Obama Goes After Health Insurance

President Barack Obama took his health-care push on the road Monday, putting denunciations of insurance companies at the center of his stump speech.

“How much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it?” Mr. Obama said in his speech at Arcadia University here.

The White House is seeking passage of a health overhaul that stalled after Democrats lost a U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts in January. The administration wants the House to pass a Senate-approved measure by March 18, but it is unclear if the bill has enough support among Democrats.

“We can’t have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people,” Mr. Obama said. “We need to give families and businesses more control over their own health insurance.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) characterized Mr. Obama’s speech as a rerun of past rhetoric.

“President Obama’s latest health-care sales pitch is, just like all the others were, heavy on snake oil and light on the harsh reality Americans would face under his plan: higher taxes, reduced Medicare benefits and lost jobs,” Mr. Boehner said.

About 75 “tea party” activists gathered at the college’s entrance to protest Mr. Obama’s nearly $1 trillion health plan.

“I do not think the government has the right to run our health care,” said one of the protesters, Mary Shingler of Lewistown, Pa. Ms. Shingler also said she feared the plan would curtail the benefits she receives through Medicare Advantage, in which the government pays private insurers to deliver Medicare to seniors.

Most of the crowd cheered Mr. Obama’s speech. “I think the president is quite right,” said Clarissa Griebel, an audience member from Philadelphia. “We spend a ton of money on health care, and a lot of people don’t get taken care of.”

Mr. Obama says his bill would extend coverage to some 31 million Americans who now lack health insurance and would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to people who are sick.

Emphasizing the administration’s recent focus on insurance costs, the president was introduced by Leslie Banks, a self-employed single mother who said she was notified in January that her premiums would more than double.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent health-insurance executives a letter Monday saying they should justify rate increases on their Web sites.

Spokeswoman Kristin Binns of health insurer WellPoint Inc., which received the letter, said health insurers’ profits represented a small percentage of health-care spending and were a fraction what others in the health industry earn.

“We…are disappointed that the administration continues to focus solely on health insurers,” she said.

One Democrat who voted against the House version of the health overhaul last November said Monday he plans to vote no again.

“The current bills we have before us are too big [and] too costly,” said Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, who is a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition of fiscally conservative House Democrats.