Obama Warns Democrats of Urgency of Health Bill

GLENSIDE, Pa. — President Obama pushed his health care overhaul campaign into high gear on Monday, telling a a crowd of students here that insurance premiums will keep rising rapidly if Congress does not intervene and pass a health care bill.

President Barack Obama told a crowd of students at Arcadia University, in Glenside, Pa. on Monday that there should be an “up or down vote on health care.”

Beginning a weeklong offensive to prod his own party to move ahead, Mr. Obama appeared to take specific aim at political critics, including those in his own party, who have said that enacting the legislation could cost the Democrats their majority in Congress in the November elections. He alluded to letters he has received from cancer survivors and ordinary people who have been priced out of the health insurance market.

“What should I tell these Americans?” Mr. Obama said, to loud and raucous cheering from about half of the 1,800 students and locals assembled in an athletic hall at Arcadia University, just outside Philadelphia. “That Washington’s not sure how it will play in November? That we should walk away from this fight?”

Mr. Obama has been seeking to narrow the complex arguments over health care policy. Monday’s message was a dual one that took on both his political critics and insurance companies, which the president criticized as being “O.K. with people being priced out of health insurance because they’ll still make more by raising premiums on the customers they have.”

But given that Mr. Obama needs the votes of skeptical Democrats to bring the overhaul bill to a majority up-or-down vote, the strategy of brushing aside the potential political costs in Washington in November is a risky one.

“The United States Congress owes the people a final up or down vote on health care,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s time to make a decision. The time for talk is over.”

The president did not lay out any new arguments about the health care package that he is urging Democrats to pass over Republican objections, and he only alluded once — when he mentioned an up-or-down vote — to the parliamentary tactic known as reconciliation, which he wants Democrats to employ to avoid a Republican filibuster.

The president instead evoked the memory of his campaign, telling the mostly supportive audience (although there were several hecklers who interrupted his remarks with protests about abortion) that he wants them to take on the health care fight as well, and to help him make his case to their neighbors and coworkers.

Click here to enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Times for less than $1 a day.