Obama Seeks GOP Input In Health Reform
President Obama said his administration will make another attempt at revamping the nation’s health care system as early as this month and that Republican ideas will be welcome from the start of the process.
In an interview Sunday with CBS’ Katie Couric that aired before the Super Bowl, Obama said he intends to have a series of meetings on health care at the White House in February with Republicans and Democrats so they can “put their ideas on the table.”
Health care was the top domestic issue of Obama’s first year, but his legislation collapsed in Congress after Democrats lost a special election last month in Massachusetts. The victory gave Senate Republicans the 41 votes needed to block bills.
Obama acknowledged that legislative dealmaking troubled many Americans, but he said rising health insurance premiums would still force action.
“It’s going to be a huge drain on the economy,” he said. “We’re going to have to do something about it.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement that he looks forward to working with the White House. McConnell said Democrats should drop an earlier plan to cut half a trillion dollars from Medicare to expand coverage for the uninsured. “The American people want lower costs, not Medicare cuts and tax increases,” McConnell said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other Democratic lawmakers have shifted their focus to a jobs bill that Reid said could be finished this month. Obama said, “We are seeing the corner turned on the economy,” but “there’s still some things we can do.”
Obama also said he had not ruled out trying alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City, but he acknowledged opposition from city officials and business leaders to the idea. “If you’ve got a city that is saying ‘no,’ and a police department that’s saying ‘no,’ and a mayor that’s saying ‘no,’ that makes it difficult.”
Source: http://www.insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=158844&type=topnews