By John Whitesides and Donna Smith
WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Democratic leaders promised swift action on a healthcare system overhaul on Thursday after a high-stakes speech by President Barack Obama that earned good public reviews but appeared to change few minds in Congress.
Obama's fellow Democrats hoped the president's prime-time address on Wednesday to a joint session of the U.S. Congress would dispel public skepticism and generate new momentum for his drive to reshape the $2.5 trillion healthcare industry.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said many of the plans outlined by Obama mirrored the panel's proposals and helped build confidence among the 'Gang of Six' negotiators -- three Democrats and three Republicans -- trying to craft a bipartisan reform plan.
'The president's speech breathed new life into what we are doing,' Baucus said during a break in a negotiating session. He plans to push forward with a bill next week even if he wins no Republican support.
Obama says the overhaul would cut healthcare costs, improve care and regulate insurers to protect consumers while expanding coverage to millions of Americans now without any health insurance. He has pledged that the proposal, at a cost of $900 billion over 10 years, would not increase the budget deficit.
Some 31.8 million Americans tuned in to watch Obama's address on television, according to Nielsen Media Research. The viewership was down 39 percent from Obama's first address to Congress in February, when 52.3 million watched on television.
Obama, speaking to a nurses group, lamented new U.S. Census Bureau figures showing the number of people without health insurance in the United States rose to 46.3 million in 2008 from 45.7 million a year earlier.
Obama said his plan would expand coverage to 30 million Americans who are now uninsured, but would not cover illegal immigrants -- as some Republicans have repeatedly claimed -- and others who would refuse insurance even when available.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters she was confident Obama would sign a healthcare reform bill, his top domestic priority, by year's end.
Three House committees and in the Senate have finished work on a healthcare bill, leaving the Senate Finance Committee as the final hurdle before each chamber takes up the issue.
'I'M APPRECIATIVE'
Obama accepted an apology from Republican Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who shouted 'you lie!' when Obama told Congress his plan would not insure illegal immigrants.
'I'm a big believer in that we all make mistakes,' Obama said. 'He apologized quickly and without equivocation and I'm appreciative of that.'
Democrats said Wilson's opponent in next year's congressional elections had received 11,000 individual donations totaling more than $400,000 since the incident.
During a morning appearance before the nurses, Obama renewed his call for urgency in the healthcare debate.
'Now is the time to act, and I will not permit reform to be postponed or imperiled by the usual ideological diversions,' Obama said. 'We have talked this issue to death, year after year, decade after decade, and the time for talk is winding down, the time for bickering has passed.'
A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed 67 percent of respondents supported Obama's healthcare reforms after the speech, compared with 53 percent beforehand, and other snap polls showed gains for Obama.
One in seven who watched the address to Congress changed their mind on the president's plan, according to the CNN poll, which had an margin of error of 5 percentage points and surveyed more Democrats than Republicans.
Republican reaction was far cooler, with many conservative lawmakers questioning the high cost of the Obama plan and his pledge to keep it from adding to the budget deficit.
'It's not just healthcare. The frustration that people are feeling is about the stimulus bill that's not working, budget deficits of $1 trillion and more for as far as the eye can see, record levels of public debt,' House Republican Leader John Boehner said.
Moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said the speech had not reshaped the healthcare debate. 'I really don't think he has changed the dynamics,' Collins said.
Obama hoped his speech would reclaim control of a debate that has been bogged down in Congress amid a flood of criticism and disputes even as his own public approval figures slipped.
Shares of U.S. health insurers climbed on Wall Street as analysts said Obama's speech contained no surprises and indicated a new government-run insurance program opposed by the industry was less likely to pass. (ID:nN10384500)
Shares of UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint Inc , the two largest health insurers, each rose about 2.5 percent. Aetna Inc was up more than 2 percent and Cigna Corp jumped more than 5 percent.
In his speech, Obama spelled out what he wanted in any final bill passed by Congress, including affordable coverage for all Americans and creation of an insurance exchange where individuals and small businesses could shop for policies.
He reiterated his support for a government-run insurance plan -- the so-called 'public option' -- that has drawn strong opposition from critics who say it would harm insurance companies and amount to a government takeover of the industry. But Obama said the lack of a public option in any final bill would not be a deal-breaker.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Thomas Ferraro, Andy Sullivan, Matt Spetalnick and Jill Serjeant; Editing by Will Dunham)
((Washington newsroom +1 202 898 8300))
((For graphic, click on http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/SEP/HEALTH.jpg))
((For multimedia coverage of healthcare issues, click on http:/www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/healthcarereform)) Keywords: USA HEALTHCARE/ (For Reuters blog on the U.S. political scene, see http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Democratic leaders promised swift action on a healthcare system overhaul on Thursday after a high-stakes speech by President Barack Obama that earned good public reviews but appeared to change few minds in Congress.
Obama's fellow Democrats hoped the president's prime-time address on Wednesday to a joint session of the U.S. Congress would dispel public skepticism and generate new momentum for his drive to reshape the $2.5 trillion healthcare industry.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said many of the plans outlined by Obama mirrored the panel's proposals and helped build confidence among the 'Gang of Six' negotiators -- three Democrats and three Republicans -- trying to craft a bipartisan reform plan.
'The president's speech breathed new life into what we are doing,' Baucus said during a break in a negotiating session. He plans to push forward with a bill next week even if he wins no Republican support.
Obama says the overhaul would cut healthcare costs, improve care and regulate insurers to protect consumers while expanding coverage to millions of Americans now without any health insurance. He has pledged that the proposal, at a cost of $900 billion over 10 years, would not increase the budget deficit.
Some 31.8 million Americans tuned in to watch Obama's address on television, according to Nielsen Media Research. The viewership was down 39 percent from Obama's first address to Congress in February, when 52.3 million watched on television.
Obama, speaking to a nurses group, lamented new U.S. Census Bureau figures showing the number of people without health insurance in the United States rose to 46.3 million in 2008 from 45.7 million a year earlier.
Obama said his plan would expand coverage to 30 million Americans who are now uninsured, but would not cover illegal immigrants -- as some Republicans have repeatedly claimed -- and others who would refuse insurance even when available.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters she was confident Obama would sign a healthcare reform bill, his top domestic priority, by year's end.
Three House committees and in the Senate have finished work on a healthcare bill, leaving the Senate Finance Committee as the final hurdle before each chamber takes up the issue.
'I'M APPRECIATIVE'
Obama accepted an apology from Republican Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who shouted 'you lie!' when Obama told Congress his plan would not insure illegal immigrants.
'I'm a big believer in that we all make mistakes,' Obama said. 'He apologized quickly and without equivocation and I'm appreciative of that.'
Democrats said Wilson's opponent in next year's congressional elections had received 11,000 individual donations totaling more than $400,000 since the incident.
During a morning appearance before the nurses, Obama renewed his call for urgency in the healthcare debate.
'Now is the time to act, and I will not permit reform to be postponed or imperiled by the usual ideological diversions,' Obama said. 'We have talked this issue to death, year after year, decade after decade, and the time for talk is winding down, the time for bickering has passed.'
A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed 67 percent of respondents supported Obama's healthcare reforms after the speech, compared with 53 percent beforehand, and other snap polls showed gains for Obama.
One in seven who watched the address to Congress changed their mind on the president's plan, according to the CNN poll, which had an margin of error of 5 percentage points and surveyed more Democrats than Republicans.
Republican reaction was far cooler, with many conservative lawmakers questioning the high cost of the Obama plan and his pledge to keep it from adding to the budget deficit.
'It's not just healthcare. The frustration that people are feeling is about the stimulus bill that's not working, budget deficits of $1 trillion and more for as far as the eye can see, record levels of public debt,' House Republican Leader John Boehner said.
Moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said the speech had not reshaped the healthcare debate. 'I really don't think he has changed the dynamics,' Collins said.
Obama hoped his speech would reclaim control of a debate that has been bogged down in Congress amid a flood of criticism and disputes even as his own public approval figures slipped.
Shares of U.S. health insurers climbed on Wall Street as analysts said Obama's speech contained no surprises and indicated a new government-run insurance program opposed by the industry was less likely to pass. (ID:nN10384500)
Shares of UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint Inc , the two largest health insurers, each rose about 2.5 percent. Aetna Inc was up more than 2 percent and Cigna Corp jumped more than 5 percent.
In his speech, Obama spelled out what he wanted in any final bill passed by Congress, including affordable coverage for all Americans and creation of an insurance exchange where individuals and small businesses could shop for policies.
He reiterated his support for a government-run insurance plan -- the so-called 'public option' -- that has drawn strong opposition from critics who say it would harm insurance companies and amount to a government takeover of the industry. But Obama said the lack of a public option in any final bill would not be a deal-breaker.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Thomas Ferraro, Andy Sullivan, Matt Spetalnick and Jill Serjeant; Editing by Will Dunham)
((Washington newsroom +1 202 898 8300))
((For graphic, click on http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/SEP/HEALTH.jpg))
((For multimedia coverage of healthcare issues, click on http:/www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/healthcarereform)) Keywords: USA HEALTHCARE/ (For Reuters blog on the U.S. political scene, see http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.