OBAMA GIVES CONGRESS GREEN LIGHT FOR 'RECONCILIATION'

Fed up with the unmoving Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama on Wednesday outlined his final version of the healthcare bill and gave Congress the green light to move forward with healthcare reform.

The bill – a compromise plan incorporating Democratic and Republican ideas – is estimated to cost a trillion dollars. Urging Congress to approve the plan within weeks, he said it should finish its work and end the yearlong debate.

“Everything there is to say about healthcare has been said, and just about everybody has said it,” Obama said. “Now is the time to make a decision about how to finally reform healthcare so that it works, not just for the insurance companies, but for America's families and America's businesses.”

The president supports reconciliation, a legislative measure would allow the healthcare bill to be passed by the Senate with only the minimum required 51 votes. He said the bill “deserves the same kind of up-or-down vote” that was used to pass President George W. Bush’s tax cuts.

The president said the American people want to know if it’s still possible for Washington to look out for their interests and their future. “They are waiting for us to act,” he said.

Cognizant of the political fight Republicans will most likely wage if healthcare reform passes through reconciliation, the president said, he doesn’t “know how this plays politically,” but knows that “it’s right.”

Obama’s version of the bill gives Americans more control over their health insurance and their healthcare by holding insurance companies more accountable, offers more insurance from employers, and allows those with insurance to keep it and keep their doctor. The plan would stop insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition, drop coverage because people get sick, and force them to pay unlimited amounts of money out of their pocket or arbitrarily and massively raise premiums. It would give uninsured individuals and small business owners the same kind of private health insurance that members of Congress have.

The president’s version also provides subsidy for those who can’t afford insurance, through tax credits that Obama said “add up to the largest middle-class tax cut for healthcare in history.” It also would expand Medicare prescription drug coverage, give the federal government new authority to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies and increase the threshold when the tax on high-end health insurance (Cadillac) plans would kick in.

Significantly, it does not include the government-run public option that the president and liberal Democrats once supported, but which was opposed by Republicans and key moderate Democrats.

The White House claims the president’s version of the bill would cut the federal deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years, while the measure would cost $950 billion over that period.

Attempting to woo Republican support following last week’s bi-partisan healthcare summit, the president issued a letter to Congress on Tuesday in which he offered to include Republican ideas in the compromise health plan. These ideas included: committing $50 million to fund state initiatives to reduce medical malpractice costs; supporting investigations of healthcare providers receiving Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs; Medicaid reimbursement increases to doctors in certain states, and the offering of high-deductible health plans in the proposed health exchange.

Despite these concessions, Republican leaders say they are unsatisfied. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said “The American people are not for this,” and predicted that “every election in America this fall will be a referendum on this issue.”

But Obama is determined to sign healthcare into law, telling Congress, “Let’s get this done!”