President Barack Obama said Americans “deserve a final vote on health reform” and called on leaders of the U.S. House and Senate to schedule a vote on his latest proposal “in the next few weeks.”

Barack Obama

The president, speaking at a Rose Garden press conference today (March 3), said health reform is needed to better regulate insurance companies and restore the balance of power to the people.

Obama often demonized insurance companies in the speech, citing denials of coverage and even the much-publicized proposed 39% premium rate increase sought by Anthem in California.

The president said America should be “holding insurance companies more accountable,” saying their practices on pre-existing conditions, caps on coverage and denials of coverage are unacceptable. Obama’s latest proposal for health care reform prohibits insurance companies from those actions.

“Those practices would end,” he said

He said his latest proposal takes suggestions from both Democrats and Republicans.

He criticized insurance companies because they “freely ration health care based on who is sick and who is not, who can pay and who cannot.”

Obama said he wants to end tax subsidies and impose new fees on insurance companies, who he said will benefit from the influx of people seeking coverage when mandated by law.

He indicated that an individual mandate, requiring all individuals to buy coverage or face fines, is essential to health reform success. “The insurance reforms rest on everybody having access to coverage,” Obama said, noting that families pay about $1,000 a year each to cover visits by uninsured people to hospitals.

The president, in explaining his proposal, said a single-payer system or universal health care is “neither practical or realistic.” Instead, the president chose to build on the insurance companies he criticized.

No time to start over

He also criticizing Republicans’ request to start over on health reform, saying people cannot afford to wait another year for reform.

“It’s the middle class that gets squeezed and that’s who we have to help,” he said. “The insurance companies aren’t starting over. They are continuing to raise rates and deny coverage.”

To target money “wasted and spent badly” in the $2 trillion U.S. health care system, he plans to combat fraud and other wasteful practices more effectively.

His proposal, echoing the Senate’s plan, would “provide better deals” to people seeking coverage in the open insurance market, he said, and wealthy people would have “to pay their share” for Medicare.

“The bottom line is our proposal is paid for,” Obama said, adding prescription drugs for seniors would be reduced.

He said his proposal would bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses and government, a statement argued by many Republicans in recent weeks.

Several members of Congress say that while Obama would not say it, reconciliation will be employed to pass the measure, meaning it could reach the president’s desk without any Republican support. That controversial approach would box the Republicans who oppose the reforms out of the final vote.

House and Senate leaders want the measure approved before the Easter break, setting the stage for several contentious weeks after more than a year of intense debate on the shape of comprehensive, federal health care reform.

Obama mentioned the amount of time spent debating his plan.

“It’s an approach that has been debated, changed and I believe improved over the last year,” he said. “Everything there is to say about health care has been said and just about everybody has said it.”