After a couple of largely fruitless months talking up how retooling health care will squeeze hundreds of billions of dollars of savings from a broken system, the White House is recalibrating its message and emphasizing consumer-friendly aspects.

Beginning Wednesday with a return trip to economically devastated Elkhart, Ind., the president and his proxies will launch a monthlong blitz of town hall meetings, grass-roots lobbying and television advertising designed to rally public support for quick votes on health plans in the House and Senate following the August congressional recess.

A September address to a joint session of Congress may even be in the offing, to add an element of drama and urgency, according to Democratic officials.

Central to the pitch is explaining how “health insurance reform,” as the White House now refers to the effort, will actually create a better system and improve people’s lives. The president offered a preview during appearances in Charlotte, N.C. and Bristol, Va., last week, by outlining a series of consumer-protection measures aimed at curbing some less-savory insurance company practices, such as dropping coverage for individuals who become seriously ill or charging unlimited out-of-pocket expenses.

Obama’s central goal remains expanding coverage to the estimated 47 million Americans who currently lack it and bringing down long-term costs because the growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending threatens to swamp the federal budget in coming years.

But Democratic consultants say to prevail, he must firmly fix in people’s minds what is at stake in the health overhaul debate — and explain what working-class voters could lose if the status quo is maintained.

“Not only are people worried about losing their jobs but they’re very worried about being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, fighting with an insurance company about getting coverage, staying on the phone not being able to talk to a person for two hours,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “The notion of control, stability and peace of mind are very salient concerns to most of America.”

Though polls suggest Americans believe fixing the health system is more important than ever, the administration hasn’t elicited much passion for its effort. In fact, Obama’s approval ratings on health care have been steadily falling.

The difficulty in rallying support is partly due to the complexity of the subject and the White House’s insistence on stressingabstract cost controls in order to address the cost of retooling the system, variously estimated at around $1 trillion.

What’s more, the administration is not promoting its own solution but pinning its hopes on bills in the House (HR 3200) and Senate that thus far have been the objects of bitter partisan rancor.

As a result, experts say, Obama is struggling to find a coherent message while his Republican critics ridicule the administration’s efforts as big government meddling in personal health decisions.

“It’s a real challenge to on one hand stress how people’s existing relationships with doctors and health plans won’t change if they’re satisfied with them, and at the same time stress how important it is to change the system to stop the trajectory in health spending,” said Mark McClellan, a former Medicare administrator and FDA commissioner in the administration of George W. Bush .

The administration’s August message “is more about fearing things will go wrong if they don’t do reform, while the critics will talk about the risks if they do it,” McClellan said.