While comprehensive health care reform was set back with the Massachusetts election, its’ proponents have succeeded in resisting its total demise thanks to President Obama’s recent bipartisanship health care reform summit invitation.

The Jan. 19 Massachusetts special election of Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) brought health care reform to a standstill. Democrats lost a filibuster-proof 60 vote margin in the Senate, and a broader sense of disapproval caused Democrat and administration leadership to reconsider their strategy. Health care reform’s proponents have scrambled since, unable to get traction within the Democratic caucus on consensus to move the House and Senate-passed versions of broad health care reform.

Sensing the delicate state and potential failure of reform absent a high-profile intervention, President Obama announced Feb. 7 his intent to hold a half-day, televised health care reform summit at the historic Blair House on Feb. 25 to find bipartisan ground to “finish the job” on health care reform.  

While House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius subsequently sent a letter to bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate to encourage their participation. Emanuel and Sebelius noted in the letter: "Since this meeting will be most productive if information is widely available before the meeting, we will post online the text of a proposed health insurance reform package.”

It is unclear at this point whether the administrations proposed health insurance reform package will be prescriptive, or if it will merely suggest policy preferences from the House and Senate-passed health care reform proposals. The president is expected to moderate discussions on insurance reform, containing health-care costs, expanding insurance coverage and the impact on the deficit of measures to overhaul the health-care system. However, there is no indication of a potential breakthrough on the fundamental differences emblematic of the partisan House and Senate-passed bills. 

In fact, in a Feb. 8 letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) outlined Republicans’ concerns about the summit in a series of questions. Many pundits have observed that the event will likely entail more posturing and political theater than policy substance discussions that are intended to solve small business health care woes. 

While Republican’s have made clear their skepticism of the summit, they have not shied from offering their ideas for comprehensive health care reform. Besides the GOP outline for healthcare reform presented to President Obama at the Republican policy retreat in Baltimore, Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Judd Gregg’s (R-N.H.) Coverage, Prevention, Reform (CPR) proposal, and House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) Roadmap for America’s Future, have been cited as Republican alternatives.

The announcement of the health summit comes on the heels of recent reports of 39 percent health insurance premium increases to individual policies offered by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in California, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report on the rising cost of health care.  Both reports have reenergized health care reform proponents to pass the House and Senate versions of health care reform. 

NSBA could not agree more with the urgency for reform – the affordability problems facing small business have not gone away by simply debating the issue for a year. While health care costs provided the original motivation to reform the health care system over a year ago, it has not been prioritized in the final House and Senate-passed proposals.

As President Obama and congressional proponents attempt to resuscitate health care reform, NSBA remains fully committed to passing comprehensive health care that embraces a centrist, cost-first approach. Health care reform must lower cost first, improve quality, and ensure all Americans coverage. Small businesses are relying on Congress and the administration to not walk away, but work toward passage of sensible reforms to the nation’s ailing health care system.