Obama: No more bickering over healthcare

Barack Obama has urged Congress and the American people to realise that the country's healthcare system is at 'breaking point' and must be reformed.

In a rare joint session of Congress he said the US was the only democracy in the world that 'allows such hardships for millions of its people' through a lack of affordable healthcare.

The prime-time speech was received favourably in the Democrat-dominated Capitol, but was still greeted by Republican heckles and protests.

'I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last,' Mr Obama said.

President Obama's ambitious blueprint for healthcare reform have provoked outcry among conservative Americans, with the Democrat-controlled lower and upper houses of Congress unable to agree on a legislative programme.

But addressing the joint session last night the president said the 'time for bickering is over; the time for games has passed'.

He said his plan would not threaten existing health insurance schemes but provide insurance for those who did not have it, funded by the state, and slow the growth of healthcare costs.

Mr Obama accepted that 'significant differences to be ironed out', illustrated by a brief heckling by Republican House member Joe Wilson.

The South Carolina representative shouted 'you lie' at the president when he moved to dispel some of the myths surrounding his reform, in this instance the allegations that the plans would provide free healthcare to illegal immigrants.

'That's not true,' Mr Obama responded to the heckle, which drew heavy shakes of the head from vice-president Joe Biden and loud boos from around the chamber.

President Obama went on to say that his plans would 'not add one dime to our deficits' and claimed the $900 billion over ten years it would cost to implement was less than the total outlaw on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy,' he explained.

'These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans.'

Five separate healthcare reform committees in Congress will now reconvene in a bid to get legislation to the vote before the end of the year.