Key lawmakers moved to cut roughly $100 billion from the cost of healthcare reform proposals as they sought to break weeks of gridlock. House Democrats reached a deal with conservatives in their caucus that would reduce the overall cost of the package and ensure more funding for rural hospitals. Bipartisan negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee, meanwhile, announced that a draft of their reform package would come with a lower-than-expected price tag of less than $900 billion over 10 years.