President Barack Obama said that the move to reform health care in the United States is not about him or about politics, but a system that is “breaking American families.”

Barack Obama

The president made a short speech at the Children’s National Medical Center, a pediatric hospital in Washington, D.C., today (July 20) after meeting with doctors and other administrators to discuss what they view as problems with the nation’s health care system.

Obama said the hospital professionals are “wasting time on insurance-driven bureaucracy” and “forced to fight a system that works better for drug and insurance companies than it does for the people.” Admitting the issue has been “talked to death,” the president urged forward movement in the fight to reform the nation’s health care system this year.

“If we do nothing, families will spend more and more on less and less care,” he said. “The need for reform is urgent and indisputable.”

To date, three of the five Congressional committees drafting health care reform legislation have passed bills that will see later debate in the House and Senate before reaching Obama’s desk. In his speech, the president did not refer to the August deadline he has imposed for legislation seeking his signature, but often referred to getting change enacted “this year.”

With rising price tags for reform and dissension by some Democrats on the proposed bills, one of Obama’s main issues during his campaign and one of his top priorities after taking office seems to be in jeopardy.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that Obama’s approval rating on health care reform fell below 50% for the first time, to 49%, with 44% disapproving of his work.

Noting some hesitation in Congress on the matter, Obama said “some in this town are content to perpetuate the status quo …There are others others who recognize the problem, but believe, or perhaps hope, we can put off the hard work of health insurance reform off for another day, another year and another decade.”

The president said reform is “not about me” or politics, but “about a health care system that is breaking America’s families, breaking America’s businesses, and breaking America’s economy. And we can’t afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care, not this time, not now.”

Citing “a tendency towards inertia in this town,” the president said “let’s fight our way through the politics of the moment. Let’s pass reform by the end of this year.”