President Promises Health Care Meeting With Republicans To “Move It Forward”

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President Obama told CBS News and Katie Couric in a pre-Super Bowl interview on Sunday that he has not abandoned health care reform and will attempt to kick-start talks in the coming weeks by holding bipartisan meetings to discuss negotiations over legislation.

The president said he will hold health care talks with congressional Republicans as soon as next week before hosting a “large meeting” with members of both parties to go “step by step through a series of these issue” and find common ground on which to craft a health care bill.

As part of the renewed effort to pass reform, Obama noted that a massive insurance premium increase announced by a California insurer was a “portrait of the future” unless health care costs are addressed by Congress.  It is a talking point seen by the White House as effective in laying out to average Americans the stakes that are at play for them  if the president’s health agenda is blocked. They couldn’t convince voters that health care mattered to them last year; can they do it in 2010?

Regarding healthcare, Mr. Obama said that he is consulting with Democratic leaders and wants to do the same with Republicans, who will be at the White House next week.

“I want to ask them to put their ideas on the table, and then after the recess, which will be a few weeks away, I want to come back and have a large meeting, the Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward,” he said.

Mr. Obama said one reason healthcare reform cannot be abandoned is that a major insurer in California, Anthem Blue Cross, just announced they are increasing their premiums for customers who buy coverage individually and are not covered by a group policy by 39 percent. “That’s a portrait of the future if we don’t do something now,” he said. “It’s going to keep on beating down families, small businesses, large businesses; it’s going to be a huge drain on the economy. We’re going to have to do something about it, and I think we can.”

“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,” he added. 

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“My job is to make sure that we stay focused on that larger vision of how do we lower costs for Americans over the long-term.” 

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