Obama attacks insurers in health care gambit

US President Barack Obama on Monday launched a new political assault on price-hiking insurance companies, seeking to build support for his last-ditch bid to pass a historic health reform bill.

Obama headed to Philadelphia to crank up his personal advocacy effort for the reforms, which are facing fateful tests in Congress, after a year of political bickering on an issue crucial to the outcome of his presidency.

"Every year, insurance companies deny more people coverage because they have a pre-existing condition," Obama said, in excerpts of his remarks released by the White House.

"Every year, they drop more people?s coverage when they?re sick and need it most. Every year, they raise premiums higher and higher."

"How much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it? How many more Americans have to lose their health insurance? ... When is the right time for health insurance reform?"

Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's health and human services secretary, meanwhile sent a letter to the CEOs of top health insurance firms demanding they publicly justify proposed health insurance premium hikes.

"If insurance companies are going to raise rates, the least they can do is tell us why," said Sebelius in the letter to the heads of insurance giants UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellPoint Inc., Aetna Inc., Health Care Service Corporation and CIGNA HealthCare Inc.

Obama is piling pressure on wavering lawmakers to sign on to his strategy, which calls for the House of Representatives to abandon legislation it approved in November and pass the Senate's version, coupled with "fixes" to that bill.

The White House has spent a year trying to pass health care reform and has paid a heavy political price, both in falling poll numbers and as the stalled bill slowed Obama's wider agenda.

The White House wants a House vote by March 18, but it is so far unclear whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the backing of sufficient Democrats, in a mid-term election year in which health care is a potent issue.

The United States is the world's richest nation but the only industrialized democracy that does not provide health care coverage to all its citizens.