In a soaring, hard-hitting address designed to mark an endgame to a summer of acrimonious debate, US President Barack Obama told a joint session of Congress late Wednesday that the time had come to set aside partisan “bickering” in order to fix the country’s healthcare system.

By FRANCE 24 "The time for bickering is over," US President Barack Obama tells Congress.

Acknowledging the challenge of trying to reform the healthcare system in the US, Obama said he was “not the first president to take up this cause, but,” he added, “I am determined to be the last."

Obama then went on to spell out a series of proposals to improve healthcare coverage for millions of uninsured as well as underinsured Americans, including a controversial publicly-sponsored insurance option.

 
While critics have slammed the public option as a “socialist option”, Obama stressed that the lack of a public option in any final bill would not be a deal-breaker.

 
"The public option is only a means to that end -- and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal," he said.

 
Standing ovations, resolute silences and the odd catcall

FRANCE 24 International Editor Robert Parsons discusses Obama's healthcare speech

In a speech replete with the sort of rhetoric and imagery that has come to characterise the president’s oratory style, Obama told US lawmakers they faced “history’s test” and the time had come to “act even when it’s hard”.

The address was one of Obama’s most detailed descriptions of his reform proposals and it was at times met with standing ovations, resolute silences and even the odd catcall from the Republican benches.

At one point, when Obama maintained that his plan would not pay for healthcare of illegal immigrants, it was greeted with a loud “you lie” from the benches.

‘Our healthcare problem is our deficit problem’

Obama promised that his reforms would cut healthcare costs, improve care, regulate insurers to help protect consumers and expand coverage to more than 46 million uninsured Americans.

Read more... Kennedy’s death reframes healthcare debate A glossary of US healthcare terms

Repeating his pledge that his proposals, which would cost $900 billion over 10 years, would not increase the budget deficit, Obama maintained that “our healthcare problem is our deficit problem”.

In an often emotional speech, Obama spoke of a letter from late Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy, delivered after his Aug. 25 death, which called on the president to make 2009 the year to tackle “that great unfinished business of our society".

The former chair of the Senate health committee, Kennedy was a tireless supporter of Obama’s healthcare initiative. His death robbed the Democrats of their 60-seat majority in the 100-seat Senate, and came as Obama faces one of the most critical tests since he took office in January.

The stakes are high for a president who put universal healthcare on top of his campaign promises and for Republicans who have used the healthcare debate to recover some of the momentum the party lost during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Obama’s latest Gallup approval ratings stood at 51% earlier this week, barely up from a 50% low and well down from the 69% he enjoyed in the heady days after his January inauguration.