It’s unclear exactly what was accomplished during today’s seven-hour televised health care summit organized by President Obama, but at least it created an opportunity for the public to hear directly from Democratic and Republican members of Congress on the topic of health care reform, clearing up some of the confusion about the various bills that have been proposed. Unfortunately, since the event was aired during the day, it’s unlikely many Americans were able to watch it.
From the get-go, Obama urged the 38 House and Senate members gathered for the meeting not to “focus on where we differ but focus on where we agree.”
And while there are many areas of agreement, Republicans and Democrats remain at odds over how to help the 30 million Americans without health care, including those who have been denied because of pre-existing conditions.
As for those areas of overlap, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree that every American should have access to health care, but just how to achieve that is a matter of debate.
Obama did a great job of explaining a new proposition outlined in his compromise health reform bill to have a health insurance “exchange” where individuals and small businesses trapped in the individual market could be grouped together so they could have access to lower-cost insurance. One of the reasons many individuals have been priced out of the market is that under the current system, they do not have the option to purchase insurance collectively at a discount the way employers do.
Unfortunately, GOP leaders such as US Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee want Obama to scrap his compromise health care plan and start over and that’s just not something the president is willing to do.
“It is absolutely critical to begin now moving on what is one of the biggest drags on the economy,” said Obama.
A huge benefit of the summit was that Democrats were able to clear up a few misconceptions directly, including the myth that the House bill supports publicly-funded abortions. That’s right: taxpayers will NOT be paying for abortions, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Another interesting factoid that Obama threw out for all of us to consider is that despite resistance to a public option (which is now off the table,) the fact remains that today, more Americans are getting health care from the government programs like Medicare than those who are privately insured. Wow. That’s stunning.
Obama had hoped that the summit would reveal that there are enough areas of overlap for Congress to put the matter to a vote, but he admitted that without some real movement, that’s unlikely to happen soon. He asked Republicans to do some “soul-searching” on what they are willing to do to make sure that the more than 30 million uninsured Americans get access to some kind of affordable health care.
Ah, there’s the rub!
Photo by jurvetson via Flickr.