By Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images

President Obama will make an announcement sometime next week on "the way forward" in health care, spokesman Robert Gibbs said today.

The big question: Will he support congressional "reconciliation," a legislative process that could enable Democrats to pass Obama’s comprehensive $950 billion health care plan and avoid a Senate Republican filibuster.

Gibbs said Obama will consult with congressional Democrats in the days ahead. The president hasn’t made any final decisions, Gibbs added, only that he wants an up-or-down vote on health care.

The president himself made the same point at yesterday’s summit with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.

At the end of that session, Obama told Republicans: "The question that I’m going to ask myself, and I ask of all of you is, ‘is there enough serious effort that in a month’s time or a few weeks’ time or six weeks’ time we could actually resolve something?’ And if we can’t, then I think we’ve got to go ahead and some make decisions, and then that’s what elections are for."

Republicans have said the use of reconciliation will defy the will of voters who oppose the scope of Obama’s health care plan, and would disrupt the operations of Congress.

"It could harm the future of our country and our institution," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who lost to Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Obama announces ‘way forward’ in health care next week – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency

 

By Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images

President Obama will make an announcement sometime next week on "the way forward" in health care, spokesman Robert Gibbs said today.

The big question: Will he support congressional "reconciliation," a legislative process that could enable Democrats to pass Obama’s comprehensive $950 billion health care plan and avoid a Senate Republican filibuster.

Gibbs said Obama will consult with congressional Democrats in the days ahead. The president hasn’t made any final decisions, Gibbs added, only that he wants an up-or-down vote on health care.

The president himself made the same point at yesterday’s summit with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.

At the end of that session, Obama told Republicans: "The question that I’m going to ask myself, and I ask of all of you is, ‘is there enough serious effort that in a month’s time or a few weeks’ time or six weeks’ time we could actually resolve something?’ And if we can’t, then I think we’ve got to go ahead and some make decisions, and then that’s what elections are for."

Republicans have said the use of reconciliation will defy the will of voters who oppose the scope of Obama’s health care plan, and would disrupt the operations of Congress.

"It could harm the future of our country and our institution," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who lost to Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Obama announces ‘way forward’ in health care next week – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency

President Obama Opens the Health Reform Meeting

President Obama lays out the plan for the day and his hopes for what can be accomplished. He talks about where we’re at now and why this meeting is so necessary: "Politics, I think, ended up trumping practical common sense. I said at the State of the Union, and I’ll repeat — I didn’t take this on because I thought it was good politics. This is such a complicated issue that it’s inevitably going to be contentious. But what I’m hoping to accomplish today is for everybody to focus not just on where we differ, but focus on where we agree."

"You are entitled to your opinion, but not your own facts"

In response to Republican Senator Lamar Alexander’s contention that premiums will go up under reform, the President cites the Congressional Budget Offices report that his proposal will actually lower costs for individuals. President Obama also cites some of the Republican ideas he’s included in his proposal and makes it clear that he welcomes additional ideas to contain costs.

"It’s a good talking point, but it doesn’t actually answer the underlying question"

In a discussion of insurance market reforms, President Obama asks Republican Senator John Kyl to move away from talking points and focus on finding common areas of agreement. The President responds to Kyl: "Any time the question is phrased as ‘Does Washington know better?’ I think we’re kind of tipping the scales a little bit there — since we all know that everybody is angry at Washington right now it’s a good talking point, but it doesn’t actually answer the underlying question, which is, ‘Do we want to make sure that people have a baseline of protection?’"

"More choice and competition"

President Obama responds to Republican Representative Eric Cantor, explaining that health reform would lead to more choices and better plans: "The eight to nine million people that you refer that might change their coverage… would be folks that the Congressional Budget Office estimates would find the deal in th
e exchange better. Yes, they would change coverage, because they’ve got more choice and competition."

"American families will drown if we try an incremental approach"

Senator Tom Harkin reminds those at the meeting that while it’s easy to get caught up in the debate over numbers and policy details, it’s ultimately about making progress to help ordinary folks across the country struggling under today’s broken system: "I keep thinking we have got to bring it back home to what this is all about. We all have our stories. I got a letter yesterday from a farmer in Iowa that really encapsulates it. [He said] ‘I’m a 57-year-old Iowa farmer. I’m writing to voice my concern regarding my family’s rapidly escalating health care costs. On Saturday, February 20th, I received a notice informing me that our health insurance premium will be increasing $193.90 per month to a monthly total of $1,516.20. This is a 14.6% increase.’"

"None of us know who’s going to end up being healthy and who’s not"

President Obama discusses some of the short-comings of the Republican proposal to use high-risk pools to cover people with pre-existing conditions. "We looked at the Boehner bill to see how you approached that, but given the amount of money that you have allocated for that pool, its just not going to be a very useful tool for the vast majority of people who’ve got pre-existing conditions. It’s just not enough money that you put into it to cover all the people with pre-existing conditions."

“If you think it’s a socialist plot, give up your federal health care”

Senator Dick Durbin asks Republicans who oppose health reform to give up the health plans they and their families receive from the federal government as members of Congress: "The federal employees health benefit program that we enjoy as individuals and want for our families is all we are asking for in this bill for families across America. If you think it is a socialist plot and it’s wrong, for goodness sakes, drop out of the federal employees health benefit program. But if you think it is good enough for your family, shouldn’t our health insurance be good enough for the rest of America?"

“These bills reduce the deficit”

Rep. Xavier Becerra challenges Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s statement that he doesn’t trust the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate that the health reform bills will reduce the deficit. Becerra: "Now, we can all agree to disagree…but if there is no referee on the field, we can never agree how the game should be played. So I think we have to decide, do we believe in the Congressional Budget Office or not? Paul, you and I have sat on the Budget Committee for years together and on any number of occasions in those years you have cited the CBO to make your point, referred to their projections to make your points, and today you essentially said you can’t trust the CBO."

“We shouldn’t pretend that these folks don’t need help”

President Obama responds to Republican Senator John Barrasso’s argument that high-deductible plans and health savings accounts would be enough, explaining that neither are as effective for families below the highest income levels: "The vast majority of these 30 million people we’re talking about, they work every day. Some of them work two jobs. But if they’re working for a small business, they can’t get health care. If they are self-employed, they don’t get health care. It is a scary proposition for them. We can debate whether or not we can afford to help them, but we shouldn’t pretend somehow that they don’t need help. I get too many letters saying they need help."

President Obama’s Closing: “People don’t want us to wait”

President Obama closes the bipartisan health reform meeting by summing up the day’s progress and laying out the next steps: "If we saw movement, significant movement, not just gestures, then you wouldn’t need to start over [on health reform] because essentially everybody here knows what the issues are. And procedurally, it could get done fairly quickly. We cannot have another year-long debate about this. The question that I’m going to ask of myself and all of you is this: Is there enough serious effort that in a month’s time, or few weeks’ time or six weeks time, we could actually resolve something?"

I am a fan of Speaker Pelosi. She has more guts that every Democrat including the President. She is a proud liberal who have done all that was asked of her and she produced. Now if the men would the the country’s business we will have our bill.

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By CALVIN WOODWARD First Posted: 02-25-10 01:41 PM   |   Updated: 02-25-10

WASHINGTON — When President Barack Obama and a Republican lawmaker sparred Thursday over what might happen to health insurance premiums in an overhauled system, both cited a nonpartisan analysis that looked at that very question. The president gave a fairer summary of what the analysis found.

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander declared in his statement to the White House health policy conference that "for millions of Americans, premiums will go up" under the Obama plan. That much could be true — but for millions of others, premiums are expected to go down and those who face higher costs would be getting better coverage than they have now.

The debate on that point is key if Americans are to accept the insurance changes Obama wants. Democrats know that pitching their plan as a means to extend coverage to the uninsured is not enough: They must convince middle-income Americans who already have insurance that they, too, will end up with a better deal under the overhaul. So the squabble was about more than a bureaucratic report.

Obama sharply challenged Alexander on his claim and insisted he had the facts on his side when quoting from the report by the Congressional Budget Office. For the most part, he did.

THE CLAIMS:

Obama: "Lamar, when you mentioned earlier that you said premiums go up, that’s just not the case, according to the Congressional Budget Office."

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Alexander: "Mr. President, if you’re going to contradict me, I ought to have a chance …. The Congressional Budget Office report says that premiums will rise in the individual market as a result of the Senate bill."

Obama: "No, no, no, no. Let me — and this is an example of where we’ve got to get our facts straight."

Alexander: "That’s my point."

Obama: "Well, exactly, so let me — let me respond to what you just said, Lamar, because it’s not factually accurate. … Here’s what the Congressional Budget Office says: The costs for families for the same type of coverage that they’re currently receiving would go down 14 percent to 20 percent. What the Congressional Budget Office says is that because now they’ve got a better deal, because policies are cheaper, they may choose to buy better coverage than they have right now, and that might be 10 percent to 13 percent more expensive than the bad insurance that they had previously."

THE FACTS:

Both are right, but Obama offered important context that Alexander left out.

The analysis estimated that average premiums for people buying insurance individually would be 10 to 13 percent higher in 2016 under the Senate legislation, as Alexander said. But the policies would cover more, and about half the people would be getting substantial government subsidies to defray the extra costs.

As the president said, if the policies offered today were offered in 2016, they would be considerably cheaper under the plan, even without subsidies. One big reason: Many more healthy young people would be signing up for the coverage because insurance would become mandatory. They are cheap to insure and would moderate costs for others.

Moreover, the analysis estimated that almost 60 percent of the people covered under individual policies would qualify for subsidies, bringing their own costs down by more than half from what they pay now.

Obama was correct that the forecast for higher costs on average is based on the expectation that people would buy better coverage. But that might not be as voluntary as he made it sound. The report said the Senate legislation sets minimum levels of coverage and that would require some people to pay for better insurance than they have now.

Obama Calls Out Lamar Alexander On His Facts: AP Fact Check (VIDEO)