WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key group of U.S. senators was "very close" to agreement on healthcare reform, one of its members said on Sunday, suggesting Congress was nearer to meeting President Barack Obama's goal of passing a reform bill this year.
"We think we are very close to an agreement," said Senator Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and part of the "Gang of Six" bipartisan group that is trying to forge consensus, on "Fox News Sunday."
Lawmakers have struggled to find common ground in the debate over healthcare reform, hampering Obama's efforts to push through his top domestic policy priority.
Raucous town hall meetings over the summer showed many voters were unconvinced Washington had a plan that would improve their healthcare without imposing federal bureaucracy or saddling taxpayers with unsustainable public debt.
The revamp of the $2.5 trillion healthcare industry seeks to make affordable health insurance available to most of the estimated 46 million uninsured Americans and curb runaway medical costs.
In an interview on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" that aired on Sunday night, Obama sounded confident that Congress would succeed in passing healthcare reform although he acknowledged that "we haven't gotten much cooperation" from Republicans.
"I believe that we will have enough votes to pass not just any healthcare bill, but a good healthcare bill that helps the American people, reduces costs, actually over the long-term controls our deficit," Obama said, according to a transcript released before the broadcast.
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