Obama Tries To Reassure Voters On Health Care

LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Renee Montagne is off this week in Afghanistan.

President Obama made an effort last night to reassure voters about health care. One of his challenges is to persuade millions of voters that he can extend health insurance to more people and rework the health system without affecting the care that many already get. For that reason, the president took questions from reporters last night. As always with the primetime news conference, the reporters were not the real audience. The intended targets were voters expressing concerns about the president's plans.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

DON GONYEA: In his opening statement last night, the president acknowledged the natural tendency people have to be cautious and cynical when they hear the government may reinvent something so important as health care. But Mr. Obama said all Americans, even those very satisfied with their current coverage, have a stake in fixing a damaged system plagued by skyrocketing costs.

President BARACK OBAMA: Reform's about every American who has ever feared that they may lose their coverage if they become too sick or lose their job or change their job. It's about every small business that has been forced to lay off employees or cut back on their coverage because it became too expensive.

GONYEA: And the president offered assurances that even as a new government plan is offered, people who would like what they have now, will be able to keep it. He also said insurance companies would be prevented from dropping people who get too sick and that people losing their jobs or moving would still be able to get coverage. As for sticking with the status quo, he put that in the following context.

Pres. OBAMA: If somebody told you that there is a plan out there that is guaranteed to double your health care costs over the next 10 years, that's guaranteed to result in more Americans losing their health care and that is by far the biggest contributor to our federal deficit, I think most people would be opposed to that. Well, that's the status quo. That's what we have right now. So if we don't change, we can't expect a different result.

GONYEA: The president has left the specifics of legislative negotiations on the issue to Congress, simply providing goals he wants the final package to meet. He was asked about the short deadline he set for lawmakers to finish work. Initially, he wanted Senate and House votes by August. Now he says he wants a bill to sign by year's end.

Pres. OBAMA: If you don't set deadlines in this town, things don't happen. The default position is inertia, because doing something always creates some people who are unhappy.

GONYEA: The president again stressed that most of the cost of the changes would come through reallocation of money that he says the current health care system spends wastefully. He said he still insists that the new system not add to the federal deficit or the tax burden of middle-class families. And he suggested a surtax on families who make a million dollars a year or more. As for the very vocal reluctance of conservative Democrats, the so-called Blue Dogs, the president downplayed their differences.

Pres. OBAMA: So this is part of just the normal give-and-take of the legislative process. I'm confident at the end, we're going to have a bill that Democrats and some Republicans support.

GONYEA: At the very end of the news conference, the president responded to a question about the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts a week ago. Gates arrived home from a business trip and had trouble getting his front door open. He forced it open, but a woman suspecting a break-in called police. The responding officer asked Gates for identification, which he provided, but Gates was accused by the police officer of loud and tumultuous behavior. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. In reflecting on it, the president put himself in Professor Gates' shoes.

Pres. OBAMA: I mean, if I was trying to jigger into - well, I guess, this is my house, now, so…

(Soundbite of laughter)

Pres. OBAMA: …it probably wouldn't happen. But let's say my old house in Chicago…

(Soundbite of laughter)

Pres. OBAMA: Here, I'd get shot.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GONYEA: But he quickly turned serious. He said that African-Americans and Hispanics are still stopped by police in disproportionate numbers. He said that Professor Gates is a friend of his, and he acknowledged that he didn't know all the facts.

Pres. OBAMA: But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry. Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.

GONYEA: The president said it's evidence of how race remains a factor in society, even as he noted the paradox of what he called incredible progress on the issue, citing his own election as an example.

Don Gonyea, NPR News, the White House. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.