Bipartisan Health Care Summit Marks Start of Final Push

Health care may be decided by the time Congress breaks for Easter if the Democrats on Capitol Hill and the Obama Administration can meet their goal. The changes to health care loom ominously over a party already facing a daunting reelection season this fall. To press their Republican counterparts, a bipartisan health care summit was held on Feb. 25 at the Blair House near the White House grounds.

Comedy Central host Jon Stewart skewered pundits for declaring the talk political theater, but his sound-bite synopsis revealed that the six-hour summit contained little truly “bipartisan” efforts from either side.

While the two parties have found themselves in an ideological stalemate, the American people are issuing similarly confusing signals. The Pew Research Center’s February polling reveals that while 50 percent of Americans oppose the current legislation, only 26 percent want no changes made to health care.

Malinda Frevert, a Nebraska Wesleyan University Student working with CNN’s Capitol Hill Unit, has been closely observing the proceedings. “Health care is priority number one for this administration,” she remarked. “There seems to be a general feeling of support about having access to health care. I think people are just frustrated with the process. It was supposed to be done by now – first in summer, then Christmas and now hopes are hinged on the end of the month.”

Democrats are not likely to support starting over, like Republican spokesmen have enjoined time and time again. Democrats instead hope to use reconciliation to pass the bill after including four major Republican provisions to help boost more GOP support for the deal.

Passage of the bill is seriously in question even in the House of Representatives, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership has in the past easily cleared contested legislation. If the sweeping bill does not pass, expect Democratic leadership to reevaluate its strategy by presenting smaller bills that would tackle (among other things) premiums and discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.