Obama open to 'tweaks' to health care reform law

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said Wednesday he is willing to work with Republicans to “tweak” the health care reform law, but he ruled out major changes.

“There are going to examples where I think we can tweak and make improvements on the progress that we've made,” he said referring to the health care reform law.

One example he cited at a news conference is a provision in the 2010 law that will require employers to issue 1099 statements to anyone with whom they do more than $600 in business.

That reporting requirement “involves too much paperwork, too much filing…that is something that we should take a look at,” the president said.

He said if Republicans want to suggest modifications that would deliver faster and more effective reform to a health care system that has been “wildly expensive, I'm happy to consider some of those ideas.”

But the president also said that it would be “misreading” the election results “if we thought the American people want to see us relitigate arguments that we have had over the last two years” on health care reform.

Provisions in the health care reform law President Obama cited as especially popular include those that: require employers to extend coverage to employees' adult children until age 26; ban pre-existing medical condition exclusions; and expand prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries.

Read all of Business Insurance's health care reform coverage.