Obama to Recast Health Reform as Moral Issue

Focus on legislative details has bogged down debate, supporters worry

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 19, 2009 7:41 AM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama is about to start focusing more on the moral aspects of health care reform, stressing the need to provide secure coverage to all Americans, the Wall Street Journal reports. The shift may reflect the concerns of some supporters that Obama has spent too much time talking about the details of the proposed reform in an attempt to sell the cost-cutting aspects to Americans who already have health insurance.

The president will likely deploy his revised pitch in a conference call to religious leaders today. Recasting the debate as a moral imperative should allow Obama to return to the big-issue focus that proved so successful during the campaign. "If you are going to sell something as big and monumental and transformative as health care, you cannot get small with it,” one Democratic strategist said. ”You've got to call on the better angels out there."

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President Barack Obama listens as he is introduced at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Phoenix, Monday, Aug. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Barack Obama addresses the 110th Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention Monday, Aug. 17, 2009, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

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This is such a technical issue, it's easy to get bogged down in the weeds. It's important to have a voice saying, 'This is about right and wrong. This is about honoring faith.'
- Dan Nejfelt, Faith in Public Life

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Obama to Recast Health Reform as Moral Issue