(whitehouse.gov)

Doctor Tiger.

As U.S. lawmakers work toward a final agreement on overhauling health care, President Barack Obama says some of the reforms will take effect this year.  The president admits, however, that other changes will not be in place for several years.

President Obama is working with Democrats in both houses of Congress to merge their two versions of health reform.  

In the meantime, the president is using his weekly radio and Internet address to assure Americans that once he signs a health overhaul bill, they will see immediate benefits. “We are on the verge of passing health insurance reform that will finally offer Americans the security of knowing they will have quality, affordable health care whether they lose their jobs, change their jobs, move or get sick.  The worst practices of the insurance industry will be forever banned,” he said.

Mr. Obama hopes to sign the bill into law by early February.  

Some consumers and advocates are disappointed that parts of the plan will not take effect until as late as 2014.  The president acknowledges that some of the changes will take time to implement, but he says others will start working sooner. “Now, it will take a few years to fully implement these reforms in a responsible way.  But what every American should know is that once I sign health insurance reform legislation into law, there are dozens of protections and benefits that will take effect this year,” he said.

Mr. Obama says before year’s end, insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping coverage when a person becomes ill, people with medical conditions will be allowed to buy affordable health insurance, and some small businesses will get government help in covering their employees. “All told, these changes represent the most sweeping reforms and toughest restrictions on insurance companies that this country has ever known,” he said.

The president began his address by talking about the economy.  The U.S. unemployment rate remained at 10 percent in December, and 85,000 more Americans lost their jobs last month.  Mr. Obama said the road to recovery will be long and sometimes bumpy.

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Doctor Tiger

One big hurdle remains before the needed legislation can be signed into law.

The White House says the American people are on the “verge” of health-care reform.  One big hurdle remains before the needed legislation can be signed into law.

This may be the most difficult part of all.

When Congress returns in the new year, negotiators for the House and Senate will begin the tough task of merging their different versions of health-care reform legislation into one bill the president can sign.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is optimistic. “I think the American people are on the verge of a very big win in health care reform early in the next year,” he said.

He told the NBC television programMeet the Press that both the Senate and House versions of the bill achieve the main goal set by the president: making health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans.

“The major parts of health-care reform that the president sought to have enacted as a candidate are now very close to happening and he thinks the commonality between the two proposals overlaps quite a bit,” said Gibbs.

But they differ on one major point.  Most Americans now pay for health care through private insurance.  The House wants a government-run health care program to compete in the insurance marketplace.   The Senate does not.

Senator Robert Menendez – a New Jersey Democrat – served for many years in the House and has some advice for his former colleagues.

He spoke on the Fox News Sunday television program. “I am sure there will be some compromises but at the end of the day, I would expect that it would look very much like the Senate version,” said Menendez.

Republicans maintain both versions of the bills are bad.  All the members of the minority party voted against the Senate measure, and only one supported the legislation passed in the House.

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint told Fox News that the fight over health-care reform is far from over.  “And the only think worse than the policy itself has been the process that the Democrats have followed to get this passed,” he said.

He said special deals were struck with some Democratic Senators to get them to support the bill.

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter – who switched parties from Republican to Democrat earlier this year – says the Democratic Party leadership had no choice.

“I think the process was very bad, but the process was really caused in large measure by the refusal of Republicans to deal in any way,” he said.

Specter also appeared on Fox News Sunday.

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