WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, providing the first real details on how he wants to reshape the nation’s health care system, urged Congress on Wednesday toward a sweeping overhaul that would allow Americans to buy into a government insurance plan.
In a letter to two senators leading the health care debate, Obama also moved toward accepting a requirement for every American to buy health insurance, as long as the plan provides a “hardship waiver” to exempt poor people from having to pay.
Obama opposed such an individual mandate during his campaign, but Congress increasingly is moving to embrace the idea.
Obama set out the goals in a letter to Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairmen of the two committees writing health care bills. It followed a meeting he held Tuesday with members of their committees, and amounted to a road map to keep Congress aligned with his goals.
Covering 50 million uninsured Americans could cost as much as $1.5 trillion, and Obama took another stab at paying for it in his letter Wednesday, taking new aim at the ever-costlier Medicare and Medicaid government insurance programs for the elderly, disabled and poor.
The president said $200 billion to $300 billion should be cut from the programs over the next decade through such measures as better managing chronic diseases and avoiding unnecessary tests and hospitals readmissions. Savings from such measures are uncertain.
Republicans strongly oppose a public plan, as do private insurers.
