WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will deliver a major prime-time health care address to Congress next week, opening an urgent autumn push to gain control of the debate that has been slipping from his grasp under withering Republican-led attacks.
Scheduling the speech Wednesday night, just a day after lawmakers return from their August recess, underscores the determination of the White House to confront critics of Obama’s overhaul proposals and to buck up supporters who have been thrown on the defensive. Allies have been urging the president to be more specific about his plans and to take a greater role in the debate, and aides have signaled he will do that in the address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber.
The speech’s timing also suggests that top Democrats have all but given up hope for a bipartisan breakthrough by Senate Finance Committee negotiators. The White House had given those six lawmakers until Sept. 15 to draft a plan, but next week’s speech comes well ahead of that deadline.
It follows an August recess in which critics of Obama’s health proposals dominated many public forums. Approval ratings for Obama, and for his health care proposals, dropped during August.
Senior adviser David Axelrod had said Tuesday that Obama was considering being “more prescriptive” about what he feels Congress must include in a health bill. Axelrod said all the key ideas for revising health care are “on the table,” suggesting Obama will not offer major new proposals.
But he may talk more specifically about his top priorities, and perhaps add details to pending plans, to save a high-profile initiative whose defeat would deliver a huge blow to his young presidency.
The president hopes to “take the reins of this debate and take it to the finish line,” said an administration official who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity to discuss White House strategy. Obama hopes to put opponents in the position of having to propose their own plans or explain why they think it best to do nothing, the official said.
Many advocates of sweeping health care changes — which would include health coverage for virtually every American, greater competition among insurers and incentives to increase the quality of care instead of the number of medical procedures performed — welcomed the president’s more direct role. Obama and congressional Democrats clearly lost momentum during the August recess, they say, and the president’s high profile and still-considerable personal popularity are needed to change the dynamic.
“He’s got to get into the nitty-gritty and embrace very concrete proposals,” said Ralph Neas, head of the National Coalition on Health Care.
Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for the liberal advocacy group Health Care for America Now, said, “It’s really clear they understand they have to provide more presidential leadership, more presidential direction.”
Kirsch said Obama doesn’t have to provide legislative language, but he must detail “the contours of the reform he needs.”
It’s far from clear that Obama’s speech will satisfy grumbling liberals. For instance, he consistently has refused to insist on a government-run program to compete with private health insurers, a top goal of liberals, even though he says he prefers such an option.
Several lawmakers say Obama must convincingly show that he can reduce the cost of pending health care plans. Nonpartisan budget officials have said Obama’s proposals could increase the federal deficit by about $1 trillion over the next decade.
Neas said billions of dollars can be saved by changing health payment practices to discourage unnecessary procedures. He also said insurance and pharmaceutical companies should be required to offer more savings to the nation’s health care system because they will benefit from millions of new customers if greater coverage of Americans is mandated.
Such demands could be awkward for Obama. He has praised those industries for the cost reductions — worth tens of billions of dollars over the next decade — they already have pledged to make.
Before Obama’s speech to Congress was announced, the Republicans’ top negotiator on health care indicated Wednesday that bipartisan talks would continue despite White House suggestions that he and another GOP bargainer have not acted in good faith.
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