    Hopes are high but expectations are low for the upcoming bipartisan health care summit called by President Obama. How are Republicans approaching this meeting?
         President Obama has scheduled a bipartisan meeting on health care for February 25 that will be broadcast live on C-SPAN. Here is the President's invitation, as well as the invitation list.  Here is an article by Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times concerning the announcement of the summit.
     In this post in California Healthline describes concerns that Republican leaders have expressed regarding the summit:
On Monday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel with a list of questions that they requested responses to ahead of the meeting (Shear, Washington Post, 2/9).The letter asked whether Obama:
Would agree to "start over" with the negotiations process that would produce legislation "that is truly worthy of the support and confidence of the American people;"
Has ended consideration of using the parliamentary procedure of budget reconciliation to push a reform bill through the Senate with only 51 votes;
Plans to invite to the meeting Democratic lawmakers who have opposed the House and Senate bills (HR 3962, HR 3590), or any provisions in them; and
Whether state lawmakers and health officials, and health care policy experts would be present at the meeting (O'Connor, "Live Pulse," Politico, 2/8).
    At a press briefing after his recent meeting with Republicans at their retreat, President Obama reiterated the three goals that he wishes to accomplish with health care reform: reduce costs, end insurance company abuses, and expand the availability of insurance in individual market. When asked to respond to the Republican request to discard the two Democratic bills passed by the House and the Senate and "start from scratch," the President said:
So I've got these goals. Now, we have a package, as we work through the differences between the House and the Senate, and we'll put it up on a Web site for all to see over a long period of time, that meets those criteria, meets those goals. But when I was in Baltimore talking to the House Republicans, they indicated, we can accomplish some of these goals at no cost. And I said, great, let me see it. And I have no interest in doing something that's more expensive and harder to accomplish if somebody else has an easier way to do it. So I'm going to be starting from scratch in the sense that I will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals.
    Kate Pickert of Time authored this entertaining piece about the President having accepted the Republican challenge to televise the summit. According to an article by Sam Stein of the Huffington Post, John Kyl of Arizona has characterized the summit as "pointless."  In separate opinion pieces published in Politico, Frank Dontelli, Chairman of GOPAC, calls for adoption of the House Republican plan, but Christie Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey and Director of the EPA under President George W. Bush, expresses more willingness to compromise with the President.
    Of all of the statements from Republicans in advance of the summit, the most intriguing may be that of Judd Gregg, Senator from New Hamshire. David Rogers of Politico posted this article entitled "Can Judd Gregg Help White House Save Health Bill," and Chris Mathews of Harball conducted an interview in which Gregg said:
[I]t is in the interest of the Republican Party to put in place a plan that will bring down the cost of health care and make it readily more available and make our quality better in the this country, so that we can afford it. I mean, we are on a path here to fiscal insolvency as a nation and a large part of the problem that we have relative to our finances as a country is driven by the cost of health care, especially in the Medicare accounts. So, you canât address those unless you address them in a bipartisan way, in my opinion and as a very practical matter, we donât solve this, we are all going to be in the soup and weâre going to end up passing onto our kids a country where their standard of living is less than ours.Â
     Tomorrow: Gregg's plan.Â
Visit Professor Huhn's website on health care financing reform for links to information about proposed legislation, studies and reports, public agencies, and private organizations concerned with this issue.
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If the Republicans continue to insist that the existing versions of the bills be completely discarded before talks can proceed, the Summit may as well be canceled now. Since both sides are afraid of losing face if they blink first on this point, the President may have the obligation to offer a conciliatory first step by saying: "IF we were to consider a new beginning on the subject of healthcare reform, what would be your ideas to solve problems A, B, C, and D?"
Unfortunately, a televised meeting will undoubtedly become a stage for grandstanding instead of boring negotiations. That's a shame because this forum may make or break the credibility of either or both sides in the eyes of the American voters. I, for one, will be watching to see who wants to reach a solution and who wants to just make the other side look bad.
Some how you think the republicans won the election. Prices of health insurance is going up while peoples salaries are not – we need health care reform soon or many more people will not be able to afford it. The republicans have no real solutions so far and none to help the uninsured. Tort reform sounds nice but only is a small drop of savings which really goes to the doctors not us. The republican so far did what they could to just block any legislation from passing. They are not a party as claimed for the people they are protecting the pocket books of the rich and the insurance companies. We need health care reform and many of us voted for it when we voted for Obama .
The American people do not want this bill passed. There are a number of polls that show this.
The Republicans would be crazy to align themselves with this pre-rejected monstrosity. If they will not dump this in its entirety, Republicans should not attend this meeting.
It appears that the Democrats do not want Republican input on this bill, they just want company underneath the bus.
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