The New Health Dialogue

You probably saw the headlines about President Obama’s post-Massachusetts health care possible repositioning, but the full ABC transcript is a bit more nuanced. Here’s some of it:

Asked about RNC chair Michael Steele’s comment that voters were repudiating Obama’s agenda, particularly on health care, the president responded:

If he’s talking about healthcare, then I think what I'd say is, "Talk to all those people out there right now who have lost their health care during the course of this year because they've lost their jobs." Or all the small businesses have seen the premiums that they're paying going up 20-25 percent.

The reason I tackled healthcare wasn't because this was my personal hobbyhorse. The reason I tackled it was during the course of the campaign, I traveled all across this country and I kept on hearing heart-breaking stories about families who were bankrupt because they got sick. If they had health insurance, suddenly insurance companies were doing things that were just plain wrong, and were leaving folks in an extremely vulnerable position.

And I was talking to businesses who said this was unsustainable. And, by the way, when I got here and I looked at how we were going to get control of our long-term debt, I realized that there was no way for us to control our long-term debt unless we reformed how our healthcare system works.

So there is no doubt that that is something that we had to do. Not because of what I hear in Washington, but because of what I've heard out in the country.

Asked if he should have focused on the economy and not also taken on health care and other issues, Obama said:

Well, the question is, "What could we not have done?" And I think that a lot of people would say, "Health care's the one thing you didn't have to do."

Most of the other issues that we took on were not ones that I chose. I didn't campaign on saving the financial system. Here's the problem, though. If we didn't take on healthcare, then when were we going to take it on? And if we don't take it on, then when are we going to say to families when -- 2 years from now; 3 years from now; 4 years from now -- their premiums have gone up 30-40 percent? And have eaten into their wages. And in some cases, their health care's been dropped altogether.

What am I going to say to the small businesses who just decide, "We can't afford to provide healthcare to our employees?" And what am I going to say to the American people when we start talking seriously about how we get our medium- and long-term deficits under control?

Commenting on the pace of reform and his crowded agenda, he said:

I wish we had gotten it done faster because I think that if we had gotten health care done faster, people would have understood the degree to which every single day health care is part of a broader context of how am I going to be able to move the middle class forward in a more secure and stable way, and I think that what's happened is, is over the course of this year, there's been a fixation, an obsession in terms of the focus on the health care process in Congress that distracted from all the other things that we're trying to do to make sure that this economy is working for ordinary people.

Asked what his strategy is with 59 instead of 60 votes in the Senate, he replied:

Well, here's my belief, that this is not a problem that's going to go away. This was a problem whether or not we did health care this year. If we hadn't taken on health care, then what people would be asking right now is, why is it having promised to do something about that during the campaign, that we're seeing millions of people who have lost their health care and their premiums go up... When they (the American people) actually find out what's in the proposals for insurance reform, for making sure that we're making health care more affordable, those specific provisions are actually very popular.

…One of the things that I have learned in Washington is you have to repeat yourself a lot because because unfortunately it doesn't penetrate. But I am determined to make sure that the issues that are making middle class families, ordinary Americans less secure and less stable are fixed.

I think point number two is that it is very important to look at the substance of this package and for the American people to understand that a lot of the fear mongering around this bill isn't true. I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don't, then our budgets are going to blow up and we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance to their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill. Now I think there's some things in there that people don't like and legitimately don't like. If they think for example that there's a carve out for just one or two particular groups or interests, I think some of that, clearing out some of that under brush, moving rapidly...

.. I think it's important to go ahead, get something done. I noticed that some of the Republicans are saying well, we actually wanted to do health care… So now in fairness, I think it's important to remind everybody that part of this process was having conversations with Republicans for months and asking them what exactly they wanted to do and what their solutions were to these problems…

Look, I have every interest in seeing a unified country solving big problems. That is something that is very much in my interest because if that happens, not only do I have a successful presidency, but more importantly, the country is successful.