Pakistan Rupee Exchange Rate
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Euro Exchange RateMINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of roaring supporters turned out Saturday to rally behind President Obama’s call to overhaul the nation’s health care system, packing a basketball arena here as the president warned that nearly half of all Americans under 65 could lose their insurance at some point over the next decade.
“It can happen to anyone,” Mr. Obama declared.
The rally at the Target Center — Mr. Obama’s fifth appearance this week to press for health care reform — was the first of several presidential events intended to whip up public support for the proposed overhaul.
One of the biggest obstacles the president faces is winning support from middle-class workers who already have insurance, so he is stepping up his warnings that those people could lose coverage at any time.
On a day when tens of thousands of conservatives jammed the West Lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall to protest Mr. Obama’s policies — including his health plan — the images of screaming, cheering Obama fans here provided a welcome visual counterpoint for the White House, which estimated 15,000 people attended the rally here. The applause was thunderous when the president bounded onto the stage, shirtsleeves rolled up, as he revived a campaign rallying cry: “Are you fired up?”
The crowd roared back with another Obama favorite: “Yes, we can!”
Mr. Obama opened his 40-minute speech with what he called disturbing news: a report from the Treasury Department “that nearly half of all Americans under 65 will lose their health coverage at some point over the next 10 years” and that “more than one third will go without coverage for longer than one year.”
That is not precisely what the department found when it analyzed data from a University of Michigan survey that tracked the health insurance status of more than 17,000 Americans from 1997 to 2006.
The survey found that 47.7 percent had lost coverage at some point during that decade for one month or more, and that 36 percent lacked coverage for a total of one year during that period, though not necessarily consecutively. Mr. Obama extrapolated those statistics to predict what might happen in the future.
Republican critics say the administration is being misleading, and that the president, who has decried the ‘’scare tactics” of his opponents, is now employing scare tactics of his own. But Kathleen Sebelius, Mr. Obama’s health secretary, said after the speech here that even one month without insurance is too long, “if that’s the month you get sick.”
The crowd here seemed to care less about health statistics than about simply seeing a glimpse of a president who, for all the talk of slipping poll ratings, remains extremely popular. Many waited in line for hours to get tickets to the first-come, first-served event. Among them was Michael Alvarez, a 22-year-old exhibit designer for Target, which has its headquarters here.
“After this day,” Mr. Alvarez said, “I will be able to say I saw the first black U.S.A. president.”
Others said they wanted to counter the protests against the president in Washington. “We want a positive rally here,” said Jean Buckley, a city administrator who attended with her partner, Kelsy Kuehn. She said most people she knows support the president’s health initiative, but acknowledged they are wary.
“They worry about how it’s going to be paid for,” she said. “They don’t want any more taxes.”
During his joint address to Congress on Wednesday night, Mr. Obama outlined a $900 billion, 10-year plan that he said would extend coverage to the 30 million American citizens who lack insurance and provide ‘’security and stability” to those already insured. He reiterated that theme here, and invoked the memory of another Democrat who presided in tough economic times — Franklin Delano Roosevelt — to take a shot at the critics who call his policies socialism.
“When FDR decided that Social Security was something that seniors needed, you know what happened, they called it socialism,” Mr. Obama said. “But senior citizens decided that, you know what? If I’ve got some protection in my golden years, that’s something that’s worth fighting for.” Link...