The national discussion on health reform will take place this afternoon at 1:15PM. You can join in via Facebook, Twitter, or at Whitehouse.gov.

...to ask him any questions you have about health reform.

He will answer some of the most popular questions during an online town hall discussion held on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

President Obama recently spoke at a town hall meeting on healthcare reform. During this event, he remarked that if one of his family members were facing serious illness, he would "always want them to get the very best care," regardless of cost. This comment has been quite controversial in the health policy arena, as some experts interpret it to mean that he himself would not want to be subjected to the kind of healthcare rationing that he is proposing for the rest of America. However, others believe he was really trying to make a point about healthcare quality, and what exactly it means to get the "very best care." Sometimes, especially with healthcare, more is not always better. The "very best care" could be nothing at all.

These issues of cost containment and healthcare quality take center stage as the Senate and House work towards finalizing their reform bill drafts. They will be faced with difficult decisions about how to direct our limited and finite financial resources towards providing the best possible care for as many Americans as possible.

House Democrats have announced that they will not accept any health reform bill that does not include a public plan option. The public plan option would allow the federal government to offer a health insurance plan similar to those offered by private insurance companies like CIGNA or Blue Cross Blue Shield.

According to Roll Call, this announcement was intended as a message for the Senate, who has been working on their own version of health reform for some time now. Although the Senate has been largely sidestepping this controversial issue, the House is confronting it directly, insisting that the public plan option is necessary to keep private insurers "honest."