Flanked by AARP's CEO, A. Barry Rand, and president, Jennie Chin Hansen, President Obama takes part in AARP tele-town hall on health care reform. Photo by Paul Morse for AARP Bulletin

President Obama again took his appeal for health care reform directly to the American people Tuesday, this time at a telephone town hall meeting at AARP’s Washington headquarters where he answered questions from older men and women concerned about how proposed changes to the current health system would affect them.

“Nobody’s trying to change what does work in the system,” Obama told the estimated 180,000 listeners. “We are trying to change what doesn’t work in the system.”

In the face of growing public skepticism and congressional delay, the president used his 75-minute town hall to address the concerns of callers from across the country and to answer recurring questions—including the bizarre charge that every five years government bureaucrats would visit all older Americans to counsel them on ending their lives early. Will care be rationed? Is America heading toward socialized medicine and a system like Canada’s? Will Medicare benefits be cut?

“Nobody is talking about cutting Medicare benefits. I just want to make that absolutely clear,” he said emphatically.

Seated on a stool in front of the small studio audience, Obama appeared relaxed and confident, sometimes using kitchen table analogies to explain knotty health care proposals and to untangle some of the myths now widely circulating on the Internet.

Introducing Obama, AARP CEO A. Barry Rand said: “There’s a lot of misinformation about health care reform—even on what AARP stands for, and what AARP supports. This town hall is part of our ongoing effort to debunk myths and provide accurate information.”

He added: “I want to make it clear that AARP has not endorsed any particular bill or any of the bills being debated in Congress today. We continue to work with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and with the administration to achieve what is right for health care reform.”

AARP president Jennie Chin Hansen also cited confusion expressed in questions that have come from thousands of members who have participated in previous AARP town halls. “Like, will the government tell my doctor how to practice medicine?”

Obama said he understands that overhauling the health care system is not easy. “I know there are folks who will oppose any kind of reform because they profit from the way the system is right now. They’ll run all sorts of ads that will make people scared.”

But, he added, this has all happened before. “Back when President Kennedy and then President Johnson were trying to pass Medicare, opponents claimed it was socialized medicine,” he said. “When you look at the Medicare debate, it is almost exactly the same as the debate we’re having right now. Everybody who was in favor of the status quo was trying to scare the American people saying that government is going to take over your health care, you won’t be able to choose your own doctor, they’re going to ration care.” Obama added: “You know what? Medicare has been extraordinarily popular. It has worked. It has made people a lot healthier, given them security. And we can do the same this time.”

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5