NU Online News Service, March 8, 4:06 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON–President Obama renewed his attack on health insurers today as he sought to give political cover to House Democrats as they prepared for a tough vote on new health care reform legislation.

In comments at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa., outside Philadelphia, President Obama said that "every year, insurance companies deny more people coverage because they have a preexisting condition."

Every year, he added, "they drop more people's coverage when they're sick and need it most. Every year, they raise premiums higher and higher."

President Obama's comments, and a speech he will give later this week in Missouri, come as he seeks to line up the votes he needs to get new health care reform legislation through the House.

He is seeking a House vote on his bill before March 18, when he leaves on an overseas trip.

At the same time, 22 Senate Democrats signed a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to schedule a vote on legislation that would repeal the antitrust exemption currently afforded health care insurers under the McCarran-Ferguson Act.

Similar legislation, H.R. 4626, passed the House recently with a 406-19 vote.

The letter said that repealing the antitrust exemption afforded health insurers would be "an important step toward bringing competition to the health insurance market, and would ensure that anticompetitive abuses such as price-fixing and monopolization are policed in the health insurance industry."

The letter added that "federal oversight of competition in the health insurance industry is necessary to ensure that consumers are not paying higher prices as the result of anticompetitive conduct."

Among those signing the letter were Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., the former chairman of the committee under Republican rule; and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

In his speech, the president said, "The price of health care is one of the most punishing costs for families and for businesses and for our government."

He added, "It's forcing people to cut back or go without health insurance. It forces small businesses to choose between hiring or health care. It's plunging the federal government deeper and deeper and deeper into debt.

Speaking to a collegiate audience, he said that some of the highest uninsured rates are among young people.

He said the insurance companies "continue to ration health care based on who's sick and who's healthy; on who can pay and who can't pay.

"That's the status quo in America, and it is a status quo that is unsustainable for this country," he added. "We can't have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people."

"That's why we need to pass health care reform–not next year, not five years from now, not 10 years from now, but now."

Regarding the political wisdom of acting now on the legislation, he said his question for opponents is: "When is the right time? If not now, when? If not us, who?"

He defended his call for action by saying, "We have debated health care in Washington for more than a year. Every proposal has been put on the table. Every argument has been made. I know a lot of people view this as a partisan issue, but both parties have found areas where we agree."

He argued that the bill he is seeking to have the House pass, predominately the bill the Senate passed Christmas Eve, "is a proposal that's somewhere in the middle–one that incorporates the best from Democrats and Republicans."