Obama Says Health Overhaul Will Guard Against Coverage Losses

By Julianna Goldman and Nicholas Johnston

President Barack Obama, pushing his plans for revamping the U.S. health-care system, said Americans are being “held hostage” by the risk that insurers may cancel or deny medical coverage when they get sick.

“It’s wrong,” Obama told an audience at a town hall yesterday in Belgrade, Montana, about eight miles northwest of Bozeman. “It’s bankrupting families, it’s bankrupting business, and we are going to fix it when we pass health- insurance reform this year.”

Taking his health-care push on the road for the second time this week, Obama said the health-care system “all too often works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people.”

Obama flew to Montana yesterday after visiting Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Aug. 11, where he denounced “scare tactics” by opponents of health-insurance changes. The president will hold another town hall meeting on the issue today in Colorado.

Proposals to overhaul U.S. health care have run into angry protests at forums across the U.S. during Congress’s August recess and face sagging support in public-opinion polls.

Among political independents, 35 percent say the demonstrations at the town hall meetings have made them more sympathetic to the protesters’ views, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll.

Montana Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat who was among politicians joining Obama at yesterday’s meeting, said voters are hearing “outrageous myths.”

‘Plenty of Dishonesty’

“There’s plenty of dishonesty out there,” Baucus said. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus leads a group of three Democratic and three Republican senators trying to piece together bipartisan legislation.

Lawmakers have faced critics charging that the government wants to take over the U.S. health-care system and, as part odf the changes, empower bureaucratic “death panels” to “pull the plug” by withdrawing treatment from ailing senior citizens.

In the effort to calm voter fears that legislation may hurt the quality of their medical care, Obama is stressing ways that his plans may help the 250 million Americans who have health insurance. In New Hampshire earlier this week, Obama talked about individuals who are denied coverage because of medical conditions. Tomorrow, in Grand Junction, Colorado, Obama plans to talk about lowering out-of-pocket costs for patients.

Marc Montgomery, an insurance agent in Helena, Montana, yesterday pressed Obama about whether the White House has a strategy to “vilify” insurance companies.

Obama said he’s not targeting health insurers and wants to “work with the existing system.” Obama said the U.S. needs to change “certain practices that are very tough on people.”

Keeping Coverage

Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive officer of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said the insurance industry has proposed a set of reforms that includes steps to “make sure that no one is denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.”

At the Montana meeting, a questioner said voters “keep getting the bull” about how the government plans to pay for a health-care bill. Obama said cost savings and higher taxes on wealthy Americans will cover the expense.

“We’ve got to get over this notion that somehow we can have something for nothing,” Obama said. The president repeated his pledge against higher taxes on middle-class Americans.

At his two meetings this week, Obama hasn’t faced loud or angry questions that have disrupted forums by other Democrats. Obama said the televised protests give only a partial picture of the health-care debate.

Television Ruckus

“TV loves a ruckus,” Obama said. “What you haven’t seen on TV” are many meetings where people “are coming together and having a civil, honest and often difficult conversation about how to improve the system.’

Obama’s approval ratings have slid to some of the lowest levels of his presidency. In a daily Gallup Inc. tracking poll, 54 percent of respondents say they approve of Obama’s job performance, down from 60 percent in mid-July.
Before Obama arrived in Montana, state Republican Chairman Will Deschamps said Americans don’t want the government dictating health-care decisions. “People don’t like to be mandated as to how to live their lives,” he said.

Democrats are pushing plans to cover some of the 46 million uninsured Americans while cutting health-care costs that make up about one-sixth of the nation’s economy.

Cost Wariness

Efforts to win voter support have been complicated by polls showing that Americans are wary of estimates that the health-insurance proposals may cost the government $1 trillion over 10 years.

Obama and top congressional Democrats are pushing plans that would offer the option of purchasing health insurance from a government-run program, while requiring all Americans to get coverage and putting new restrictions on insurers. Republicans say the effort will increase costs and limit medical choices.

Obama is on a four-day swing in the West that includes an appearance in Arizona and visits with his family to Yellowstone National Park and Arizona’s Grand Canyon.

To contact the reporters on this story: Julianna Goldman in Belgrade, Montana, at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net; Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net.

Read it more:The Health Care Debate