1 hurdle cleared on health care

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats announced agreement Friday on far-reaching steps designed to rein in the relentless growth of Medicare, part of a concerted effort to counter the impression that President Barack Obama’s health-care legislation is in deep trouble.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the agreement as a “giant step forward” for the bill that Obama has made a test of his leadership. Advocates said it eventually would turn Medicare toward a program that rewards quality, rather than volume, as well as alter a system that pays doctors and other providers more in some regions of the country than others.

Yet the leadership all but abandoned a pledge to approve legislation before a monthlong vacation scheduled to begin at the end of next week. Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the majority leader, left open the possibility that lawmakers would be held in session a day or more longer than scheduled to allow time for a vote. If not, “We have every intention of passing it by the fall,” he said.

Separately, talks between the leadership and rebellious conservative and moderate Democrats demanding changes in the bill collapsed in acrimony during the day, then were revived with a handshake a few hours later.

In a further attempt to blunt criticism, Democrats circulated a breakdown claiming to show the benefits of the legislation in each of the nation’s 435 congressional districts.

The maneuvering in Congress came as Obama met at the White House with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Finance Committee, who has been trying for months to produce a bipartisan agreement.

“I said to him [Obama] what I say to everybody. We are ready when we are ready,” Baucus later told The Associated Press in an interview.

Obama has worked energetically in public appearances, interviews, meetings with lawmakers and a prime-time news conference this week to advance legislation he wants to expand coverage to millions without insurance at the same time it restrains the growth of health care generally.

“I’m fully committed to making that happen,” Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press and other reporters Friday.