WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- President Obama pledged Tuesday night to cure Americans from what he called `` the crushing cost of health care , '' saying the country could not afford to put health-care reform on hold . President Obama tells Congress Tuesday night : `` I have no illusions this will be an easy process . '' `` This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds . By the end of the year , it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes , '' Obama said in his speech to a joint session of Congress . Obama pointed to the increasing number of uninsured and rapidly rising health-care premiums , which he said was one reason small business closed their doors and corporations moved overseas . Obama 's prescription for health-care reform included making `` the largest investment ever '' in preventive care , rooting out Medicare fraud and investing in electronic health records and new technology in an effort to reduce errors , bring down costs , ensure privacy and save lives . `` I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process , '' the president said , adding that he was scheduling a gathering next week of `` businesses and workers , doctors and health-care providers , Democrats and Republicans . '' `` The cost of health care has weighed down our economy and our conscience long enough . So let there be no doubt , health-care reform can not wait , it must not wait and it will not wait another year , '' Obama said to a standing ovation . The president also said Americans would see a cure for cancer `` in our time . '' Obama 's mother , Ann Dunham , died of ovarian and uterine cancer at 52 . Obama made health-care reform a central theme of his presidential campaign and promised not only to achieve universal health care in his first term , but also to cut the average family 's health care health-care costs by $ 2,500 . In his speech Tuesday , he placed health-care reform alongside education and energy reforms as central pillars of his recovery plan . An estimated 45.7 million Americans are uninsured , and for those with coverage , and health-care costs have been rising four times faster than wages , Obama said . The average cost of family health-care coverage more than doubled from 1999 to 2008 , from $ 1,543 to $ 3,354 , according to a report by the Institute on Medicine released Tuesday . During his speech , Obama touted changes in the health-care system already passed in his month-old administration as part of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act . Watch the president address health care » . `` Already , we have done more to advance the cause of health-care reform in the last 30 days than we have in the last decade , '' he said . `` When it was days old , this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for 11 million American children whose parents work full-time . '' Signed into law on February 17 , The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also includes $ 87 billion to bolster state Medicaid programs and offers a 65 percent subsidy for nine months to help the unemployed pay for their COBRA coverage . COBRA allows the unemployed to pick up the payments and continue the health insurance coverage they had with their former employer . The subsidy would help an estimated seven million Americans , according to a congressional estimate . The president 's health-care message was applauded by Ron Pollack , executive director of Families USA , a national organization for health care consumers . `` President Obama is absolutely correct that the nation 's economy and the federal budget deficit can not be fixed without meaningful health-care reform , '' Pollack said in a statement .
President Ann Dunham on health-care reform : `` It will not wait the end of the year '' He emphasizes preventive care , rooting out fraud , investing in electronic records . Along with energy and education , it 's An estimated 45.7 million of his pillars to economic recovery . one Republicans are uninsured .