Obama launches new push for healthcare overhaul

President Barack Obama on Saturday renewed his pitch for final congressional passage of a US healthcare overhaul and promised Americans they will begin reaping the benefits soon after he signs a bill into law. As Obama's fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate struggle to merge their healthcare bills into one, the president used his weekly radio address to try to ease lingering public doubts over his top legislative priority. The president stepped back into the centre of the healthcare debate after being preoccupied for much of his first week back from vacation in Hawaii with fallout over the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a US airliner. "We are on the verge of passing health insurance reform that will finally offer Americans the security of knowing they'll have quality, affordable health care whether they lose their job, change jobs, move or get sick," he said. Latching onto widespread public resentment against big insurers, Obama promised, "The worst practices of the insurance industry will be banned forever."