Pelosi: Dems are close to health-care pact

March 11, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

ST. CHARLES, Mo.

Democrats claimed momentum Wednesday in their drive to enact the sweeping health-care legislation sought by President Barack Obama, citing near agreement on crucial issues despite persistent Republican efforts to knock them off stride.

Obama himself, rallying support outside Washington for the second time this week, shouted to a crowd in Missouri, “The time for talk is over. It’s time to vote.”

At the Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that after days of secretive talks, key Democrats were “pretty close” to accord on additional subsidies to help lower-income families purchase insurance, more aid for states under the Medicaid program for low-income Americans and additional help for seniors who face a coverage gap under current Medicare drug plans.

Pelosi, D-Calif., offered no details, and other officials cautioned that any final deal would hinge on cost estimates under preparation at the Congressional Budget Office.

Several officials in both houses also said Democrats were likely to impose a new payroll tax of as much as 2.9 percent on investment and dividend income earned by wealthy taxpayers. In addition, any legislation is expected to include a tax on high-cost insurance plans, along the lines of an agreement the White House negotiated late last year with organized labor.

At stake is the fate of Obama’s call to expand health care to some 30 million people who lack insurance and to ban insurance-company practices such as denial of coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

He also hopes to begin to reduce the rise in the cost of health care nationally.

Almost every American would be affected by the legislation, which would change the ways people receive and pay for health care, from the most routine checkup to the most expensive, lifesaving treatment.

Pelosi made her comments as Obama followed his campaign-reminiscent Pennsylvania trip of Monday with an appearance near St. Louis, pushing hard in the home stretch of the marathon battle to pass his signature domestic legislation.

“The time for talk is over. It’s time to vote. It’s time to vote. Tired of talking about it,” he told the crowd.

With his shirt sleeves rolled up, Obama denounced waste and inefficiency in the government’s health care system, and he announced that he had signed an executive order directing Cabinet secretaries and agency heads to intensify their use of private auditors to root out fraud.

House and Senate Democrats are working on a complex rescue mission for the health-care legislation that appeared on the cusp of passage late last year, before Senate Republicans gained the strength to sustain a filibuster that could prevent final passage.