U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday said that he is open to requiring all Americans to buy health insurance, as long as the plan provides a “hardship waiver” to exempt poor Americans from having to pay for the coverage. Obama opposed such an individual mandate during his campaign, but the U.S. Congress is increasingly moving to embrace the plan. The move comes as one of the first steps in Obama's overall push to reform the largely failed U.S. health care system. Obama has long promised that within his first year in office, he would work with the Congress to provide universal health care coverage to Americans. Obama outlined his goals in a letter to Senators Edward Kennedy, (Democrat from Massachusetts), and Max Baucus, (Democrat from Montana), chairmen of the two committees writing health care bills. It followed a meeting he held Tuesday with members of their committees, and amounted to a road map to keep Congress aligned with his goals. “The plans you are discussing embody my core belief that Americans should have better choices for health insurance, building on the principle that if they like the coverage they have now, they can keep it, while seeing their costs lowered as our reforms take hold,” Obama wrote. Obama has asked the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate each to finish legislation by early August, so that the two can combine their bills in time for him to sign a single, sweeping measure in October. Baucus welcomed the assignment, saying “I will stop at nothing to deliver a health reform bill that works for families and businesses to the president this year.” Covering 50 million uninsured Americans could cost as much as $1.5 trillion over 10 years—a major point of contention in moving forward with the bill. Obama did not address the issue of cost in his letter, but did say that he would like to get an additional $200 billion to $300 billion over 10 years from the Medicare and Medicaid government insurance programs for the elderly, disabled and poor.
