President Obama today took his bully pulpit today to put his administration’s focus on health care reform, stating that he wanted to see reform by the end of the year, and for Congress to take up legislation on the issue starting in July. This is the third day in a row that the administration has tried to direct attention to the need for health care reform this year. President Obama is quoted in the New York Times,

“We’ve got to get it done this year,” Mr. Obama said, standing on the South Lawn of the White House, surrounded by House Democratic leaders. “We’ve got to get it done this year, both in the House and Senate. We don’t have any excuses.”

Of course, it won’t be so easy to do. There is a $90 billion funding gap, and the best way to make it up, experts say, is to close some employer tax break benefits…which is the policy John McCain ran his campaign on, and Obama spoke out against. Hm. Another way is to simply reign in the cost of health care. Given that the United States spends basically a gazillion dollars a year on health care (much of it, countries with universal health coverage would argue, unnecessary), it would seem like this would be a feasible option. However, Americans are used to getting the services they want, not the services that they need. There would be a lot of push-back if the administration decided to start mandating services available within the insurance system.

So, it’ll be interesting to see how this goes. But, as Obama says, the “stars are aligned” to get this done, and get this done this year. However, we’re only two and half months from July’s hoped legislation. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.