Obama's health-care plan gathers steam in Congress

Bill passes another House committee even as budget warning issued

By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A White House-backed plan to overhaul the U.S. health-care system passed another congressional milestone Friday morning, clearing a House committee even as some lawmakers continued to fret about the costs associated with the huge reform effort.
By a vote of 26-22, members of the House Education and Labor Committee approved a bill that aims to cover 97% of Americans and sets up a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers. The vote follows an early-morning vote by the House Ways and Means Committee on the same bill. It passed that committee 23-18 with no Republican support.
The committee moves come after a week of intense lobbying for the bill by Obama and spirited wrangling over its costs. The president is pressing Congress to approve legislation before its August break.
On Thursday, Republicans seized on a statement by the head of the Congressional Budget Office, who said the main health-care overhauls being considered wouldn't contain costs and could worsen already-escalating medical spending.
Earlier this week, Obama said that the U.S. is closer "than we have ever been" to an overhaul of health care. He spoke after the Senate Health Committee approved its version of legislation.
But Republicans have heaped criticism on both the House and Senate bills, and substantial work remains in the Senate on paying for Democrats' proposals.
In the House, meanwhile, the Energy and Commerce Committee is continuing to meet Friday on the bill. But the road in that panel is likely to be longer: it is home to seven members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition of Democrats.

Robert Schroeder is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obamas-health-care-plan-gathers-steam-in-congress