Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Former President Bill Clinton warned senators against repeating history and failing to act quickly on an overhaul of the U.S. health system even as top lawmakers suggested that Congress won’t finish work this year.

“It’s not important to be perfect here, it’s important to act, to move, to start the ball rolling,” Clinton told reporters after speaking to Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday. “The worst thing to do is nothing.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to bridge differences over whether the plan should include a new government-run insurance program, whether it should require employers to cover workers and how to pay for covering tens of millions of uninsured Americans. Related issues including abortion are also slowing down work in the chamber.

Reid yesterday said he plans to bring legislation to the floor next week. Several weeks of debate would follow before a vote and then the House and Senate would have to work together on a compromise, a process that might take months. The Senate adjourned last night until Nov. 16.

“Our goal is to make sure we get it out of the Senate this year,” Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, told reporters yesterday.

That wouldn’t meet a target set by President Barack Obama for his signature domestic effort. Pressed on the goal by reporters on Nov. 9, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said nothing had changed.

End of Year

“The president wants to sign health care before the end of the year,” Gibbs said.

Lawmakers are trying to craft a bill to cover uninsured Americans while curbing medical costs. Their proposals for new purchasing exchanges, subsidies and a requirement that all Americans have coverage would cost more than $800 billion over 10 years and represent the biggest changes to U.S. health care in more than four decades.

Reid is unlikely to bring a measure to the floor until Senate leaders get an estimate of the measure’s price tag from the Congressional Budget Office, Durbin said. “He doesn’t know” when that will happen, Durbin said. ‘And neither do I.”

Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said proper consideration of the bill would push action into 2010. “Surely, we can spend a couple of months letting the American people weigh in,” Alexander said.

‘Get It Done’

Clinton, 63, warned senators that critics will have an easier time distorting their health-care plans if they fail to get something to Obama’s desk in a timely manner, said Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat. Clinton said his own efforts in the 1990s were distorted after the fact, Cardin said.

“If you don’t get it done, people will claim that it is what it is not,” Cardin said of Clinton’s remarks. “If you get it done, it will prove that what they said was wrong.”

Clinton’s attempt to pass health-care legislation collapsed in 1994, contributing to the Democratic Party’s loss of control of Congress and setting back his domestic agenda.

With the prospect of support from just one Republican so far, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, Reid needs consensus in a caucus of 58 Democrats and two independents. They control 60 of the Senate’s 100 votes, the number needed to shut off debate in order to act on legislation.

Leaders have received “no final commitments” from Democrats about voting for the bill “until people have a chance to review it carefully,” Durbin said. “Clearly, we are going to make some changes as we talk to the caucus,” he said.

Cracks in Bloc

Already there are cracks in the party’s bloc of votes. Democratic Senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas won’t commit to even allowing debate to start. Among other things, both have criticized idea of the government-run insurer, known as the public option.

Snowe also opposes the public option, saying it should be triggered only if the private market fails to lower premiums within a certain period of time. Asked if leaders are considering a trigger, Durbin said “there are lots possibilities, and I don’t know what they’ll be.”

Durbin and Reid said they expect to resolve differences over restrictions on government financing of abortion.

The House legislation bans the government insurance program from paying for abortions and prohibits subsidies for the purchase of private insurance covering the procedure. The bill passed 220-215 on Nov. 7.

Distraction Seen

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday the abortion debate is a distraction meant to delay a health-care overhaul.

“We will continue to try and find common ground,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters in San Francisco.

Reid said the legislation he proposes in the Senate will “ensure that no federal funds are used for abortion.” He said he’ll seek a compromise “that is fair and reasonable” to maintain the legal status quo on abortion.

Durbin said senators are committed to acting on the overall bill as soon as they can and said he has talked to Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, about timing.

“They want us to finish quickly,” Durbin said. “We do too, but some of these things are beyond our control.”

To contact the reporters on this story: James Rowley in Washington t jarowley@bloomberg.net; Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 11, 2009 00:01 EST