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During his speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9, President Obama emphasized what he said is the need to reform the current health care system in America. The President stated that he wanted to avoid radical shifts, build on what works, and fix what doesn't. Although he said at one point that he was going to provide Americans with the details, what followed was more of an outline that failed to provide essential details. Once again, President Obama missed the opportunity to clearly spell out to the American people a prudent path to reform the American health care system.

A closer analysis of the text from the speech reveals that the President is more in favor of a radical change in the health care system than he, apparently, wants the American people to believe. This is not a mere partisan assertion meant to derail the President's health reform agenda. As proof, we'll highlight here several aspects of the President's speech where he used an outline tactic, filled with rhetorical flourishes, but limited in important details.

First, would only citizens be covered? And, how is that going to be enforced?

One aspect of health care reform legislation that arouses passion among so many Americans is the issue of insuring individuals that have entered the country illegally. Fully aware of public opposition to any proposal that would permit illegal immigrants to have access to a "public option," the President stated rather emphatically that the plan he was proposing would not provide insurance to any person here illegally. Unfortunately, the President failed to provide any details on the safeguards that would be enacted to ensure that every person here illegally would not be provided health care under the public option. While citizens may quite logically assume that proof of citizenship or legal status would need to be provided in order to get coverage under the public option, they should first consider that individuals do not have to provide such proof in order to enroll their children in public schools throughout the nation. Absent proactive measures to prevent people who have entered the country illegally from taking advantage of a public option, it is easy to foresee how we will eventually permit illegal immigrants to enroll in the "public option" plan proposed by the President.

Second, why should young Americans be forced by government into buying insurance coverage?

The President's plan to require all individuals to obtain basic health insurance is based on the premise that those with medical insurance wind up footing the bill for the expensive emergency room visits of the uninsured. If, in fact, those who have entered the country illegally are prohibited from obtaining insurance under the public option, there will still be 15 to 20 million people without medical insurance. Are we to believe that the uninsured people will stop going to the emergency room when they are ill or in need of treatment?

In short, the President's plan to require individuals to carry a basic insurance plan to offset the burden of high costs incurred by those currently insured does not reconcile with the fact that there will still be many people without health insurance.

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