Health care this year or never, Obama says

WASHINGTON — President Obama warned Thursday that if Congress doesn't deliver health-care legislation by the end of the year, the opportunity will be lost, a plea to political supporters to pressure lawmakers to act.

"If we don't get it done this year, we're not going to get it done," Obama told supporters by phone as he flew home on Air Force One from a West Coast fundraising trip.

Obama's political organization, Organizing for America, invited campaign volunteers to a midday conference call to describe a nationwide June 6 kickoff for its health-care campaign. The president's message was simple: If volunteers don't pressure lawmakers to support the administration's goal on health care, nothing would change.

The presidential plea came as lawmakers prepare for an aggressive schedule of work aimed at producing comprehensive health-care overhaul bills in the House and Senate by August.

Committee hearings — and soon thereafter votes — will start next week. Many members of Congress spent the break holding town-hall meetings and other forums with their constituents about health care, even as opponents and supporters of Obama's plans ramped up television and radio ads for and against.