COLLEGE PARK - - A University of Maryland arena built for cheering Terps basketball rocked instead Thursday to mentions of "the public option" and "pre-existing condition," as President Barack Obama sought to harness the energy of youthful supporters to push for health care change.
A largely student crowd of more than 12,000 raised an earsplitting roar when the president stepped onto the floor of the Comcast Center shortly before noon, coatless and with his sleeves rolled up. It was the first campus stop on Obama's campaign-style health care tour, and he tweaked his stump speech in an effort to make medical insurance relevant to a university audience.
"When you're young," he said, "you think you're invulnerable. That's how I thought."
Obama noted that, under the plan he favors, college students who are covered under their parents' health insurance plans could retain that coverage until they turn 26. Many plans now end coverage for dependent children when they graduate.
The president compared the drive to overhaul the health care system to earlier fights for social change - and to his 2008 presidential candidacy - calling health insurance reform a "defining struggle of this generation."
"It begins on campuses like this one," Obama said. "Just like the change that began in our campaign, it starts with people, especially young people, who are determined to take this nation's destiny into their own hands."
At one point, Obama's remarks were interrupted by a protester who stood near the back of the arena and shouted until he was escorted out by security personnel. The man later identified himself as Andrew Beacham, 26, an associate of anti-abortion activist Randall Terry.
Obama tried, as in other recent speeches, to emphasize his willingness to work across party lines to fashion an overhaul plan, including on the issue of medical liability. But he lashed out at critics who engage in "scare tactics instead of honest debate."
"I've heard a lot of Republicans say they want to kill Obamacare. Some may even raise money off it," he said. "But when you ask these folks what exactly my plan does, they've got it all wrong. When you ask them what their solution is, it amounts to the same old, same old - the same status quo that's given us higher costs and more uninsured, and less security than you've ever had."
