(CNSNews.com) – In a nationally televised speech Wednesday night, President Barack Obama will explain to the American people “what I think is the best way to move forward” on health care reform.
During a Wednesday morning interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Obama repeated the “broad principles” that must govern any reform plan he supports: First, he said a health care plan must not increase the budget deficit. It must cover the uninsured, and it must include better protections for people who do have insurance.
“We’re going to be providing a much more detailed plan,” Obama said, but he wouldn’t give a preview – “because I want everybody to tune in.”
Obama, a strong supporter of a public health insurance option, on Wednesday morning refused to say whether he will accept a bill that excludes such an option. His press secretary, Robert Gibbs, told Fox & Friends, “I anticipate the president will discuss pretty robustly the public option tonight.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she believes “that a public option will be essential to our passing a bill in the House of Representatives.” Following a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Pelosi said the “overwhelming majority” of House members supports a public option.
Pelosi insisted that a public (government-supported) health care option “is the best way to keep the insurance companies honest and to increase competition in order to lower cost, improve quality, retain choice.” Pelosi also said the health insurance industry is fighting the public option – “because it does increase competition, which they don't want.”
“They'd be better getting a public option now than one that is triggered (later) because if you have a triggered public option, it's because the insurance industry has demonstrated that they're not cooperating, they're not doing the right thing, and I think they'll have a tougher public option to deal with,” Pelosi warned.
‘Silliness’
In his Wednesday morning interview with “Good Morning America,” President Obama admitted that in allowing Congress to “do its thing” on health care, he “left too much ambiguity out there, which allowed opponents of reform to come in and to fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense.”
Obama called the notion of death panels a “ridiculous idea,” and he rejected the suggestion that the health care reform was intended to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants. He also rejected the notion that the federal government is trying to take over health care. No bill emerging from Congress ever envisioned that, Obama said.
Obama said he does intend to get something done this year; he said he is “open to new ideas”; and he wants to “dispel some of the myths and frankly, silliness, that’s been floating out there for quite some time.”
Obama White House ‘not partisan’
Obama defended his own tone and that of his White House as “open to all comers” and “not sharply partisan.” He said it is not his job to “score political points,” but rather to “help the American people.” He expressed disappointment “that there is still just this unyielding partisanship.”
Obama said there are “wonderful people” on the Republican side who operate on the basis of pragmatism and common sense who nevertheless have been “shouted down” in the current health care debate. He called it frustrating.
“I hope that [if] the Republican Party can rediscover that (less partisan) voice, I think they’ll find that they have a partner in the White House on a whole range of issues.”
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also took to the airwaves Wednesday morning to preview the president’s speech.
Gibbs told Fox & Friends that the president will “leave people with two big impressions.” People with insurance will learn how the proposed reforms will provide them “with security and stability in a changing marketplace.” And people without health insurance will learn about “affordable, accessible insurance.”
Gibbs also said President Obama will talk about “the valuable tool that a public option provides in the private insurance and small-group market.”
“Keep in mind, I know you guys (at Fox News Channel) probably don’t tell your viewers this enough – for 180 million people to get their insurance through their employer, the public option isn’t going to impact them. If you’re on Medicare or Medicaid or get your health care through the VA, the public option doesn’t impact you. It’s just for people on a private insurance, individual or small group marketplace, that is going to get the additional opportunity, through competition, to compare one insurance company versus another….”
‘American people want health care reform’
According to Gibbs, the prospects for passing health-care reform are good: “We’re closer to getting this done than we ever have been before. That’s the reality.”
Gibbs also said the American people, through various town hall meetings, have made it clear that they do support health care reform:
“And I think if representatives and senators and the president listen to the American people, what they’re telling them quite clearly is that we have to do something about health care. We’ve talked about this for decades. And during those decades, we’ve watched premiums double, time after time after time -- even for those that are fortunate to have health insurance.”
Gibbs criticized the Fox broadcast network for running a reality show instead of the president’s speech Wednesday night. The Fox News Channel (cable) will carry live coverage of the speech and reaction, however.
The speech to a joint session of Congress will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.