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Obama vows to launch US healthcare reform by end of year
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-06 08:27

Although Obama wants coverage for all, the president suggested a willingness to compromise. That, too, was a break from Clinton's posture in the 1990s when he promised to veto any health care measure that didn't give him what he sought.


US President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House while participating in the White House Forum on Health Reform in Washington, March 5, 2009. [Agencies]
This time, Obama said, "Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything we want, and no proposal for reform will be perfect."

Republicans as well as Democrats agreed. Speaker after speaker at the end of a day of smaller White House sessions said action was needed.

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said that panel should be working on a version by June. He said the timetable might seem "a little ambitious, but if you aren't ambitious on a major problem like this that the country decides needs to be done, it'll never get done."

Signaling arguments to come, however, he told Obama that there is concern that giving many people the option of a government insurance plan - something Obama has proposed - would reduce competition

Republican Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri said the same at one session: "That's clearly going to be a big area of contention."

But no one told Obama he or his group would stand in the way of significant action.

Making his case, the president said health care overhaul is both a moral and economic imperative because of the system's huge stress on the nation's financial books. He blamed Washington politics and industry lobbying for past failures, while pledging to put the public's interest ahead of both this time.

Obama is setting a rigorous timeline to enact "comprehensive health care reform" by year's end, though he didn't precisely define what that would entail. His advisers say while he hopes for a bipartisan measure, he won't be deterred by ideological fights or interest group opposition.