Obama makes impassioned plea for health-care overhaul at a town hall in Nevada

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 20, 2010; A02

LAS VEGAS -- Residents of this struggling tourist mecca vented their frustrations about health care at a town hall meeting Friday with President Obama, giving the president a fresh opportunity to make an impassioned plea for the overhaul effort now stalled in Congress.

Obama appeared with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), a key ally who faces a tough reelection battle this year. In a city that has deeply felt the economic decline, Obama argued that he and Reid are focused on the economy, jobs and housing.

But the participants he called on repeatedly brought Obama back to the subject of health care -- a topic he seemed eager to discuss just days before he hosts a gathering of Republican and Democratic leaders, a televised summit aimed at restarting health-care debate.

One woman asked whether the overhaul would benefit volunteer health clinics that have popped up across Nevada to provide free care for residents who don't have insurance. A dentist asked about how it would impact dental coverage. A disabled flight attendant described the despair that has come with having no insurance.

"This whole problem has drove my life really to almost not having a life at all," the woman said. "I don't know where else to turn. I don't know who else to talk to about the problem."

Jacket off, shirtsleeves rolled up, Obama sounded once again like the health-care fighter his administration rolled out last summer in town hall meetings and speeches across the country. He challenged Republicans to come to the summit Thursday with a plan to fix the health-care system -- or get out of the way.

"So show me what you've got," he said, addressing the GOP directly. "But don't let the American people go another year, another 10 years, another 20 years without health insurance reform in this country."

The effort to pass comprehensive health-care legislation screeched to a halt last month when Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate race cost Democrats their filibuster-proof majority.

The White House plans to post its preferred version of a health-care overhaul online by early next week. At the town hall, Obama said he, Reid and others are "going to move forward the Democratic proposal. We hope the Republicans have one, too."

Republicans have been highly critical of the upcoming summit, deriding it as political theater and declining to say whether they will attend.

Meanwhile, a Reid spokesman opened the door Friday to the use of a fast-track budget procedure known as "reconciliation" to revive the so-called public option, a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private plans. Reconciliation bills cannot be filibustered in the Senate -- meaning they need just 51 votes to pass -- but rules limit their contents to provisions that affect the federal budget. A public option was included in the House version of the health-care bill but not in the legislation the Senate passed before Brown's election.

"If a decision is made to use reconciliation to advance health care, Senator Reid will work with the White House, the House, and members of his caucus in an effort to craft a public option that can overcome procedural obstacles and secure enough votes," Reid spokesman Rodell Mollineau wrote in a statement.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) criticized the notion of using reconciliation to pass a health-care plan that could not get approval in the Senate if it required 60 votes. "I urge President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Leader Reid to stop trying to subvert the will of the American people and finally start listening to them," Cantor said in a statement.

At the town hall, Obama acknowledged the political cost of pursuing health care, and the success Republicans and other opponents have had in opposing it. "Health care's been knocking me around pretty good," Obama said, noting that political advisers had urged him not to tackle the issue.

But Obama vowed to continue the effort and returned to the themes he used last year, when he argued that people who already have health insurance should support his reform. "Even if you're lucky enough to have health care, it is digging deeper and deeper into your pocket," he said.

Obama repeatedly praised Reid, whose popularity in the state has plummeted, according to polls. Obama called Reid "one of the toughest people I know."

"He does not give up," Obama said of Reid, who has struggled to push the president's agenda through the Senate. "He knows what he cares about. He knows what he believes in and he's willing to fight for it."

Obama acknowledged Reid's difficulties, but urged Nevada voters to stick with him despite unpopular actions to rescue banks, help auto companies and bail out Wall Street.

"He's got his pollsters. I've got my pollsters. We knew that this wasn't going to be popular," Obama said. "But we did it because it was the right thing to do."