ANNANDALE, VA – President Obama called on "ordinary Americans" to support his battle to reform the nation's healthcare system in a Wednesday town  hall meeting on healthcare hosted by the Northern Virginia Community College.

Obama said he believes health reform can be accomplished this year. "But in order to make it happen, I'm going to need ordinary Americans to stand up and say, `Now is the time.' "

The town hall comes as Congress is on its Fourth of July recess, and prior debate on Capitol Hill has become heated over difficult aspects of the reform package Congress hopes to pass by Oct. 1, at the president's bidding.

"You are what is going to drive this process forward -- because if Congress thinks that the American people don't want to see change, frankly, the lobbyists and the special interests will end up winning the day," Obama said, as he took questions from Americans online and in the audience of the town hall meeting.

During the town hall, Obama said,  the hardest part is yet to come.  "Because everybody here knows that the easiest thing to do when you're looking at big policy questions like healthcare is just to be saying it can't be done.  And the naysayers are already starting to line up, and finding every excuse and scare tactic in the book for why reform is not going to happen."

Obama defended the attacks on the costs of his reform plan, which would provide affordable healthcare options to every American through federal subsidies and a public heath plan option to rival private health plans. He said he wants the process to be budget neutral, with funding to be drawn from changing charity tax breaks for the top two percent of Americans who now take a bigger tax break on charity than those who contribute lesser amounts. He is also planning to gain more some $177 billion over the next 10 years through cuts to Medicare's HMO plan, which reimburses private plans participating in the program at a higher rate than traditional Medicare.

Obama said there will be additional savings through emphasis on prevention and comparative effectiveness healthcare and the use of health IT, but these cannot be determined through the Congressional Budget Office scoring process.

The president called on Americans to set the record straight with their neighbors and acquaintances.  "So when you hear somebody say this is -- `Obama is proposing a government takeover of healthcare' -- that's an old argument that's been used for years.  I just want to be clear," he said. "If you've got a healthcare plan that you get through your employer or some other private plan, I want you to keep it.  I actually think reforming the system is the most likely way for you to keep the healthcare that you've got.  I don't want to take it over.  I think it's great that you can keep the care that you've got."