President Barack Obama devoted his entire weekly address on Saturday to championing healthcare reform.
Fixing the nation's broken healthcare system, he said, can't wait, as skyrocketing costs are threatening fiscal collapse.
Reform must be built on lowering costs, improving quality and protecting consumer choice so people who are happy with their coverage can keep it, he said, reiterating statements and goals he's put forth over several months.
"Over the past few days, I've been traveling through the Middle East and Europe working to renew our alliances, enhance our common security and propose a new partnership between the United States and the Muslim world," he said. "But even as I'm abroad, I'm firmly focused on the other pressing challenges we face – including the urgent need to reform our healthcare system. "
Congress is poised to introduce healthcare reform legislation over the next few months, and the pace of the debate over which approach to take is expected to escalate this week.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the finance committee, have worked on separate versions of draft legislation.
The two committees will negotiate the terms of a bill they can present to Congress.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who is working with Baucus on a draft, was apparently miffed at the president's pressure in his Saturday address. He twittered: "You got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us 'time to deliver' on healthcare. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."
Ready for lively debate
"Simply put, the status quo is broken," Obama said during his address "We cannot continue this way. If we do nothing, everyone's healthcare will be put in jeopardy. Within a decade, we'll spend one dollar out of every five we earn on healthcare – and we'll keep getting less for our money. That's why fixing what's wrong with our healthcare system is no longer a luxury we hope to achieve – it's a necessity we cannot postpone any longer."
Obama mentioned that "an unprecedented coalition" had come together to support reform. America's Health Insurance Plans, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association are among the groups on the record as backing reform, though they opposed it in the past.
But they do not back a government-run insurance plan that Obama says is critical to any reform. Kennedy's draft bill includes a public plan.
"Now, I know that when you bring together disparate groups with differing views, there will be lively debate," Obama said Saturday. "And that's a debate I welcome. But what we can't welcome is reform that just invests more money in the status quo – reform that throws good money after bad habits."
Obama said he made it clear to Congress that the plan must not add to the budget deficit.
"My budget included an historic down payment on reform, and we'll work with Congress to fully cover the costs through rigorous spending reductions and appropriate additional revenues," he said. "We'll eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in our healthcare system, but we'll also take on key causes of rising costs – saving billions while providing better care to the American people."
According to a recent report, 62 percent of bankruptcies filed in 2007 were tied to medical expenses.