President Barack Obama is telling Congress that it is the "season for action" on health care.

In prepared remarks for delivery Wednesday night, Obama says that "the time for bickering is over," and that it's "time to deliver on health care."

Obama is telling lawmakers that there's agreement on "about 80 percent of what needs to be done."

Spelling out the goals of his health care overhaul, Obama said it would provide security to those who have insurance, and would provide coverage to those who don't now have it. He also said it would "slow the growth of health care costs."

Obama said he's borrowed ideas from both Democrats and Republicans, and that he'll "continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead."

ABC 23 spoke with Rep. Kevin McCarthy before the speech, who said he hoped the president would ask Congress to start over from scratch and be more open and inclusive about the reform bill process.

"I'm for health care reform, I'm just not for the public plan. What I think the president can say is, 'let's start from scratch. Let's put everybody in the room and let's find a bi-partisan solution, with some common sense solutions moving forward.'

Early reports out of Washington say that President Obama will tell Congress tonight he will continue to seek common ground on health care in the coming weeks, leaving his door open for those with serious proposals.

Something McCarthy says he offered months ago.

"The problem being, is it's just one side having the debate," McCarthy said from Capitol Hill. "Because what's happening is, no Republicans' bills have been moved forward, there's been no bi-partisan meetings. I signed a letter to the president on the First of May, saying 'let's sit down and work together' and he sent a letter back saying, in essence, 'thanks, but no thanks.' And there's been no meetings at the White House on health care that any Republicans have been invited to since April. So, how do you solve a problem if you're only going to work with one side. And that's why I'm hopeful tonight that he can start a new."

But the president will also warn his critics that he will not allow special interests to keep the health care coverage as it is. He says he will call out those who misrepresent what's in the plan and not accept the status quo as a solution.

The comments were among excerpts of the speech the president is to deliver to a joint session of Congress tonight. The excerpts were released by the White House.