President Obama deals with healthcare issues back home.
Barack Obama’s first presidential visit to Australia this month is to be postponed because of problems with the President’s health reforms in the US.
Mr Obama was set to visit Canberra on March 23 to address Parliament. His wife and children were also to accompany him. But this trip looks set to be postponed for three days so that the President can drum up support back home for his controversial health reforms.
Because the trip no longer falls within the US school holidays, it looks unlikely that his wife and children will accompany him.
Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that the President was welcome to visit Australia “at any time”. He also empathised with Mr Obama’s problems with the health reforms in the US, saying: “If this visit is delayed by several days, if it’s brought about by the necessities of the health reform process in the US, I really understand that as well.”
“He has health reform on his agenda on Washington. We have health and hospitals reform on our agenda here in Australia. He has a thing called a troublesome Senate. I have a troublesome Senate as well.”
Mr Rudd is planning his own health reform for Australia, making outpatients a priority and looking into solving the problem of under-funding for specialist services.
Mr Obama will still be spending 48 hours in Australia but his earlier engagement to visit his childhood home in Indonesia may have to be shorter than planned. A cancellation was ruled out by the White House who said that a visit to Asia-Pacific regions by a US President was vital in building strong relationships.
Love Australia? Let us keep you informed...
- Join the Embrace Australia community today. Have your questions answered by our experts, start your own blog, get vital migration information and gain valuable insight from those who have already made the journey.
- Subscribe to our RSS Feed and have all our daily news and features delivered straight to your news reader.
- Join our mailing list -
