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WASHINGTON: Despite fierce opposition, the White House and top Democratic allies in the Senate on Thursday predicted they would pass the most sweeping health care overhaul in decades by late November.
And President Barack Obama signalled that opposition to his plan - chiefly from Republicans - would not derail his goal of a comprehensive remaking of the way the world's richest country manages medicine.
"If there are real concerns about any aspect of my plan, let's address them. If there are real differences, let's resolve them," said the president.
"But we have talked this issue to death, year after year, decade after decade, and the time for talk is winding down."
Vice President Joseph Biden predicted that the Congress - which rebuffed Obama's July deadline for action - would approve a comprehensive bill long before the Thanksgiving holiday in late November.
"I think we'll have a bill before Thanksgiving," Biden, a former senator, told NBC television, one day after President Barack Obama's clarion call for action in a speech to a rare joint session of the US Congress.
"I hope we can get it done well before Thanksgiving, but Senator Biden has spent more time in the Senate than I have. But I think we hope we can beat the Thanksgiving date," Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said later.
Despite the show of optimism, the outcome was far from certain - in large part because of fissures in the Democratic majorities that control the Senate and House of Representatives.
Observers were closely watching the Senate Finance Committee after its chairman, Democratic Senator Max Baucus, said on Wednesday the panel would draft a bill the week of September 21 with or without Republican support.
Baucus has worked for months to woo a tiny handful of Republicans, notably Republican Senators Olympia Snowe of Maine, Charles Grassley of Iowa, and Michael Enzi of Wyoming, to achieve a nominally bipartisan bill.
"A bipartisan bill is much more durable, much more sustainable. We're better able to deal with potential mistakes we may make next year and the following years if it's bipartisan," he said.
But Democratic aides say they worry that any watered-down deal will alienate support from the party's left-wing, which has loudly protested any effort to cut out a government-administered "public option" health insurance plan.
At the same time, they have looked for a way to rally a group of 52 swing-vote Democrats known as the "Blue Dogs," who have agreed on the need for reform but balked at cost estimates for Obama's favoured approach.
Obama met with 16 moderate Democratic senators and one independent to hear their concerns, while White House spokesman Robert Gibbs predicted "we will have Republicans and Democrats down here to talk about this proposal."
Three key committees in the House of Representatives have approved versions of health care legislation, as has one Senate committee - the panel once led by the late Democratic icon Ted Kennedy.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the various committees agreed on about 85 percent of what the legislation should include and that a key next step was to resolve lingering differences.
"We will take the time it needs to do that, and when we are ready, we will bring our legislation to the floor," she told reporters.
Observers were also watching public opinion to gauge the impact of Obama's speech on independent voters, especially in toss-up districts, because any action on health care will shape the November 2010 mid-term elections. - AFP/de
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