Discord lurks beneath health summit

President Obama sounded all the right notes Wednesday as he hosted 120 lawmakers, interest group executives and experts at a summit on comprehensive healthcare reform.

Obama touted the meeting as an open-door, open-ears event to bring all sides to the table, and other participants sounded the right notes on cooperation and common purpose. Obaama said the plan was to reduce the costs of healthcare, improve its quality and get all Americans covered.

But amid those notes were faint hints of the discord to come as Republicans made clear they were willing to talk — but not willing to roll over.

Less than two hours before the summit, Rep. Joe Barton (Texas), the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, issued a statement that said, in part, “Not all of the Democrats’ ideas are objectionable. Just nearly all.”

During a breakout session, Barton also bragged about helping to stop President Bill Clinton and then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health reform plan. “I don’t see what happened in the ’90s as a failure,” Barton said. “I’m one of the ones who worked really hard to kill Hillarycare.”

Obama is attempting to slay a political dragon that has bested many presidents before him, dating back — as Obama said — to Theodore Roosevelt. If he is going to succeed, his rhetoric about working together with Democrats, Republicans, employers, labor unions and healthcare interests will have to become reality.

“I know people are afraid we’ll draw the same old lines in the sand and give in to the same entrenched interests and arrive back at the same stalemate that we’ve been stuck in for decades,” he said in opening the summit.

“But I am here today, and I believe you are here today, because this time is different. This time, the call for reform is coming from the bottom up and from all across the spectrum,” Obama said. “This time, there is no debate about whether all Americans should have quality, affordable healthcare — the only question is, how?”

Obama opened the event with a speech, then closed it by spending more than 45 minutes taking questions and comments from lawmakers and other participants.

During that closing session and in the breakouts, participants praised Obama for hosting them, but some of the discussions offered a glimpse of where the cooperation could break down.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a skilled legislator and unabashed partisan, said Obama’s approach “leads all of us to recognize we have to work together. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) declared that Obama “created a group of missionaries” for health reform by hosting the summit.

The health insurance industry, long seen as a villain by Democrats for its role in scuttling past reform attempts, employed a different approach Thursday. “We understand we have to earn a seat at the table,” said Karen Ignagni, the president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group. “We hear the American people about what’s not working.”

“Both sides have good ideas, and I am confident we can make progress towards ensuring all Americans have access to quality, affordable healthcare if we continue to work together,” Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said in a statement.

Barton injected some skepticism into the proceedings, pointing up the hard work facing Obama and his allies as they work to advance their health reform agenda.

“You’re not going to change the stakeholder interests overnight,” Barton said.

Barton’s interests, he said, were in the role House Republicans would be able to play. “I want to compliment the president on this process. If this is real, it’s great,” Barton said. “If this is a real process and we’re listened to, then folks like me are going to participate.”

The summit itself may have been more symbolic than practical, as the administration’s real work of devising its healthcare plan will take place in the president’s inner sanctum and it will be Congress that ultimately writes the legislation.

Moreover, Obama campaigned on a healthcare platform that would significantly increase federal spending on regulation of healthcare.

But by bringing together a wide array of interested parties at the launch of his political campaign on healthcare, Obama is hoping to establish himself in the public’s eyes as open-minded.

“I just want to make sure that I don’t get in the way,” Obama told the assembled participants. “I’ve got some strong ideas,” he said, “but we don’t have a monopoly on good ideas.”

Obama also is motivated by a desire to avoid some of the strategic errors health reformers believe President Clinton made in the 1990s, when Republicans, healthcare groups and even Democratic lawmakers felt shut out.

The administration’s stated goal of making its decisionmaking process open and transparent to the public was on view Thursday as the White House offered live webcasts of Obama’s speech, the breakout sessions and his back-and-forth with summit participants. The White House also will issue a report based on the discussions, Obama said.

Obama also seeks to capitalize on the bridge-building congressional Democrats have been engaged in with powerful interest groups. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) reiterated Thursday that he wants to move a bill through his panel in June.

Baucus and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) — though ailing with brain cancer — have been staging regular meetings with interest groups to shore up support for their health reform agendas.

Kennedy made a personal appearance alongside the president at the end of the summit, to a roar of applause from the audience. “It is thrilling to see you here, Teddy,” Obama said.

“Now is the time for action,” Kennedy said. “I’m looking forward to being a foot soldier in this undertaking.”