Sunday before the Superbowl in an interview with Katie Couric, President Obama revealed that on Feb. 25 he will assemble a public meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders to reach a bipartisan consensus on the healthcare reform bill. PriceDoc COO Patrick Bradley, Ph.D., says, “I like it because one, we will get input from both sides….and, the public gets to hear it. You would think for 1/6 of the nation’s economy, you would let the public hear the debate. Now, we may get reform that help American consumers and lowers cost.”
According to California Healthline, “A White House official familiar with the planning of the half-day meeting said the meeting is intended to draw more Republican input into the legislation,” however, Obama has made it clear that he doesn’t plan on starting over on reform. California Healthline reports that Obama told Couric that he wants to “look at the Republican ideas that are out there,” and said, “if we can go, step by step, through a series of these issues and arrive at some agreements, then, procedurally, there’s no reason why we can’t do it a lot faster [than] the process took last year.”
According to White House aides, the House and Senate will still play a fundamental role in the legislation, and Obama will arrive to the meeting with a merged version of the two bills, “which Democrats in both chambers passed last year with very limited [support] from Republicans,” reports California Healthline. Republican leaders are accepting of Obama’s meeting proposal; however, they do want Obama to start over on reform.
Do you like the idea of the meeting being televised?
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