politics

WASHINGTON - With President Obama poised to give a health care address Wednesday before a joint session of Congress, administration officials promised that he will deliver a detailed prescription for reform despite the risks of spelling out exactly where he stands.

Vice President Joe Biden said the speech will map out "in understandable, clear terms what our administration wants to happen with regard to health care and what we are going to push for specifically."

Though favoring one proposal over another carries political risks, potentially limiting what Obama might be able to claim as a victory, senior administration officials said the speech will satisfy demands that he clarify which provisions he supports and which he could jettison. The contents of the speech are largely decided, officials said.

"I don't think that there will be any ambiguity about where he thinks we have to go from here," senior adviser David Axelrod said.

Joel Benenson, the lead pollster for Obama, said in a memo to Democrats on Capitol Hill that support for a health care overhaul is higher than it appears and will increase once the specifics are made clear. "There is little doubt that the moderate numbers of support for the president's health insurance reform plan are based in large part on a lack of awareness of the details of the plan," Benenson wrote.

Officials would not elaborate on what Obama will say -- namely, whether he will continue to advocate for a government-run insurance program. But advisers said Obama will address the question -- setting the stage for a showdown between liberal Democrats insistent on a public option and conservative Democrats and Republicans who oppose it.

Focusing on Sen. Snowe

In the Senate Finance Committee, where negotiations on a bipartisan compromise are underway and a conference call is scheduled for today, lawmakers are trying to reach a deal by Sept. 15 with perhaps as many as three Republicans on board. The White House is focused on one of the three, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who they view as the Republican most willing to reach an agreement with the White House.

On Thursday, aides to Snowe confirmed that the senator is talking with administration officials, particularly with regard to her "safety-net fallback option." Under that proposal, the government would sponsor a nonprofit insurance plan but it would become available only in states or regions where private insurance firms had failed to offer a reasonably priced product that would be affordable to 95 percent of the population.

Liberals press Obama

Meanwhile, pressure from liberals is mounting. In a statement Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called a public option essential to real reform and said not including one would be "a major victory" for the insurance industry."

In a letter delivered to the White House on Thursday, the two leaders of the bloc of House progressives told Obama they will not support a health care plan without a public option -- and demanded a meeting to inform him face to face. "Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, a public option built on the Medicare provider system and with reimbursement based on Medicare rates -- not negotiated rates -- is unacceptable," said the letter, signed by Reps. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.

Also Thursday, two major liberal advocacy groups, MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, launched petition drives demanding that Obama endorse a public insurance option.