Obama takes aim at insurance companies

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday healthcare reform would put patients' interests ahead of insurance company profits.

"Right now, the American people have a system that works better for the insurance industry than it does for them," the president said in his weekly address. "We're going to pass health insurance reform that finally holds the insurance companies accountable."

He said reform he envisions would limit how much people can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses while forbidding insurance companies to cancel coverage because someone gets sick, deny coverage because of a pre-existing condition or put annual or lifetime caps on coverage.

Obama referred to the raucous town hall debates that he said have too often obscured scrutiny of a "dysfunctional" healthcare system.

"For all the chatter and the noise out there, what every American needs to know is this: If you don't have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options once we pass reform," he said. "If you do have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company or government bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need."

He dismissed critics' claims that reform would amount to government takeover of the healthcare system.

"No matter what you've heard," he said, "if you like your doctor or healthcare plan, you can keep it."

Obama laid much of the blame for misinformation on "bogeyman" trying to scare people. He noted when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was working to create Social Security, opponents said it would lead to "federal snooping" and force Americans to wear dog tags. And when President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson were working to create Medicare, Obama said, critics warned it would lead to "socialized medicine."

"Those who would stand in the way of reform will say almost anything to scare you," Obama said.