"I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails. That doesn't work," he told CBS' '60 Minutes' in an interview to air tonight.
Heading to a rally on Saturday in Minneapolis, the president used his weekly radio and Internet address to focus on government figures showing that nearly half of all Americans live without health insurance in a 10-year period. He said the situation will worsen without the changes he wants and that losing coverage can happen to anyone.
"I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it. And if people look and say, You know what? This hasn't reduced my costs. My premiums are still going up 25 per cent, insurance companies are still jerking me around.' I'm the one who's going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to get this right," he said in an excerpt of the CBS interview released on Saturday.
While the president cleared out of town, thousands from people marched along Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to protest Obama's health-care plan and what they say is out-of-control federal spending.
A new Treasury Department analysis found that 48 per cent of all people under age 65 go without health coverage at some point in a 10-year period. The data came from a study that tracked the insurance status of a sample of people from 1997-2006.
The report also found that 57 per cent of those under 21 will find themselves without insurance at some point during a span of 10 years and that more than one-third of Americans will be without coverage for a year or more.
reform plan
"I refuse to allow that future to happen," Obama said in his weekend message. "In the United States of America, no one should have to worry that they'll go without health insurance - not for one year, not for one month, not for one day.
"And once I sign my health-reform plan into law, they won't," he added.
In the Republican address, Sen John Cornyn said Obama has rejected ideas that would bring the parties together around overhauling the system and ignored the American people's wishes. He criticised the cost and its long-term effect on the budget deficit, saying one of the House bills works out to $2.4 trillion over 10 years, beginning in 2013.
Obama puts the cost of his plan at $900 billion for the period starting in 2010 when more revenue will be available right away.
"President Obama should work with Republicans on a bottom-up solution that the American people can support," Cornyn said.
enough, enough
At the protest, people chanted "enough, enough" and "we the people" and carried signs that said 'Obamacare makes me sick' and 'I'm Not Your ATM'.
FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organisation led by former House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey, organised several groups from across the country for what they billed as a march on Washington. Organisers said they built on momentum from the April "tea party" demonstrations to protest tax policies, along with growing resentment over the economic stimulus package and bank bailouts.
The Minneapolis rally was the latest move in the campaign Obama promised as he seeks to overhaul a costly health-care system he says will bankrupt the country and leave millions more people without needed coverage if left unchanged.