In preparation for President Obama’s bipartisan, bicameral health summit Feb. 25 at the historic Blair House, NSBA urged summit invitees not to walk away from health care reform, but to refocus their efforts toward a centrist, health care cost-first approach.

The President’s half-day, televised summit is intended to find bipartisan support to finish health care reform, and has gained tremendous coverage in recent days with the newly released administration proposal.

The timing and strategy of the President’s attempt to breathe life back into health care reform has puzzled some Democrats and baffled conservatives. The upshot of the Massachusetts election had many Democrats urging for a partisan budget reconciliation strategy to pass reform, while Republicans are forced to weigh the political and policy incentives of engaging congressional Democrats and the administration on Feb. 25 and beyond.

Despite the motivation and urging from small businesses to pass meaningful and appropriate comprehensive health care reform, Congress lost their way in the later half of 2009 and early 2010. The original impetus of bending the health care cost curve was all-but ignored, and lawmakers began to ignore the well-documented criticisms from the small business community to make changes to the proposals being considered.

Since political motivations from both sides of the aisle can clash with the need for substantive reform of the health care system, NSBA recently sent a letter encouraging lawmakers to reassess their priorities to find common ground on tackling skyrocketing health care cost. After a year of health care reform deliberations, small business problems with the health care system have not been resolved.

In light of the recent congressional focus on jobs legislation, the letter in part points to the impact the health system is having on small business job creation. According to the NSBA 2009 Year-End Economic Report, one in every five small-business owners had to reduce their workforce in order to deal with rising health insurance costs.

 NSBA’s letter also notes that at the very least, Democrats and Republicans ought to be able to agree on some widely-supported health care cost-containment items, such as Medicare reforms that enhance value-based purchasing initiatives, incentivize care coordination, reduce medical errors and avoidable readmissions, and expedite innovative payment methodologies tested in pilots and demonstrations; prompt implementation of health information technology and electronic medical records;  robust comparative effectiveness research that identifies best practices and improved efficiencies in the health system; and, addressing medical malpractice.

Stay tuned to the NSBA Web site or the NSBA Health Reform Today Web site for additional information on health care reform.

Click here to view NSBA’s letter to health summit invitees.