Obama in Chicago seeking support of health system overhaul

President Barack Obama assured doctors and patients in Chicago Monday that his health-care reform means they will be able to keep health-care plans that work for them while uninsured Americans would be able to get affordable public health insurance.

"If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor," Obama told the American Medical Association to applause. "If you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep you health-care plan. No one will take it away."

The president proposed a "health insurance exchange" that would let the public do one-stop cost comparison shopping for health insurance, including a public plan. Obama's speech won numerous rounds of applause from the doctors listening, though he did not offer blanket limits on medical malpractice awards that many doctors would like to see.

The president maintained he could pay for most of his health-care reform plan through cost savings and efficiencies and would work with Congress and other interested parties on the remaining cost to avoid increasing the federal deficit.

Obama also promised to hold insurance companies accountable by ending denials of coverage for pre-existing conditions.

He called the current system "a ticking bomb" that could force America to "go the way of GM" without a legislative fix.

"A big part of what led General Motors and Chrysler into trouble," he said, "were the huge costs they racked up providing health care for their workers - costs that made them less profitable and less competitive with automakers around the world."

"If we do not fix our health care system," Obama said, "America may go the way of GM - paying more, getting less, and going broke."

While Obama said he's not in favor of capping malpractice awards, he said the nation must explore ways to reduce the number of unnecessary medical tests or procedures that sometimes are conducted to stave off possible malpractice lawsuits.

"We need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, let doctors focus on practicing medicine, and encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines. That's how we can scale back the excessive defensive medicine reinforcing our current system of more treatment rather than better care."

• The Associated Press contributed to this report

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