Green Bay, Wisconsin - President Obama today reiterated his call for a government-run insurance option as part of his a plan to remake the nation's health care system, saying that a public plan will provide the competition needed to keep private insurance companies "honest and keep prices down."

President Obama addressed health care issues during a town hall-style meeting yesterday in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images)

    Creation of a publicly run health care plan to compete with private insurers has emerged as one of the largest hurdle as Congress moves closer to a full blown debate on restructuring the nation's health care system in the coming weeks. Many Republicans oppose the option, saying it would eventually squeeze private insurers out of business.

    Obama said that his administration is working on a health insurance exchange that would allow people to "one-stop shop" for a health care plan by allowing consumers to compare benefits and prices between the private and public health care plans.

    "One of the options in the exchange should be a public insurance option -- because if the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices down," Obama said.

    Speaking at a town hall-style meeting in a high school gymnasium, Obama also restated his support for limiting itemized deductions for families earning more than $250,000 a year. He said the revenue from that change is needed to help raise the more than $1 trillion it is expected to cost over the next decade to extend health care coverage for the 46 million uninsured Americans.

    The proposal has run into strong opposition from interest groups ranging from mortgage bankers to charities, and some congressional Democrats have pronounced it politically unfeasible. Instead, a Senate plan to overhaul health care is likely to include a new tax on employer-provided health care plans that exceed the value of the basic plan offered to federal employees, about $13,000 a year for a family of four.

    The president's appearance here is part of the administration's effort to generate a political consensus for remaking the nation's health care system, which he calls his top domestic priority. Obama wants to extend coverage to those who lack it, while slowing the spiraling costs that are pushing increasing numbers of families and businesses to the economic brink.

    "Every day in this country, more and more Americans are forced to worry not simply about getting well, but whether they can afford to get well," Obama said. "Millions more wonder if they can afford the routine care necessary to stay well."

    Obama was introduced at the meeting by Laura Klitzka, a 35-year-old, married mother of two who suffers from stage three breast cancer, who Obama pointed to as a living example of the need for health care reform.

    Going through through several rounds of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation treatments has left her "overwhelmed by medical bills." Her husband has health insurance but faces high deductibles and growing premiums, which have left the family with $12,000 in unpaid medical bills.

    "Having cancer will totally change a person's life," she said. But also having to also deal with the financial issues that come with the issues is "devastating," she said.

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