Mr. Obama will join former President Bill Clinton, his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state, and their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, at the Clinton family foundation's annual convention just blocks away from United Nations Plaza. White House officials said the rare, hourlong appearance by the two presidents will be an attempt to bring attention to next week's opening of enrollment in health insurance exchanges that are at the center of the Affordable Care Act.
"The format of their conversation is designed to foster an enthusiastic and candid discussion between our current president and the last president to make tackling health care a priority, who share a deep passion for improving the quality and cost of care for American families and businesses," a White House official said.
Mr. Obama has reached out to Mr. Clinton to help with the health care rollout, which faces an aggressive Republican campaign across the country to derail it. Mr. Clinton, who failed to secure a health care overhaul while he was in office, has accepted the challenge. In addition to the event on Tuesday, Mr. Clinton delivered a high-profile health care speech this month in Little Rock, Ark.
But the spotlight on the Clintons has grown larger this year as speculation mounts about whether Mrs. Clinton will make another run for the presidency in 2016. And the former president is sharing a stage on Tuesday evening with Mr. Obama as the two talk about health care at a joint event hosted by the foundation.
Mrs. Clinton has been coy for years about whether she will run again for president after Mr. Obama leaves office. In an interview in New York Magazine this week, she conceded that she is thinking about it.
"I will just continue to weigh what the factors are that would influence me making a decision one way or the other," she said in the interview, adding: "I'm not in any hurry. I think it's a serious decision, not to be made lightly, but it's also not one that has to be made soon."
That answer — and the activities of some of her ardent supporters, who have begun raising money and organizing, just in case she decides to run — have prompted renewed interest in everything Clinton. At the foundation event, she is scheduled to introduce her husband and Mr. Obama.
