Obama Says Health-Care Reform Essential to Repairing Economy

President Obama urged Congress today to push past growing doubts and pass comprehensive health-care reform package this year, saying that a better opportunity to remake the nation's health care system may not arise for generations.

The president urged lawmakers Friday to take bolder steps to achieve health-care reform, and today in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama called reform essential not only to expanding health care coverage to the 46 million Americans who lack it but also to restoring the nation's economic stability.

"This is an issue that affects the health and financial well-being of every single American and the stability of our entire economy," Obama said.

With the cost of health-care coverage rising at three times the rate of wages in recent decades, Obama called the status quo in health care unsustainable.

That fast-increasing cost of health insurance is crippling businesses, which are finding it difficult to afford to provide coverage. It is also placing a difficult burden on state and federal governments, who find increasing shares of their budgets consumed by Medicaid and Medicare costs. In addition, individuals who lack coverage frequently find themselves at risk of being thrown deep into debt by just one medical emergency.

As bills to expand health-care coverage take shape in both houses of Congress, criticism has intensified because of their potential costs. The Congressional Budget Office has said that the proposals fall short of Obama's promise to slow the increase in health-care costs, leading critics to charge that those bills would only add to the nation's already soaring budget deficits.

"That's simply not true," Obama said today.

Reform is expected to cost at least $1 trillion over the next decade, and Obama has pledged to pay for the changes without adding to the deficit. In fact, he says, the savings accrued by adjusting health-care incentives will eventually reduce medical costs and help bring the nation's budget deficits under control.

"By helping improve quality and efficiency, the reforms we make will help bring our deficits under control in the long-term," Obama said.

Rather than shy away from reform because of the difficulty, Obama urged, Congress should grab hold of the moment.

"This is what the debate in Congress is all about," he said. "Whether we'll keep talking and tinkering and letting this problem fester as more families and businesses go under, and more Americans lose their coverage. Or whether we'll seize this opportunity - one we might not have again for generations -- and finally pass health insurance reform this year, in 2009."

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