US President Barack Obama has said a broad healthcare overhaul is critical to a US economic recovery.
He urged US Congress to take advantage of momentum behind the reform package, despite doubts about the plan even among fellow Democrats.
In a televised evening news conference, Mr Obama said the biggest driving force behind the federal deficit was skyrocketing healthcare costs for the government's Medicare program of healthcare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.
‘If we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit,’ he said after another day when leaders in Congress struggled to find common ground on the cost and scope of a healthcare plan, Mr Obama's top legislative priority.
Hopes dimmed in Congress that lawmakers could meet Mr Obama's goal of passing early versions by the August summer recess, but Mr Obama said the ‘stars were aligned’ to win the plan this year and appealed to congressional leaders to help Americans facing higher insurance premiums or lacking insurance.
‘We are now seeing broad agreement thanks to the work that was done over the last few days. So even though we still have a few issues to work out, what's remarkable at this point is not how far we have left to go - it's how far we have already come,’ he said.
But the measure faces opposition from many sides, with a group of fiscally conservative Democrats saying it remained stalled because there is no information on how it will save the government money on healthcare or be paid for.
Liberal Democrats have said they are concerned it would not do enough and Republicans blasted the $1 trillion-plus price tag.
‘If they try to fix our healthcare system like they've tried to rescue our economy, I think we're in really, really big trouble,’ said House Republican Leader John Boehner.
The overhaul is designed to create a government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers, expand coverage to most of the 46m uninsured Americans and hold down soaring healthcare costs that are rising faster than inflation.
