This week, the director of the Congressional Budget Office warned lawmakers that the bills now under discussion would not slow the growth of healthcare spending.
Obama wants lawmakers to pass bills in the House and Senate before their summer recess so that the legislation can be combined when they return in September.
Many strategists believe that this ambitious timeline is key to completing work on the legislation before electoral politics begin to consume Washington in 2010.
But House and Senate panels are still working away on separate bills. And six mostly centrist lawmakers, including two Republicans, sent a letter to their leaders Friday expressing concerns about the push to move a healthcare bill through the Senate by August.
Pelosi and other senior Democratic lawmakers joined Obama in downplaying the tussling on Capitol Hill on Friday.
"This is the legislative process," Pelosi said at a midday news conference. "As the bill takes shape, people say, 'OK.' . . . They say, 'Here are some suggestions. We have to go to the next step.' This is the wholesome dynamism of what we do here."
In an interview later, the House speaker indicated that she would be open to adjusting the bill, including limiting the new surtax to individuals making more than $500,000 and couples making more than $1 million.
Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) talked by phone with Obama on Friday morning about the need to work with moderate Democrats and to speed up work in the Senate, according to an aide briefed on the conversation.
With its new Medicare proposal, the White House is also stepping up efforts to shape the legislation to attract more votes.
Under the proposal, which administration officials began discussing with lawmakers earlier this week, a new independent agency would be established to set reimbursement rates for hospitals and doctors -- a process that is now controlled by Congress and highly politicized.
The plan, championed by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.V.), would allow Congress to stop the cuts only by passing a joint resolution in a process akin to how the federal government handled the politically sensitive closure of military bases around the country.
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n oam.levey@latimes.com
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House Democrats' healthcare proposals
