During a Town Hall Meeting in Elyria, Ohio on Friday, President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to health care reform legislation, even after the potentially troubling roadblocks from last week's Massachusetts election.

"I had no illusions when I took this on that this was going to be hard," The President told the audience. "Seven Presidents had tried it, seven Congresses had tried it--and all of them had failed."

Obama said advisers had told him that pursuing reform was not wise, but he went ahead with his agenda because of issues including insurance premiums doubling in the past decade, skyrocketing out-of-pocket expenses, and millions of Americans losing insurance. "I took this up because I wanted to ease the burdens on all the families and small businesses that can't afford to pay outrageous rates. And I wanted to protect mothers and fathers and children being targeted by some of the worst practices of the insurance industry that I had heard time and time again as I traveled through this country."

Obama then described the process of reform legislation as being long, drawn out, and "ugly." "You're running headlong into special interests, and armies of lobbyists, and partisan politics that's aimed at exploiting fears instead of getting things done. And then you've got ads that are scaring ... everybody. And the longer it take, the uglier it looks."

Nonetheless, the President vowed that he would keep on fighting for "real, meaningful health insurance reform." He concluded, "...we are also going to fight to hold the insurance industry accountable, to bring more stability and security to folks who are in our health care system. And, yes, I want to make sure that people who don't have health care right now can get some."

The President is planning more in-depth discussion of Health Care reform during his State of the Union address tonight.

In a press briefing Monday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed Obama's commitment to health care reform. Secretary Gibbs stated Obama would not be downplaying health care and that the President has continued to talk to leaders in Congress about the best path forward.

Meanwhile, news outlets are reporting that the White House and Democratic leaders are still considering budget reconciliation as a means of passing parts of the health care reform legislation. Reconciliation needs fewer votes than the filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, but only budget-related issues may be used in the procedure.

Finally, two recent surveys offer some insight on Americans' current attitudes toward health care reform. A Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll has found that during the last six months, 54 percent of Americans feel that health care reform is extremely important in light of the problematic economy. However, the actual legislative proposals are dividing the population. The poll reports 42 percent of Americans in favor of the recent proposals, and 41 percent opposed, with 16 percent undecided. Sixty-four percent of Democrats support the proposals, and 76 percent of Republicans oppose the measures.

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