WASHINGTON - President Obama said yesterday that overhauling the health care system, while helping millions of people, also will test whether policy makers can “serve the national interest despite the unrelenting efforts of the special interests.’’
The administration is trying to build momentum for the overhaul effort after the Senate Finance Committee voted, 14 to 9, last week for a bill that would extend health coverage to millions of people.
One Republican, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, supported the bill, and the measure faces considerable opposition from the health care industry, labor unions, and large business organizations.
“The history is clear: For decades rising health care costs have unleashed havoc on families, businesses, and the economy,’’ the president said in his weekly radio and Internet address. “And for decades, whenever we have tried to reform the system, the insurance companies have done everything in their considerable power to stop us.’’
The health insurance industry released a study last week concluding that the Finance Committee bill - one of five competing House and Senate health care measures - would raise premiums significantly for millions of people who already have health coverage.
The report drew intense criticism from the White House, congressional Democrats, and other advocates of the bill who called the study a last-ditch effort to sway public opinion against the White House-backed measure.
Obama said he would not abide “those who would bend the truth or break it to score political points and stop our progress as a country.’’ He accused the industry of “filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads,’’ sending money and lobbyists to Capitol Hill, and paying for studies “designed to mislead the American people.’’
Obama contended that the price of not acting will be more people going without insurance, as well as a devastated US economy, as rising health costs limit jobs and profits.
Republican opponents say the bills will increase costs for patients, further job losses, and give the government more of a say in who gets medical care, and what kind.
“Americans inherently know government interference drives costs up, not down,’’ Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas, said in the GOP’s weekly message. “The massive health care plans being crafted behind closed doors in Washington will ultimately allow the government to decide what doctors we can see, what treatments the government thinks you deserve, and what medicines you can receive.’’
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The First Infantry Brigade Combat Team from the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum in New York, had been scheduled to relieve another combat brigade in Iraq in January. But it will instead remain in the Army’s pool of available combat forces, the Defense Department said yesterday.
“This decision was based on a thorough assessment of the security environment in Iraq and reflects the continued improvement in the ability of the Iraqi Security Forces to safeguard Iraqi citizens and institutions,’’ the statement said.
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