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WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday the intense debate over healthcare reform has brought "unprecedented consensus" on the need for reform. "What's remarkable is not that we've had a spirited debate about health insurance reform, but the unprecedented consensus that has come together behind it," he said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
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Obama said reform has garnered support from Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former Republican who turned Independent; former GOP Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole of Kansas and Bill Frist of Tennessee; Louis Sullivan, who served as secretary of health and human services under President George H.W. Bush; and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who also served as HHS secretary under President George W. Bush.
"These distinguished leaders understand that health insurance reform isn't a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, but an American issue that demands a solution," Obama said.
He pointed to an analysis this week of the Senate Finance Committee's healthcare-reform bill by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO projected the plan would cost $829 billion over the next decade and sharply reduce the number of uninsured Americans while trimming the deficit by $81 billion.
"This is another milestone on what has been a long, hard road toward health insurance reform," the president said.
"In recent months, we've heard every side of every argument from both sides of the aisle -- and rightly so. Health insurance reform is a complex and critical issue that deserves a vigorous national debate, and we've had one. The approach that is emerging includes the best ideas from Republicans and Democrats and people across the political spectrum."
Obama said the "historic" push for healthcare reform has gathered momentum this week in the "final days of this debate."
He faulted reform opponents, saying, "There are some in Washington today who seem determined to play the same old partisan politics, working to score political points, even if it means burdening this country with an unsustainable status quo."
That, he said, would mean continually rising healthcare costs for families, business and government, millions of Americans being denied coverage and insurance companies wielding the "power to make arbitrary decisions about your health care."
"This is a status quo I reject," Obama said, "and this is a status quo the American people reject.
"Now is the time to rise above the politics of the moment. Now is the time to come together as Americans. Now is the time to meet our responsibilities to ourselves and to our children to secure a better, healthier future for generations to come. That future is within our grasp."
