President says changes needed to guarantee healthcare for tens of millions of Americans without insurance

Barack Obama yesterday stepped up his fight for a healthcare overhaul, using a nationally televised news conference to seek support from the US public.

With the Republicans on the attack over the issue, Obama said changes were needed to guarantee healthcare for the tens of millions of Americans without insurance and to help the financial stability of the US.

The healthcare debate now towers above many of the other issues facing the president.

The US is the only major industrialised nation to lack a comprehensive health care plan.

The stakes are high for Obama, who is putting much of his credibility on the line to gain passage of legislation.

But the president said the debate was not about him, and instead cited examples of Americans whose insurance would not cover cancer treatment or who had gone into debt after emergency surgery.

“This debate is not a game for these Americans, and they cannot afford to wait for reform any longer,” he said.

Obama has argued that making health coverage affordable and sustainable is so vital that anything less would erode the economic stability of families, businesses and even the government.

He said Americans “spend much more on healthcare than any other nation but aren’t any healthier for it”.

He wants Congress to vote on comprehensive healthcare bills before it breaks for the summer recess next month.

Republicans say Obama’s push and emerging congressional bills are rushed and risky, and some conservative members of the president’s Democratic party are also uncertain.

John Boehner, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, said of the healthcare legislation: “Mr President, it’s time to scrap this bill. Let’s start over in a bipartisan way.”

The healthcare debate may have dented Obama’s popularity. His approval rating stands at 55%, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, down from 64% in late May and early June.

Around 50% approve of his handling of healthcare, but 43% disapprove, and that number has risen sharply since April.

Obama has said the US is moving in the right direction, pointing to legislation from his first six months in office including a huge economic stimulus bill that is ultimately designed to work over two years.

“As a result of the action we took in those first weeks, we have been able to pull our economy back from the brink,” he added.

However, unemployment is at 9.5% and rising, and Obama’s approval rating on handling the economy has been slipping as impatience grows.