5 things Obama must accomplish with health-care speech
Photo credit: Getty Images | President Barack Obama needs to hit several key points tonight if he wants his speech to be effective.
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President Barack Obama
President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress Wednesday night in a bid to galvanize support for a major health care reform measure. This speech -- coming at a time when his approval ratings are down, and no consensus on a reform package has emerged even among Democratic allies --is viewed as a key test of his presidential leadership. Here are five things experts say the president has to accomplish tonight:
KEEP IT SIMPLE:
Clear, compelling ideas expressed with lucid simplicity can win battles and transform public opinion, and that’s what is essential here.
“He has to explain more specifically to the American people what it is they have to gain from health reform and what it is they lose if it doesn’t pass,” said Drew Altman, president of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a Washington, D.C., health policy nonprofit. Kaiser’s latest polls show a slim majority of Americans still favor health reform -- but 46 percent describe themselves as “confused.” Americans, said Altman, “are stuck trying to answer the question: What does this mean for me and my family, and is there anything I should be afraid of?”
LAY OUT THE BOTTOM LINE:
Seeking to avoid the mistakes of Bill Clinton’s fumbled reform effort, Obama has let Congress shape legislation. Now it’s time to let the public know exactly what he’s fighting for — especially whether he will insist on a publicly financed plan.
“We don’t really know what he wants to do,” said Donna Kass, co-director of the Long Island Health Access Monitoring Project, which wants a public plan. “He has tried to be all things to all people. But he isn’t going to be, no matter what.”
Obama should leave little ambiguity about what he stands for, agrees Christopher Hahn, head of government affairs for the Mineola law firm of Meltzer Lippe. “The White House has allowed other people to define what his vision is, and the clearer Americans are on what he wants and what he envisions, the better off he will be.”
PRESERVE THE COALITION FOR REFORM:
On the other hand, once Obama commits to specifics, he risks a stampede among the interest groups that have supported reform, but disagree on details. “Coverage for all, reforming the insurance industry, cost control and efficiencies — we can support those, and we will as long as they are implemented rationally and with realistic standards,” said William Van Slyke, vice president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, a hospitals group. “Providers, patients, payers, pharmaceutical companies, unions — everyone has a stake and everyone has to make a sacrifice to make this work.”
REASSURE THE INSURED:
Obama’s core audience is the 80 percent to 85 percent of Americans who have health insurance. He must address the anxieties that have driven a “split personality” in their feelings about reform, said Dr. Irwin Redlener, a public health professor at Columbia University.
Despite their deep dislike for the current health care system, polls show Americans are even more fearful of making changes, Redlener said. Obama needs to focus on this, pointing out how insecure health care coverage is even for insured Americans, who may have coverage denied or suffer financial catastrophe if they fall ill. “He has to make the case that a health reform plan will fix this uncertainty and give people a sense of stability and security in their health care,” Redlener said.
JUMP-START THE CHANGE CANDIDACY:
Obama “needs to strike a little bit of fear into the hearts of his opponents,” and remind them of the campaigner who wrested away so many congressional seats in last year’s sweeping victory, said Lawrence Levy, an expert on presidential politics at Hofstra University. “I think this speech is every bit as important as the grand rhetorical spectacle in the football stadium in Denver,” said Levy, referring to Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention. “It’s a chance for him to strut his stuff as a speaker, as a thinker and as a doer -- and two out of three are not going to get him where he needs to go.”
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