RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events A right to Health Care

WASHINGTON — Despite President Barack Obama’s assurance that a revamping of the United States health-care system would not swell the federal deficit, his goal of quick congressional passage seemed to grow a bit more tenuous on Sunday as Republicans dug in their heels while governors in both parties raised concerns that they will be handed costly new Medicaid obligations without the money to pay for them.

The states pay, on average, more than 40 percent of the cost of Medicaid, so they bear a significant burden of any expansion of the program to help more low-income Americans. At their annual summer meeting, in Biloxi, Miss., the governors said that their concerns dominated discussion, with striking levels of bipartisan hostility voiced during a closed-door luncheon on the topic on Saturday.

And Congressional Republicans said on Sunday that Mr. Obama could probably meet his deficit goal only by increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans and requiring small business owners, already battered by the enduring recession, to assure coverage of their employees.

The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that rising health-care costs, and the problem of millions of Americans who lack insurance, could be resolved without a costly revamping — estimates are that it could cost $1 trillion over a decade — that he said would lead to inferior care and an outsized government role.