Flanked by a team of health care professionals in the East Room, President Obama today called on Congress to cast an "up or down vote" on health care reform. He urged lawmakers to put aside politics and get a bill to his desk.

"I don't believe we should give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats more control over health care in America. I believe it's time to give the American people more control over their own health insurance," the president said. "I don't believe we can afford to leave life-and-death decisions about health care to the discretion of insurance company executives alone. I believe that doctors and nurses like the ones in this room should be free to decide what's best for their patients."

The White House has put forward its own legislative plan, incorporating many ideas and approaches suggested by Republicans, including:

-Combating waste, fraud, and abuse by engaging medical professionals to conduct random undercover investigations of health care providers who receive taxpayer money
-More funding for demonstration projects of alternatives for resolving medical malpractice disputes, including health courts
-Increasing Medicaid reimbursements for doctors, and
-Ensuring Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are in the Exchange

"The proposal I've put forward gives Americans more control over their health care by holding insurance companies more accountable. It builds on the current system where most Americans get their health insurance from their employer. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor," Obama said.

On its website, whitehouse.gov, the administration takes pains to enumerate concessions to the GOP. For example, the legislation already passed by Congress advances medical liability reform through grants to states, extends the dependent coverage age, allows purchase of plans across state lines, and offers a high risk pool, among other points.

The President's proposal also incorporates Republican ideas such as including a comprehensive sanctions database, background checks for billing agencies and individuals, liability of Medicare administrative contractors for claims submitted by excluded providers, using technology for real-time data review and other points.

"So this is our proposal. This is where we've ended up. It's an approach that has been debated and changed and I believe improved over the last year. It incorporates the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans - including some of the ideas that Republicans offered during the health care summit, like funding state grants on medical malpractice reform and curbing waste, fraud, and abuse in the health care system. My proposal also gets rid of many of the provisions that had no place in health care reform -- provisions that were more about winning individual votes in Congress than improving health care for all Americans."

"I ask Congress to finish its work, and I look forward to signing this reform into law."

This week marks a full year since the health care reform effort was taken up by the administration and Congress.

More Industry Headlines