President Barack Obama delivered a dire prognosis for the country's healthcare system today at a meeting of the American Medical Association in Chicago. 

Echoing a theme he has been hammering for the past two weeks, Obama said the skyrocketing costs of American health care put many at a disadvantage and could have serious implications for the country’s financial well-being. He said health care costs are a “ticking time bomb,” and if reform doesn’t come soon, the country could go the way of General Motors: “paying more, getting less, and going broke.”

The president used the speech at the Hyatt Regency to make his case for sweeping changes in the way Americans interact with doctors, hospitals and insurers. 

"Reform is not a luxury, but a necessity,” he told about 2,200 people gathered in the hotel ballroom. He touched on reform mechanisms from everything from health care plans and physician compensation to the way medical students are taught

The president said a new health care system – which could include a requirement to own health care and what he termed a “health insurance exchange” – would cost about a trillion dollars over 10 years.

The exchange, he said, would be a one-stop shop for health care planning, benefits and prices. Obama said one of the options must be a public health care option, emphasizing his plan was not a “Trojan horse” for socialized health care.

He said reform would allow people to keep their current doctor and health care plan if they wanted.

After the speech, AMA directors responded to the President’s remarks, calling it a “historic speech,” but repeatedly saying all health care options must be discussed.

“The American Medical Association is committed to covering all American through health reform this year,” said AMA President Nancy Nielsen, praising Obama for seeking the organization’s input.

But when pressed to respond to Obama’s statement that a public health care option is the “friend” of doctors, she said it was a call for a “thoughtful analysis of all the options,” and said too much attention to paid to “labels” of different reform options.

Meanwhile, rallies supporting alternative health plans took place across the city.  A group called Health Care for America NOW, which advocates for a public option, planned a rally at the University of Chicago, while 50 of people rallied in favor of a single-payer health plan in front of Tribune Tower. Some of those protestors eventually made it into the Hyatt, mingling with AMA members after Obama’s speech.

“We’re trying to hold Obama to two sentences he said years ago when he was a state senator,” says Edward Crouse, an activist with the Chicago Single-Payer Action Network. “He says, ‘I am a strong supporter of single-payer health care, but first we need to take back the White House, the House and the Senate.’ All those things have happened.”

Advocates say a single-payer, national health plan would eliminate the need for insurance companies and give the public more affordable health care options.

“He’s running away from the two statements he made,” Crouse says, referring to Obama’s campaign statement that health care is a human right. “Well, if you believe health care is a human right, then why do you let health insurance (companies) gamble with something that is a human right?”

AMA officials advocated the need for medical homes for poor patients, echoing a sentiment championed by the University of Chicago Medical Center, which has come under fire for its Urban Health Initiative, which seeks to direct patients towards community health clinics.

Obama’s remarks come a day before Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado introduces an ordinance that would require all county hospitals to provide free health care for poor patients.