Obama pushing on health care end game

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is pushing a new anti-fraud plan and his top health official is challenging the nation's insurers as the administration cranks up the pressure for a sweeping overhaul of the nation's medical system.
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Obama is to speak Wednesday in suburban St. Louis, his second health care address in three days. His speech comes as congressional Democrats stand on the brink of delivering the president a dramatic success with passage of his massive overhaul legislation -- or a colossal failure if they can't get it done.

As part of the administration's campaign, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sketched out a stark choice for insurers: oppose reform and eventually lose customers, or work with the White House to improve the legislation.

She told insurers in a speech that if overhaul fails, premiums will continue to rise and employers will cancel coverage. She said the industry may make money initially, but "this kind of short-term thinking won't work in the long run for the American people or our health care system. It won't work for you."

Sebelius called on insurers to take the millions they might spend on attack ads and give Americans relief from rising double-digit premium increases, and "instead of spending your energy attacking the parts of the president's proposal you don't like, you can use it to strengthen the parts you do."

Sebelius' plea comes as business groups that oppose the legislation are stepping it up, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announcing a coordinated campaign to spend as much as $10 million on ads, starting Wednesday, saying, "Stop this health care bill we can't afford."

Leaders in the House and Senate are awaiting a final cost analysis from the Congressional Budget Office in the next day or so that will allow them to start counting votes -- and twisting arms -- in earnest. In the House, in particular, getting the needed majority will be touch and go.

The two-step approach now being pursued calls for the House to approve a Senate-passed bill from last year, despite House Democrats' opposition to several of its provisions. Both chambers then would follow by approving a companion measure to make changes in that first bill.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has said he expects the House to act by March 18, the day Obama leaves for an overseas trip. That timetable would be tough to meet, and congressional leaders told White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that they don't need deadlines handed down from the White House.

Republicans are playing on House Democrats' suspicions of their Senate colleagues, arguing that Senate Democrats may not hold up their end of the bargain and the votes will be damaging politically for Democrats in November

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