Snubbed Obama takes to airwaves in bid to save healthcare plans

Two days after a healthcare summit that produced no Republican converts, the president used his weekly radio address to try to rally public support for a Democratic bid to press ahead with reform legislation, with or without bipartisan agreement.

The White House said Obama would announce a decision next week on "the way forward" on healthcare, signalling his patience is running thin with Republicans who have demanded he scrap his year-old approach and start over.

Facing limited options, Obama's aides and fellow Democrats are focusing on prospects for resorting to a parliamentary tactic called reconciliation that would bypass the need for Republican support and allow approval by a simple majority vote in the Democratic-led Congress.

With Republicans condemning any such move, it would be a politically risky manoeuvre in a congressional election year when polls show many Americans sceptical of Obama's efforts to revamp the $2.5 trillion (1.63 trillion) healthcare industry.

"I am eager and willing to move forward with members of both parties on healthcare if the other side is serious about coming together to resolve our differences and get this done," Obama said. "But I also believe that we cannot lose the opportunity to meet this challenge. "The tens of millions of men and women who cannot afford their health insurance cannot wait another generation for us to act."

Democrats in the Senate and House approved healthcare bills last year that would reshape the troubled US system by cutting costs, regulating insurers and expanding coverage to many uninsured people. But efforts to merge the different measures and send a final version to Obama collapsed in January after Democrats lost their crucial 60th Senate vote in a special election in Massachusetts.

Republicans insist the reconciliation process should not be used for something as far-reaching as reshaping national healthcare policy.