WASHINGTON б President Obama said yesterday he is willing to relax the new health care lawеs requirement that nearly all Americans obtain health insurance starting in 2014, but only in states that can show they have an alternative plan to gain near-universal coverage.
Displaying his willingness to compromise on one of the most controversial aspects of the overhaul, the presidentеs move appeared on its face to give states far more freedom to shape the law to their own needs. Obama was endorsing a concept that has been proposed by Senator Scott Brown, Republican of Massachusetts, in a bipartisan bill filed with Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon.
But conservative critics of the president said that a variety of other requirements in the law also should be eliminated, and they said the presidentеs announcement, made in an address to the nationеs governors, could prove to be an empty gesture.