Obama addresses healthcare 'buzz saw'

CLEVELAND, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama offered some good news and some not-so-good news on healthcare Friday to an audience in Ohio.

"Here's the good news: We've gotten pretty far down the road. But I've got to admit we've had a little bit of a buzz saw this week," Obama said during a town hall at Lorain County Community College near Cleveland, Ohio.

Special interests and partisan politics are "exploiting fears instead of getting things done," Obama said. "And then you've got ads that are scaring the bejeezus out of everybody. And the longer it takes, the uglier it looks."

Obama said he didn't take up the banner of healthcare reform to score points.

"Believe me," he said, "I would have picked something else a lot easier.

At the end of a question-and-answer session, Obama said he still wants to accomplish three things through healthcare reform:

First, ensure that people with health insurance "are getting what you paid for" by prohibiting insurance companies from imposing lifetime caps, cap out-out-of-pocket expenses and bar denial of coverage for a pre-existing need.

Second, set up an exchange "which is just a big pool," as a means of driving down insurance costs.

Third, reduce the cost of visiting the doctor and practicing medicine through such measures as electronic medical records.

"I just want to say, the process has been less than pretty," Obama said, "When you deal with 535 members of Congress it's going to be a somewhat ugly process" because of the sheer number of different ideas, interests and issues.

None of the big issues facing the United States has a simple solution, Obama said.

"But we can't shy away from it. We can't play it safe ... or we won't meet the challenges of the 21st century," Obama said. "We're going to take these things on because ... we want to leave a better place for our children."