obama today made what is expected to be his final push to overhaul the US healthcare system, revising his plans in a bid to win the support of moderate Democrats.

Mr Obama’s latest proposal included some ideas favoured by Republicans, although he has little hope of winning over even a single Republican politician. Republicans have called on him to discard his proposals and start working with them on a new one.

But the White House hopes that, by including elements of Republican plans, Mr Obama can win over Democratic politicians from conservative districts whose re-election hopes in November could be jeopardised by voting for the Bill. If he can generate stronger Democratic support, he can use parliamentary manoeuvres to bypass Republican objections.

“I don’t see how another year of negotiations would help. Moreover, the insurance companies aren’t starting over,” the President said, rejecting Republican calls to start afresh.

Mr Obama endorsed a plan by Democrats to try to enact the legislation by majority vote – using a Senate procedure which would deny Republicans the right to procedural delays.

His appeal came several days after he convened a televised bipartisan summit with politicians and then released a revised plan which he said incorporated several Republican suggestions.

At its core, Mr Obama’s proposal would extend healthcare to tens of millions of uninsured Americans, while cracking down on insurance company practices such as denying coverage on the basis of a pre-existing medical condition. The United States is the only major industrialised country without universal healthcare.

Mr Obama and congressional Democrats are working to mount a party-line rescue mission for the healthcare legislation which appeared to be on the cusp of passage late last year, only to be derailed when Republicans won a Massachusetts Senate seat that gave them the ability to stop it.

Democrats still hold a majority in the 100-seat Senate, but they are one seat shy of the 60 needed to stop Republican filibusters, delaying tactics meant to stall legislation.

There is still no certainty about the outcome – or even that Democrats will agree to the series of changes that Mr Obama said represented Republican contributions.

Whatever the final outcome, the issue is certain to reverberate in this year’s congressional elections, a fact that both Mr Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell referred to.

“I don’t know how this plays politically, but I know it’s right. And so I ask Congress to finish its work, and I look forward to signing this reform into law,” the President said in the excerpts.

Mr McConnell said a decision by Democrats to invoke rules that bar delaying tactics would be “met with outrage” by voters, and he said Mr Obama was pushing a sweeping Bill that the public does not want.

The Democrats’ strategy includes several steps. The House would be required to pass the legislation the Senate passed late last year, and then both Houses would be called on to enact a companion Bill making changes in the first one.

Mr Obama has already made the basics of his plan clear. He would extend health coverage to about 30 million uninsured Americans, curb the insurance industry by banning practices like denying coverage for the ill, expand drug benefits for the elderly and give lower-income people subsidies to help them afford coverage.

It would be paid for by raising taxes on upper-income Americans and culling savings from a government healthcare plan for the elderly.

Mr Obama rejected calls for more debate.

“Everything there is to say about healthcare has been said, and just about everyone has said it,” he said as murmurs of laughter swept through his receptive audience of invited guests in the White House.