Obama spells out healthcare 'consumer protections'

In a town-hall meeting in North Carolina, the president focuses on reform measures and tries to dispel fears. Meanwhile, Senate leaders are hopeful about a bipartisan deal.

President Obama, carrying his appeal for public support for healthcare reform today to two long-Republican-voting states that supported his election, spelled out a series of measures to protect consumers against abuses by insurance companies.

With Senate leaders voicing optimism about reaching a bipartisan accord, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said today that a package that offered coverage to 95% of Americans could be achieved at a cost of $900 billion over 10 years. The ranking Republican member of the committee, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, said negotiators are "on the edge" of agreement.

The committee's staff director, however, has cautioned members that "significant policy issues" remain to be resolved.

While promoting his plans for reform, the president also is attempting to dispel fears about them. Fewer than half of all Americans surveyed said they believe that healthcare reforms would improve medical care, a Gallup poll reported today -- with only 1 in 4 voicing confidence that medical care would improve.

"First of all," the president said today before an audience at a high school in Raleigh, N.C., " no one is talking about some government takeover of healthcare.

"I'm tired of hearing that," Obama told his audience. "I have been as clear as I can be. Under the reform I've proposed, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your health care plan."

Addressing critics at large, the president said to a cheering crowd: "These folks need to stop scaring everybody."

The president promised "health insurance consumer protections":

* Stop insurance companies from denying coverage because of someone's medical history.

* Hold insurers to a yearly cap on what policyholders pay in out-of-pocket expenses.

* Require insurers to cover routine checkups and preventive care such as mammograms, colonoscopies, and eye and foot exams for diabetics.

* Prohibit insurers from dropping or "watering down" coverage for someone who has become seriously ill.

* Prevent insurers from placing "arbitrary caps" on coverage provided over the course of a year or a policyholder's lifetime.

The president also underscored the political imperative of acting on a problem that Americans widely recognize, a lack of health coverage for millions and the rising cost of coverage for those who have it.

"When our children and grandchildren look back on this moment, I don't want them to say that we were focused on petty politics when we were called to something better," he said. "I want them to say we did something for the future of this country."

The president staged a town-hall-style forum at Broughton High School in Raleigh, his first appearance on a two-stop tour to promote his healthcare plans in states that have voted Republican for decades but supported his candidacy last year. The second town hall today will be at a supermarket in Bristol, Va.

"This new sales pitch is more notable for what it doesn't say than what it does," Rep. John Boehner (R- Ohio), the House Republican leader, said in a statement issued by his office today.

"What happened to the promises that their proposal won't increase healthcare costs, won't add to the deficit, won't increase taxes on middle-class families and small businesses, won't put government between doctors and patients, won't force anyone to lose their current health coverage, won't kill jobs, won't promote taxpayer-funded abortion or won't cut Medicare," Boehner said. "The American people deserve more from their president than sidestepping every major criticism of his plan and failing to address any of the issues that have stalled the bill in Congress."

At the same time, Grassley and Baucus suggested today that healthcare negotiations were anything but stalled. Republican and Democratic leaders are "on the edge" of an agreement, Grassley said in an interview aired by National Public Radio. The Senate has delayed any vote on a package until September, however.

"Every day we make some progress," Grassley said of bipartisan talks underway in the Senate. "Will we get it done so we can get a bill to the other members by this weekend because there is a certain time you've got to give people to study it? We're on the edge, and almost there.

"And we're restructuring one-sixth of the economy, and we want to make sure that seniors don't get healthcare rationed," he said. "We think it ought to be done right."

The committee's staff director sounded a cautious note today, however, amid reports that a deal was near.

"While progress has been made in recent days, neither an accord nor an announcement is imminent," the committee director wrote in a memo to members. "In fact, significant policy issues remain to be discussed among the members, and any one of these issues could preclude bipartisan agreement. Members will continue their methodical work."

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), ranking member of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, cautioned: "We still have several areas where we haven't been able to come to a consensus. No deal is at hand, and substantive issues, big and small, remain under discussion and need to be resolved. We need to keep working together."

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