Barack Obama defends healthcare reforms says report

President Barack Obama has defended his plans for health reform in a live news conference broadcasted in US on 22 July, the BBC has learnt.

According to the BBC, Mr Obama has pledged to launch a reform package by the end of the year that would reduce health costs, increase choice and widen coverage.

The president has made passing a healthcare reform bill the top priority of his first year in the White House.

BBC’s Jane O’Brien in Washington says this is the first big test of Mr Obama’s political strength and a measure of how far he is prepared to bend to achieve his agenda.

Failure on the issue will be seen by his opponents as a major personal defeat, Jane O’Brien reports.

The healthcare debate now towers above many of the other issues facing the president, as the US is the only major industrialized nation to lack a comprehensive health care plan, according to the Guardian.

The president said the America need to guarantee healthcare for its tens of millions of American citizens who are without insurance, and to stabilise the financial system of the US.

In his opening remarks at Wednesday’s press conference, the president said the debate is not a game “This isn’t about me – I have great health insurance and so does every member of Congress.”

He went on to say now Americans are looking to Congress for leadership, and the debate is about ordinary Americans who had been forced to “shoulder the burden of a problem that Washington has failed to solve for decades”, said the BBC.

He then said: “We will pass reform that lowers cost, promotes choice and provides coverage that every American can count on, and we will do this year.”

“I’m rushed because I get letters everyday from families that are being clobbered by health care costs, and they ask me can you help.” the BBC reports.

President Obama argued making health coverage affordable and sustainable is so crucial that anything less would erode the economic stability of families, business and even the government, the Associated Press said.

He also said Americans spend much more on healthcare than any other nations but they are not any healthier for it.

However, according to the Guardian, the opposition party says Obama’s push and emerging congressional bills are rushed and risky, some conservative members of the president’s Democratic party are also uncertain.

John Boehner, the top Republican in the House of Representative, said of the healthcare legislation: “Mr President, it’s time to scrap this bill. Let’s start over in a bipartisan way.

Congress is currently debating various proposals, and lawmakers are struggling to reach agreement, and Obama said he now saw “broad agreements” on passing a reform.

He said he would not rule out any ideas proposed in Congress, except any proposal that was “primarily funded through taxing middle class families”, said the BBC.

At the moment lawmakers are divided to set up a public health insurance scheme for Americans without employer-sponsored coverage.

There is also much disagreement about how to raise revenue to fund the proposed expansion of healthcare coverage, said the BBC.

Mr Obama has called on both chambers of Congress to pass healthcare reform bills by the end of the first week in August, so he could sign a final combined bill in October.

One Senate committee has passed a bill, and three House of Representatives committees have published a joint proposal.

Both of these bills would require all Americans to take out health insurance, and would provide subsidies to help make coverage affordable, the BBC reports.

They would also give Americans without employer-provided coverage the option to join a public insurance scheme.

Following information is the healthcare condition in US according to the BBC: 45 million uninsured while 25 million under insured.

Healthcare costs represent 16% of GDP, and the reform plans would require all Americans to get insurance.

Some people propose public insurance option to complete with private insurers.