GRAND JUNCTION, COLO. — As he continued his campaign-style push to transform the nation's health insurance system, President Obama on Saturday promised families being shoved to the brink by medical bills that the legislation would create a "common-sense set of consumer protections" for Americans with health insurance.
But the president's efforts to convince average consumers that they stand to benefit from such measures as an annual cap on out-of-pocket costs continued to be overshadowed by the controversy over a proposed government-sponsored healthcare plan, which would be one of a number of options in a new, regulated insurance marketplace.
During an otherwise placid town hall meeting here with 1,600 people packing a high school gymnasium, one University of Colorado student challenged Obama to an "Oxford-style debate" over the so-called public option.
"How in the world can a private corporation providing insurance compete with an entity that does not have to worry about making a profit, does not have to pay local property taxes," or face local regulations? Zach Lahn asked Obama. "How can a company compete with that?"
Obama -- who ribbed Lahn, 23, for his "chutzpah" in offering to take on the president in "all-out" debate -- replied that he still believes the administration and Congress can craft a public option that would not be subsidized by taxpayers.
"I think there are ways we can address those competitive issues," Obama told Lahn, "and you're absolutely right, if they're not entirely addressed, then that raises a set of legitimate problems."
But, he added, "the notion that somehow just by having a public option you have the entire private marketplace destroyed is just not borne out by the facts."
The president also expressed frustration about the emphasis on the government-sponsored option and left open the possibility that it would not be part of a final bill.
"The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of healthcare reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it," Obama said. "And by the way, it's both the right and the left that have become so fixated on this that they forget everything else."
Lahn, who described himself on his Twitter account as a "determined Christian conservative," said after the event that Obama had not given him a real answer.
