President Barack Obama drew an enthusiastic crowd of 15,000 at his recent visit to New Jersey's PNC Bank Arts Center, where he stumped for gubernatorial incumbent and fellow Democrat Jon Corzine and advocated for health care reform.

However, audience opinions were divided on Obama's health care policy.

There was not an empty seat in the stadium at Obama's speech yesterday, and spectators crowded the field as well. When the President's plane Air Force 1 soared over the stadium, the entire audience was on its feet cheering and waving. When Obama approached the podium after Governor Corzine's introduction, the stadium erupted in thunderous applause often drowning Obama's voice during his speech, showing that the President's charisma has not ceased to win hearts even after the election.

Though he touched on issues such as financial oversight and clean energy, Obama focused on the health care reform plan he has recently been promoting. With co-pays increasing faster than wages, unemployed workers and people with serious medical condition unable to get insurance, and even those with insurance feeling insecure in their coverage, the health care system is in serious need of reform, Obama said.

The proposed health care reform would not deprive private health insurers of their market, since people satisfied with private coverage would still be able to buy it, Obama said. The new plan is intended to give opportunities to people without health insurance, including those who recently lost it.

Obama said that he reads 10 letters a day from ordinary citizens, and many of them are about health care. One man from Baltimore lost his job and was temporarily without health insurance, but during this period he needed to get surgery; as a result, he now is several tens of thousands of dollars in debt. A woman from Colorado was diagnosed with breast cancer, but her health insurance company rejected her claims, and she had no choice but to use her retirement money to pay for treatment. Health care reform is for people like these, Obama said.

Obama admitted that health care reform is no easy matter. It has been on the past several presidents' agendas, but all of them were forced to give it up because of numerous obstacles. Many still vehemently oppose health care reform, Obama said, but those people need to be asked: Do you have a better plan?

Reactions to Obama's plan were many and varied among Chinese Americans present in the audience. Cong Shuping, a CEO, praised Obama's plan for requiring small companies to buy health coverage for employees; she said that her own company has been planning to do so as a measure to help reassure and retain employees. Luo Qi, director of an investment company, said that his own employees all have health insurance, but he understands that in a climate of economic lethargy and tumbling profits, many small entrepreneurs may be unwilling to pay such costs. Tang Wenyuan, an unemployed worker currently covered by his wife's health insurance, said that Obama's plan is well-intentioned but could be difficult to realize in a short period of time because the costs are so high.