Obama reaffirms commitment to healthcare reform

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama told a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday his budget plan this week would include a "down payment" on the principle that all Americans should have access to affordable healthcare.

Obama said money from the $787 billion (541 billion pound) economic stimulus plan approved by Congress would be used for research to fight cancer and to computerize health records.

But he said the rapidly rising cost of health care made broader changes an economic imperative.

"Health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year. This budget builds on these reforms," he said.

"It includes an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform -- a down payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable healthcare for every American."

Obama promised during his campaign to work to extend health insurance to many of the 46 million Americans who do not now have it. His budget for the 2010 fiscal year, due out on Thursday, will begin to lay out a timeline for this.

The United States spends more than $7,400 per person on healthcare each year. That amounted to 18 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, according to the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The CMS, which administers federal and state health insurance plans, says healthcare spending will hit more than $2.4 trillion this year.

Yet studies show Americans in general do not get better care than people in countries that spend less.