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President Obama said at a White House forum on healthcare on Thursday that his aim was to reduce the cost of health care to make it affordable to all Americans, give ordinary people flexibility in the choice of their plans, and their choice of a doctor - within this year.

But he was open to any way of achieving this - through the free market, if it was possible, or through government initiative. During the campaign Mr. Obama had said he would establish a public insurance program to compete with private insurers and would require employers to contribute to the cost of coverage for their employees or to the cost of the public plan.

Almost all Republicans, however, still oppose a public plan, and say a government-run plan would end up controlling the whole market.