Under the banner of consensus and cooperation, President Barack Obama on Thursday brought industry leaders, lawmakers, doctors and consumer groups to the White House for a health-care forum to build momentum for his effort to reduce costs and expand insurance coverage.
But the largely symbolic event also showcased the political maneuvering — and potential conflicts — that are intensifying as Obama moves forward on reform.
Liberal activists stepped up their campaign against the insurance industry, which many of them blame for scuttling the Clinton administration’s efforts to reshape the health-care system in the 1990s.
Several Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, pointedly cautioned the president about reaching too far to expand government’s role in health care.
Obama used the forum to warn potential foes who might seek to derail his reform effort.
“Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything that we want, and that no proposal for reform will be perfect,” the president said as he welcomed more than 150 participants.
“Everybody has a right to take part in this discussion. Nobody has the right to take it over,” he said. “The status quo is the only option that is not on the table. And those who seek to block any reform at any cost will not prevail this time around.”
Obama, who last week unveiled a budget that would set aside $634 billion for health-care reform, has said he wants to tackle the issue this year, building on campaign promises to move toward universal coverage as well as improve quality and lower skyrocketing costs.
The president Thursday stressed the progress being made, citing “a clear consensus that the need for health-care reform is here and now.” Many lawmakers and industry leaders echoed Obama’s comments.
“We understand we have to earn a seat at the table,” said Karen Ignagni, head of America’s Health Insurance Plans, one of the industry’s leading lobbying groups. “You have our commitment to play, to contribute and to pass health-care reform this year.”
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Donahue talked of “a new day” for reform.
But amid the optimistic words, new evidence emerged of the ideological differences and competing interests that threaten efforts toward reform.
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Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the senior GOP member of the Senate Finance Committee, pleaded with the president to think hard about creating a new government insurance program to cover some of the more than 47 million people in America without coverage.
“There’s a lot of us that feel that the public option is an unfair competitor,” Grassley told Obama.
Many insurance companies are worried that a new government insurance program like Medicare or Medicaid would drive them out of business, while some providers worry about lower payments from the government.
Others at the forum took aim at doctors, accusing them of standing in the way of efforts to save money by empowering nurses and physicians’ assistants to handle more care.
“The doctor lobby is very, very restrictive over what nurses can do,” said Teamsters leader James Hoffa.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), a longtime champion of overhauling the health-care system, raised the controversial prospect of new limits on the care that American can get.
“We can’t all have everything we want when we want it,” he said.
Even before the forum began, a coalition of groups brought to the White House more than 300,000 petitions gathered by MoveOn.org, an organization that helped elect Obama.
“Don’t let the insurance lobbyists delay health care any longer. In this economic crisis, we can’t afford NOT to pass quality, affordable health care for all this year,” the petition read.
But America’s Health Insurance Plans spokesman Robert Zirkelbach said his group is working for reform. “We are not advocating for the status quo,” he said.
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Kennedy at care summit: Ailing senator returns for issue dear to him: chicagotribune.com/healthsummit