Biden: Health Care Reform "On Track"
The White House is trying to show more progress on the health care reform front even as it appears shaky on the critical details, with Vice President Biden announcing this morning a "major" deal with the hospital industry to lower costs.
"Folks, reform is coming," Biden said in the EEOB today. "It is on track, it is coming." He said that a deal on reform has never been this close in his whole career.
Hospitals, Biden says, are "cracking under the weight" of the cost of providing care for the uninsured, and will thus benefit from expanded coverage. Under the announced agreement, hospitals will contribute $155 billion in savings that will be applied to the total cost of health care reform. This after other deals with pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies to find additional savings represents real momentum, Biden argued. And, 'We have the American public behind us," he said.
"We must and we will enact reform by the end of August," Biden pledged. "We can't wait."