Obama: I've every reason to get health care right

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he'll be held responsible for any problems once a health care overhaul becomes law, so he has every reason to get it right. "I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails. That doesn't work," he told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview to air Sunday night. Heading to a rally Saturday in Minneapolis, the president used his weekly radio and Internet address to focus on government figures showing that nearly half of all Americans live without health insurance in a 10-year period. He said the situation will worsen without the changes he wants and that losing coverage can happen to anyone. "I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it. And if people look and say, You know what? This hasn't reduced my costs. My premiums are still going up 25 percent, insurance companies are still jerking me around.' I'm the one who's going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to get this right," he said in an excerpt of the CBS interview released Saturday. While the president cleared out of town, thousands of people marched along Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to protest Obama's health care plan and what they say is out-of-control federal spending. A new Treasury Department analysis found that 48 percent of all people under age 65 go without health coverage at some point in a 10-year period. The data came from a study that tracked the insurance status of a sample of people from 1997-2006. The report also found that 57 percent of those under 21 will find themselves without insurance at some point during a span of 10 years and that more than one-third of Americans will be without coverage for a year or more. "I refuse to allow that future to happen," Obama said in his weekend message. "In the United States of America, no one should have to worry that they'll go without health insurance — not for one year, not for one month, not for one day. CONTINUE READING...