The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says Farber Specialty Vehicles will add 20 more so-called Mobile Vet Centers to a fleet of 50 it has built to be used in underserved or rural areas. Lawmakers and VA officials are expected to be on hand Wednesday to send off the first of those 20 new vehicles and announce where the new centers will be headed.

The mobile centers can be used for services such as health screenings, outreach and readjustment counseling for combat veterans and their families. The vehicles are customized for use on different types of terrain.

Attorney General Mike DeWine has said Ohio needs to assume the federal health insurance law will be upheld, so the state should be taking steps on setting up the health insurance exchanges, where consumers would go to shop for and buy insurance. But for the last few weeks, those in charge of setting up the state’s exchange have been vague about what’s happening. Here’s Eric Poklar with the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation:

“We’ll continue to work through these issues and ultimately determine a course of action that minimizes federal interference in Ohio’s health care marketplace and gives individuals and businesses as much control as possible over the future of their health care.”

And here’s Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who is the head of the Ohio Department of Insurance.

“We are continuing to understand and do the research necessary to make good decisions for Ohio.”

Supporters of the federal health insurance law say they’re not hearing something in those answers – whether Ohio is setting up its exchange or not. Col Owens is the co-chair of Ohio Consumers for Health Coverage.

“The clock is ticking. Ohio is losing precious time to plan for and design a health insurance exchange to meet the needs of Ohioans.”

Advocates point out that the federal law is still in place, though it’s being reviewed by the US Supreme Court. And Cathy Levine with the Universal Health Care Network of Ohio says there’s a lot of work to do to set up its exchange in a short period of time.

“And if Ohio doesn’t act, the federal government will come in and do it for us, and we will have a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter, lowest common denominator exchange instead of one Ohio creates for Ohio.”

But the snail’s pace that the state is moving is deliberate, says the lawyer who led the Tea Party backed constitutional amendment approved by voters that says Ohioans can’t be compelled to participate in a government-run health insurance system. Maurice Thompson at the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law says there’s no reason to set up an exchange till the US Supreme Court rules.

“Even if Obamacare is constitutional, the state still cannot set up an exchange that violates the terms of Issue 3, the Health Care Freedom Amendment. So any exchange they set up that would kind of take away choice as we defined it there would be a real problem and we would take legal action.”

And as for the scenario that the law is upheld and Ohio has to submit to an exchange set up by the feds – that’s fine with Thompson.

“Making Obamacare harder to enforce is more likely to make it go away. So we’d rather the federal government go ahead and try to enforce the exchange from the federal level in all 50 states rather than our state officials cooperate in violating the state constitution.”

There are grants available to help states set up exchanges, and those who support the federal law say Ohio is missing out on that money. But Thompson says if the state accepted grants, it would be selling out its citizens to set up an exchange that Ohio voters clearly said they don’t want.

Since 2008, Ohio State University Medical Center has used an electronic system to keep up with patients’ health records. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said this kind of program is a “building block” to a reformed healthcare system.

Republicans and Democrats in both chambers are at odds over a healthcare overhaul. Sebelius remains optimistic for a bipartisan bill, but she said party loyalty runs deep.

“I was, um, dismayed to hear a prominent senator involved in these discussions suggest that even if the bill had everything he liked he was unlikely to vote for it unless more members of his party were to vote for it. I hope we get beyond that,” Sebelius said.

One major point of contention in the healthcare overhaul is a public option or a government run insurance plan. Both Sebelius and Democratic Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy favor one. They say a public option would cuts costs and create competition in the private sector. But Critic says a public plan would be costly and put private insurers out of business.

Kilroy said even if a public option were taken out of the House legislation the bill still would have many good components. But she remains non-committal.

“So would I vote for a great bill if it didn’t have one piece of it? You know, I want to make sure that we don’t lose this momentum. I want to see if we can take advantage of this point in time to make it happen,” Kilroy said.

Sebelius said the country is closer to healthcare reform than it has been in 70 years.

“We were able to successfully convince leadership to postpone any full House consideration on the floor until after the first of September,” Space said. “That’s a good thing. It gives not just members of Congress the time they need to digest this very comprehensive and very complex legislation – over a thousand pages – it also gives the American public a chance to understand it and know what we’re getting into.”

“I, along with just about every other member of, not just the Blue Dogs, but the Democratic Caucus – and I think a lot of Republicans – believe that we have to fix health care in this country; we have no choice but to deal with the problems of how it’s delivered, how it’s consumed, and almost all of us are committed to getting something done this year,” Space said. “I just think getting something done this year is a far cry from getting something done this week.”

President Barack Obama told a health care forum in North Carolina that he doesn’t expect Congress to vote on legislation until the fall, because bills aren’t even out of committees. But he said it’s “OK” that Congress missed the deadline, adding, “We don’t want to just do it quickly, we want to do it right.” Still, he signaled that he won’t be patient if negotiations continue to drag.

But critics of the plan say HSAs will not benefit the average American. Executive director of Universal Health Care Access Network of Ohio, Kathy Levine, says the president’s plan is absurd.

But Mr. Bush says HSAs will allow consumers to shop around for the best prices that fit their own needs. And he says that will force hospitals, doctors and drug companies to lower their prices.

But Levine says sick people aren’t in the market to be shopping around and negotiate prices.

Mr. Bush chose Wendy’s as his venue because the fast food chain is seriously considering the plan. We tried to speak with average Wendy’s employees in the audience, but a Wendy’s official stopped the interview, and told us to talk to Wendy’s spokesman.

Wendy’s spokesman Denny Lynch says the company did not want its employees interviewed because they were working and he says they were there to welcome the president and not speak for the company.

Organziations and agencies that serve the new arrivals say finding and receiving adequate healthcare for themselves and their families is among the most challenging change immigrants face.

Click the “listen” link to hear Dorcas Taylors two-part report.