White House hints at new health bill as GOP sees possible upside in summit

White House officials "hinted on Tuesday that President Obama might post his own [health care] bill on the Internet before the bipartisan health care summit he is planning" next week, The New York Times reports. "In the nearly a year since Congress began debating a health care overhaul, Mr. Obama has yet to make his own priorities explicit. He said at the outset that he would set broad parameters for the measure and leave the details to lawmakers." Obama said last week that hoped to post to the Internet a merged bill that would address costs and expand coverage. "But Mr. Obama may be running out of time. His press secretary, Robert Gibbs, was asked Monday if the president would simply post his own bill if the House and the Senate cannot come to terms. 'Stay tuned,' Mr. Gibbs said" (Stolberg, 2/16).

Politico: "White House officials have said the president expects a unified House and Senate bill by the Feb. 25 summit. But given the lack of tangible progress on Capitol Hill during the past two weeks, it is hard to see how the president will walk into the summit with a bill that's been agreed to by both chambers" (Budoff Brown, 2/16).

Reuters: According to Gibbs, "'The president will lay out his ideas, and I would expect that Republicans will, and others will, lay out their solutions,' he said." Although Gibbs did not offer a specific timeline for its release, he did make assurances that the measure would be made public "far enough before the meeting to allow it to be reviewed. 'I don't have the exact day yet. But it will be in — in time for — for you and for others around the country to evaluate a plan,' he said" (Zengerle, 2/16).

CNN: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that Obama plans to use the already-passed bills as a starting point for the summit next week. "But Sebelius, in an interview with CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, said the House and Senate bills already incorporate many GOP ideas." Among the specific examples she cited were "provisions to create special pools to make it easier for people with pre-existing illness to purchase insurance, the offering of low-cost insurance plans for young and healthy people, and regulations letting people purchase insurance across state lines —a version of which is included in the Senate bill." The president's plan will not likely include a public option, she said (2/16).

The Associated Press: After some early questions about the health summit, the GOP is now seeing its possible political upside. Although Democrats are likely to focus on expanding affordable health insurance to more people — they offer to cover 30 more million people instead of Republicans who are offering 3 million more covered — Republicans hope that "during a time of ballooning deficits … reining in rising medical costs — not coverage — could resonate with voters in an election year. ... With the summit more than a week away and lawmakers out of town for the Presidents Day recess, Republicans are in the early stages of planning their strategy for the event. … One potential hitch for Republicans is that there is not a single GOP plan" (Werner, 2/17).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.