Obama pushes for quick bill

BY RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama appealed directly to senators' desire for history-making change and their short-term political fears Sunday in urging them to stand together and overhaul the nation's healthcare system.

At the request of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Obama made a trip to the Capitol during a rare weekend legislative session to ask rank-and-file Democrats to work for compromise and do it quickly. Vice President Joe Biden joined Obama for the closed-door meeting.

Greeted by applause, Obama spoke for 45 minutes and took no questions, according to several lawmakers. He highlighted the progress he said his administration has made on jobs, and focused on the implications for remaking a healthcare system that represents one-sixth of the economy.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Obama described the healthcare bill as the ``most significant social legislation in decades so don't lose it.''

Reid called the weekend session as he races to finish the 10-year, nearly $1 trillion bill by Christmas. The legislation would provide coverage to more than 30 million additional people over the next decade with a new requirement for nearly everyone to purchase insurance. There would be new marketplaces where people could shop for and compare insurance plans, and lower-income people would get subsidies to help them afford coverage.

The federal-state Medicaid program for the poor would grow, and there would be a ban on unpopular insurance company practices such as denying coverage based on medical history.

With midterm congressional elections looming next year, Democrats are determined to revamp healthcare, achieving a long-sought goal that has proven elusive for decades.

Obama and Reid must unite liberals and moderates in the 60-member caucus, even as moderates balk over abortion and the option of government-run health insurance. Sixty is the precise number needed to overcome Republican stalling tactics in the 100-member Senate, so Reid doesn't have a vote to spare.

Moderate and liberal lawmakers met throughout the day Saturday to try to find a compromise on the government insurance plan that they could all support and that could also potentially attract Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the one Republican to vote for the Democrats' health overhaul bill in committee.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the second-ranking Senate GOP leader, said that right now his party remained united against the Democratic bill.