President Obama Makes Final Push For Health Reform In Ohio
Tags: Barack Obama, Health care, Insurance, Ohio, Pre-existing condition, United States, White House
David Axelrod, top political advisor to the White House, said on Sunday that this would be the week that health reform would pass. A bold statement to be sure, after having acknowledged that the House of Representatives hasn't yet been able to get the 216 votes needed to pass the Senate bill.
Last Friday, President Obama delayed a trip to Indonesia at the request of the House Democratic leadership to help ramp up the pressure on the Senate and wavering Democrats in the House. The delay was received with great relief from Congressional Democrats, and today's speech at a rally in Ohio, exclusively on health-care, ends a big push to finish health reform as soon as this week so that they could move on. In fact, the President said today that what American's needed was an act of courage by their politicians, chiding his fellows that they were more worried about re-election than passing a bill which could help millions of Americans, and reduce the deficit.
Similar to the last two speeches solely on health-care, there was a mix of personal stories about the need for reform as a matter of morality, followed by an indictment of insurance company rate hikes and those who would advocate the market be deregulated further. He spent some time bashing rumours that the bill would cut senior's Medicare and that it would add to the deficit, but the majority of his speech was what was in the actually the bill. The crowd was different in the sense that it was relatively rowdy and difficult to read, with shouts and murmurs running through the hall throughout the speech, but they responded well to the points the President raised, and became even more lively when he got more specific about certain parts of the legislation.
He highlighted a lot of the good portions of the bill which tend to poll very well, and avoided discussing parts like the individual mandate which don't poll well. However, no more pre-existing conditions, a ban on dropping coverage when you get sick, all new plans would require new free prevention coverage to all plans, no lifetime or annual limits on care, and children would be able stay on their parent's policy until 26 years of age, were all mentioned as insurance reforms which the crowd really liked. He emphasized that the bill would offer customers choice in the form of exchanges, which would allow people to buy into insurance pools for better bargaining power, much like members of the federal government. And finally, he said that the bill was paid for, adding that the CBO scored it as reducing the deficit in its first decade by at least $120 billion, and with less certainty a $1 trillion reduction in the deficit in the second decade.
Watch the speech below:
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Last Friday, President Obama delayed a trip to Indonesia at the request of the House Democratic leadership to help ramp up the pressure on the Senate and wavering Democrats in the House. The delay was received with great relief from Congressional Democrats, and today's speech at a rally in Ohio, exclusively on health-care, ends a big push to finish health reform as soon as this week so that they could move on. In fact, the President said today that what American's needed was an act of courage by their politicians, chiding his fellows that they were more worried about re-election than passing a bill which could help millions of Americans, and reduce the deficit.
Similar to the last two speeches solely on health-care, there was a mix of personal stories about the need for reform as a matter of morality, followed by an indictment of insurance company rate hikes and those who would advocate the market be deregulated further. He spent some time bashing rumours that the bill would cut senior's Medicare and that it would add to the deficit, but the majority of his speech was what was in the actually the bill. The crowd was different in the sense that it was relatively rowdy and difficult to read, with shouts and murmurs running through the hall throughout the speech, but they responded well to the points the President raised, and became even more lively when he got more specific about certain parts of the legislation.
He highlighted a lot of the good portions of the bill which tend to poll very well, and avoided discussing parts like the individual mandate which don't poll well. However, no more pre-existing conditions, a ban on dropping coverage when you get sick, all new plans would require new free prevention coverage to all plans, no lifetime or annual limits on care, and children would be able stay on their parent's policy until 26 years of age, were all mentioned as insurance reforms which the crowd really liked. He emphasized that the bill would offer customers choice in the form of exchanges, which would allow people to buy into insurance pools for better bargaining power, much like members of the federal government. And finally, he said that the bill was paid for, adding that the CBO scored it as reducing the deficit in its first decade by at least $120 billion, and with less certainty a $1 trillion reduction in the deficit in the second decade.
Watch the speech below:
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