Health Insurance and Health Care Reform Won’t Meet August Deadline

Health Insurance and Health Care Reform Won’t Meet August Deadline in Individual Health Insurance

Malcolm Smith, the Senate's top Democrat, conceded yesterday that the chamber won't pass an overhaul of health care and health insurance by August. In a townhall meeting that same day, President Obama accepted this fact, as long as he sees "folks working diligently and consistently,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

While Nancy Pelosi confirmed that the house bill would pass before the summer recess, the Senate Finance Committee is singing a different tune. They remain deadlocked over key details, not least of which is how to pay for the plan. The Senate Finance Committee is notably the only group trying to craft a bipartisan bill.

But concern over cost is rising across the board.

Nine Senate Democrats have addressed a letter to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, protesting that too little focus has been given to keeping down health costs.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said Thursday, "Despite what President Obama claims, the bill he is promoting today will make health care even more expensive."

Even at the friendly townhall meeting in Ohio, a 14-year-old incoming high-school freshman asked the president if he was pushing too much, too fast. Mr. Obama replied that, "Reform may be coming too soon for some in Washington, but it's not soon enough for the American people. We can get this done."

But this kind of response is garnering another growing criticism of the current administration: That their solutions are based on rhetoric and not reality. 

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