Summoning Debby Smith of Appalachia, Va., from a town hall audience to receive a hug, President Barack Obama on Wednesday called her story “Exhibit A” in the case for health care reform.
Fighting back tears, Smith, 53, told the president that she lost her job after becoming disabled battling kidney cancer. Now she has no health insurance — and a new tumor.
“I’ll try not to cry,” Smith said. The president responded, “I don’t want you to feel like you’re alone on this.”
Obama, pushing hard for his health care agenda amid polls showing public support may be slipping, embraced Smith and promised to help in an emotional — and carefully staged — moment at the Northern Virginia Community College event.
Smith, a volunteer for Organizing for America, Obama’s grassroots organization run by the Democratic National Committee, received her ticket for the town hall from the White House.
The virtual town hall included questions from the audience plus several submitted via popular online social media sites YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, screened for the president by White House staff.
The questions included asking the president to explain how his plan will help small business, how it will bring down costs and how individuals can help him get it passed through Congress.
Others touched on the high medical malpractice insurance that doctors pay, and why the administration is not pushing for a single-payer insurance system.
Obama said bringing down costs would help small businesses be able to afford to cover their employees, and he said a public plan would provide competition to make private insurance more affordable.
Getting malpractice insurance premiums down is another goal, according to the president. But he said single-payer systems such as those in Europe were created as government-run operations.
The U.S. health care industry represents 6 percent of the economy, and rather than scrapping it and starting over, Obama said a better plan was to build on the private insurance system here and make it better.
“This isn’t just about those Americans without health care, it’s about every American,” Obama said. “If we do not act to bring down costs, everybody’s health care will be in jeopardy.”
