Palpable tension, partisan reactions as Obama outlines health reform plan â€“Â MedCity Morning Read, Sept. 10, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. â€“ In a speech punctuated by applause and even heckling, President Barack Obama on Wednesday presented what The New York Times called “his most forceful case yet for a sweeping health care overhaul.”

“I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last,” Obama said in his address to a joint session of Congress. “Our collective failure to meet this challenge â€“ year after year, decade after decade â€“ has led us to a breaking point.”

Obama said his plan would provide more security and stability to Americans who already have insurance, as well as cover those who do not. It is estimated to cost about $900 billion over 10 years.

“As expected,” the Times reported, Obama “repeated his support for a government insurance plan to compete with the private sector, though he said he would consider alternatives to the ‘public option.'”

He also articulated a provision that makes it illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage because of a pre-existing condition or drop coverage in the event of illness, and he announced a new initiative to create pilot projects related to medical malpractice reform.

That initiative was “one of the few areas of the plan that Republicans praised, and it won strong endorsement from doctors, who say the threat of lawsuits drives up medical costs by encouraging defensive medicine,” the Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal quoted Dr. Rebecca Patchin, board chairman for the American Medical Association, as saying, “We think this is just an excellent first step.”

Noting that “the status quo is unsustainable,” Dr. Roy Thomas, president of the Ohio State Medical Association, said his group was “encouraged” by Obama’s speech.

Thomas urged Obama and members of Congress to enact reform that “assures that health care decisions are made by patients and their physicians, not by insurance companies or government officials.”

Not surprisingly, The Boston Globe reported, reactions to the plan were divided along party lines. After all, the speech followed a period of explosive public meetings on health care. In the U.S. Capitol, some lawmakers even expressed their opinions in outbursts that interrupted the president.

Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, for one, shouted “you lie” when Obama said his plan would not cover illegal immigrants. Wilson later issued a statement apologizing to the president for “this lack of civility,” the Journal reported.

Following Obama’s speech, Rep. Charles Boustany, a Louisiana Republican and heart surgeon, delivered the GOP response. “It’s clear the American people want health care reform, but they want their elected leaders to get it right,” he said. “Most Americans wanted to hear the President tell Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi, Majority Leader [Harry] Reid and the rest of Congress that it’s time to start over on a common-sense, bipartisan plan focused on lowering the cost of health care while improving quality.”

For her part, Pelosi said in a statement, “President Obama was clear tonight that a public health insurance option is the best way to create the needed competition that will lower cost, improve quality, and preserve choice for all Americans. An overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives agrees. And the President challenged those who oppose this common-sense approach â€“ or worse yet, distort its actual role in reform â€“ to bring forward their own ideas that will achieve lower costs for Americans, promote competition and keep the insurance companies honest.”