Obama speech to pitch health plan

U.S. President Barack Obama is set to tell Americans in a prime-time speech Wednesday how he wants to expand health care, after months of often contentious town hall debates.

Obama will outline his vision for a health-care system that includes a government-run option during a televised address to a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C., scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.

Obama has made reforming the country's $2.5-trillion health-care system a priority in his first year of office, but the process has sparked a summer of angry debate.

An Associated Press-GfK poll released on Wednesday found that public disapproval of Obama's handling of health care has jumped to 52 per cent from from 43 per cent in July, while his overall disapproval rating rose from 42 per cent to 49 per cent.

About four in 10 Americans polled said Obama should try and pass a bill this year while about the same number said his administration should start over again. Only about two in10 said health care should be left as is. The poll of 1,001 Americans has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent.

Plan sparks summer of debate

At town halls across the United States this summer, Obama and members of his administration faced hostile crowds upset and confused over the perceived changes to the system, and the president often spent as much time discounting rumours as he did detailing his own plan.

Republicans and Democrats have also balked at the proposed $1-trillion price tag for the reform plan and question how it will be financed.

Obama has insisted the country's budget deficit will continue to grow unless skyrocketing health-care costs are brought under control. He said the consequence of inaction will be higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs and thousands more people losing coverage every day.

Wednesday's speech is seen as a crucial test for Obama, who must accommodate moderate Democrats and Republicans without losing the support of reform-minded members of his own party who are determined to have some form of government-run health care.

If establishing a government-run health insurance plan to provide competition to private insurance industry proves politically impossible, Obama might consider other options.

Among those discussed are a system of non-profit health insurance co-operatives or a government system that would only take effect if the insurance industry doesn't agree to changes.

U.S. press secretary Robert Gibbs said in advance of the speech that Obama "will outline what he thinks the value of the public option is."

"What we're going to hear tonight is, the president's going to speak clearly and directly to the American people about what's in this bill for them," said Gibbs.