Obama tackles health-care logjam with speech tonight

WASHINGTON — President Obama will seek to rally support for congressional passage of a health-care overhaul in a prime-time address today, even as lawmakers continue struggling to reach consensus on some of the toughest issues facing them in the debate.

White House officials said Obama would provide new details of what he would like to see in a final measure when he addresses a joint session of Congress and the nation, but that his chief focus would be on conveying to the public the need for a health-care overhaul.

"The main audience is the American people and their stake in this," said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.

Obama discussed his address at length Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., at the White House. Reid said Obama's goal is "to re-energize the way to do health-care reform," while clearing up "ridiculous falsehoods" repeated at hundreds of town-hall meetings by opponents of the Democratic-led effort.

Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said Obama intends to "remind people why we're fighting so hard for this, what it's really all about. He will tell Americans directly what are the risks if we don't do this and what are the rewards if we do it."

One question lawmakers are eager for Obama to discuss is the fate of the government-run, or public, insurance option, a focal point of the debate. Democrats say a government plan would force competition among private insurers and guarantee affordable coverage for people not covered by their employers.

But opponents say such a program could become a precursor to a government takeover of health care — and even some supporters concede the public option might threaten the larger causes of reducing the number of uninsured and lowering costs.

Obama "will not abandon the public option" tonight, but will make clear he sees it as "the best mechanism, but not the only mechanism," according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity Tuesday.

The official said Obama wants "to break the logjam between the progressives and the centrists" in the Democratic Party.

Compromise proposal?

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., offered the president a glimmer of hope for compromise, circulating a detailed draft of the only Democratic proposal assembled with significant Republican input.

In a meeting Tuesday, Baucus was unable to persuade his "Gang of Six" bipartisan negotiators to endorse the nearly $900 billion plan, which does not include many provisions liberal lawmakers are clamoring to see.

He gave his two Democratic and three Republican colleagues until 10 a.m. today to offer suggestions for improving the bill, which would require all U.S. citizens and legal residents to buy health insurance or carry coverage either through an employer, a public program or new insurance "exchanges" as of 2013.

"Focused on results"

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama is "focused on the end and he's focused on results" and said the president would outline "what he thinks can get done this year."

That seemed to be on the minds of members of Congress as they returned Tuesday from their summer recess, when many were confronted by angry, confused constituents at town-hall meetings.

A Pew Research Center poll taken Sept. 3-6 illustrated the difficult job Obama and Congress face.

While 56 percent of Americans said they planned to watch Obama's speech, 73 percent said the health-care debate affected them personally, 93 percent said it was important, and fully two-thirds said the debate is difficult to understand.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said lawmakers heard the voters' message.

"If the public option weren't in there, I still could support a bill, because there's a lot in there that's good," said Hoyer, who's closer to moderate and conservative Democrats than Pelosi is.

Hoyer listed several points of agreement among Democrats: restricting insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, barring lifetime limits on consumers' health-care benefits and providing help for small businesses.

After meeting with Obama, Pelosi said he indicated support for a public option, but that he would convey in his speech that "if you have a better idea, put it on the table."

Get things moving

The president told the two leaders that 95 percent of workable legislation exists in various proposals, and that he wants Baucus to complete a bill "to get the process going," Reid said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., signaled in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday that his party may be retreating from the "just say no" approach that proved so effective earlier this summer.

Doing nothing, he said, is not an option.

"At this point, there really should be no doubt where the American people stand. The status quo is not acceptable, but neither are any of the proposals we've seen from the White House or Democrats in Congress," he said.

Baucus said he continues to hold out hope that an agreement can be struck before Obama takes the podium tonight.

Snowe to wait

But the Republican considered most likely to sign onto the plan, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, said she will wait to hear what the president has to say.

Instead of requiring all employers to offer insurance, as several other proposals do, Baucus suggests targeting only those with more than 50 full-time workers and only if their employees receive federal subsidies to buy insurance.

His plan calls for employers in those circumstances to reimburse the government.

The idea appeals to champions of small business but worries liberals, who note it would give some companies a huge incentive not to hire people who earn between 133 percent and 300 percent of the federal poverty level, the group that would be eligible for subsidies.

The plan "would discourage the hiring of lower-income people," particularly minorities and women, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The proposal also includes the first alternative to a public option: a system of 51 cooperatives that would function as nonprofit, member-run insurance programs.

Federal funding would underwrite startup costs, but the co-ops would eventually be independent entities, although they would be "permitted to enter into collective purchasing arrangements for services and items that increase administrative and other cost efficiencies," according to a copy of the proposal.

Additional material from The New York Times and McClatchy Newspapers