Pelosi: Dems stand ready to finish health care

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama delayed next week's Asian trip on Friday to seize on suddenly improved prospects for his sweeping health care legislation, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi forecast final passage of the overhaul in days.

"It's going to be historic," she said as House and Senate leaders and the White House reached for final agreement on the measure.

Pelosi said it appeared a second administration priority, far-reaching changes in the student loan industry, would be added to the legislation. The measure would have the government originate assistance to needy college students, ending a system that has allowed banks and other private lenders to do so at a fee.

Speaking with reporters after a closed-door meeting of the Democratic rank and file, Pelosi said the session left her feeling "very exhilarated" about the prospects of passing the legislation.

"We stand ready to stay as long as necessary" to finish it, she said, despite a scheduled two-week break Easter break scheduled to begin at the end of next week.

"I think that we're at a very good place," she said, adding that a revised measure, complete with a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, will be sent to the Budget Committee and posted on the Internet within a week.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., told NBC News Friday that he hopes the health care vote will happen in the next 10 days.

"We'll have the votes when we vote," Clyburn said when asked about House Democrats getting the votes they need to push through the package.

The change is estimated to save tens of billions of dollars over a decade, money that would be plowed back into higher Pell Grants and other student aid.

The health care legislation is designed to extend insurance to millions who lack it, while banning insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people who have been sick. Most Americans would be required to get coverage under law, and many would receive subsidies to make insurance more affordable.

Republicans are implacably opposed to the measure, which they say would amount to a government takeover of the health care system, financed by cuts to Medicare and higher taxes.

As a result, the prospect of a party-line vote on such far-reaching legislation ensures that the issue will reverberate into the fall elections for control of Congress.

Delayed trip
At the White House, a senior administration official said Obama's scheduled trip to Indonesia, Guam and Australia will be pushed back from March 18 to March 21 and the president will return on March 26, instead of March 24. The official divulged this information on the grounds of anonymity because Obama's change in travel plans had not yet been announced.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs had insisted earlier that Congress act by March 18 — Obama's original departure date. But the White House seems to have backed off of that as Democratic leaders scurried to round up votes.

Additionally, the White House announced Obama would travel to Ohio on Monday — the third in a string of campaign-style appearances since he vowed several days ago to do everything in his power to assure enactment of his top domestic priority.

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Pelosi spoke with reporters after a closed-door meeting of the Democratic rank and file, a session that she said left her feeling "very exhilarated" about the prospects of passing the legislation.

"We stand ready to stay as long as necessary" to finish it, she said. A two-week Easter break is scheduled to begin March 26.

"I think that we're at a very good place," she said, adding that a revised measure, complete with a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, will be sent to the Budget Committee and posted on the Internet within a week.

The health care bill appeared on the cusp of passage in early January, but was derailed when Senate Republicans gained the strength needed to sustain a filibuster and prevent final approval.

In the weeks since, leaders have come up with a two-part rescue strategy. It calls for the House to pass legislation that cleared the Senate in December, despite numerous objections, and for both houses to follow immediately with a second bill that makes changes to the first.

The second, fix-it bill would be drafted under rules that prevent Republicans from demanding Democrats produce a 60-vote super-majority, a threshold now beyond their reach.

House Democrats continued private meetings Friday to review elements of the still-emerging fix-it bill, but few details were immediately available.

In general, though, it would provide additional assistance to lower-income families who are unable to afford insurance, help states that already provide above-average benefits under Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor, as well as gradually close a gap in coverage under the Medicare prescription drug program.

Democrats plan to use budget reconciliation rules to skirt GOP filibusters that would let them kill that legislation with just 41 Senate votes. Republicans claim the Democratic strategy abuses Senate processes, but Democrats respond that reconciliation has been used mostly by the GOP in the past.

Top House Democrats said they have given up trying to win over some conservative Democrats demanding that the bill strictly bar federal aid for abortion. That means they likely will have to win converts from among 39 House Democrats who voted against the House's initial health bill in November.

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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., on Friday told NBC News that striking an abortion deal is out of the question.

"We don't want to go without their votes but we do want to forge ahead," Hoyer said about the anti-abortion Democrats.

In their talks, Democrats said they have decided how to close a gap in prescription drug coverage for Medicare recipients and to ease a costly new tax on high-cost health insurance plans that the Senate has approved.

But in part because they haven't received final cost estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, some moving parts remain. These include how generous federal subsidies for low- and middle-income earners would be, how much extra Medicaid assistance to give states that are providing richer benefits and how much to boost a payroll tax on upper income people.

Also unresolved was whether to include an unrelated plan to change the federal government's multibillion-dollar college student loan program. And the White House is pressuring the Senate to remove some specific deals in the legislation, including money for asbestos-disease sufferers in Montana and to build a hospital in Connecticut.

One of Democrats' biggest hurdles is easing House concerns that the Senate won't approve the second "fix-it" measure. House Democrats worry that would leave them vulnerable to GOP campaign attack ads blaming them for unpopular items in the Senate bill, like the higher tax on expensive insurance policies.

NBC's Shawna Thomas contributed to this report.

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