With House Democrats releasing final updates to the healthcare reform package on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pushing for a vote as early as Saturday – if Democrats can be assured they have the votes needed to pass the legislation.
The latest changes would add language to the Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), passed Dec. 24, that would extend coverage to 32 million people at an estimated cost of $940 billion over 10 years.
The Congressional Budget Office released its "scoring" of the new proposal on Thursday, saying it would save $138 billion in the first 10 years and $1.2 trillion in the second 10 years.
Democrats would like to pass the legislation with a simple majority vote in a process called "reconciliation." Republicans are angry with the prospective use of a non-traditional method to pass major legislation affecting a sixth of the economy.
At a press conference Thursday, Pelosi expressed how hard it has been for House Democrats to come together on the bill.
"Every vote around here is a heavy lift," she said. "We don't have a rubber-stamp Congress or a rubber-stamp caucus. So, we have our full airing of issues."
Pelosi said healthcare reform efforts have been hampered by a "campaign of misrepresentation and fear."
"There is no limit to what the other side will do to protect the insurance companies," she said.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called it "crunch time" for Democrats. Democrats "are trying to twist enough arms to force a massive government takeover of healthcare through Congress," he told Fox News Thursday.
"Americans are upset about the bill and the arrogance of power that's going on here," Boehner said. "There is nobody who is going to hide on this vote. It's the biggest vote I've seen in the 20 years I've been here in Washington."
At a White House health reform summit on Feb. 25, Republicans called for Democrats to scrap legislation and start over. Democrats and President Barack Obama said Americans can't afford to wait, with thousands losing healthcare coverage on a daily basis.
Findings from a public poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center found Americans are distrustful of the reform packages, but even more wary of Congress doing nothing about healthcare.
Forty-eight percent of those polled said they oppose the bills before Congress, while 38 percent favor them. However, the study, conducted March 10-14 among 1,500 adults, found as few as 18 percent of Americans would prefer Congress pass nothing and leave the current system as it is.
While 51 percent of those polled said their healthcare costs would increase if the proposed legislation becomes law, 63 percent believe their healthcare costs will increase if no changes are made to the healthcare system, Pew researchers found.