Following the bipartisan meeting on health care reform last week (See DM 11814), President Obama continued his drive to popularize support for health care reform issues. The president compiled input from the House and Senate bills and last week's summit to arrive at his own health reform package (see DM 11874).

In his weekly address, the president stated, "On Thursday, we brought both parties together for a frank and productive discussion about this issue. In that discussion, we heard many areas of agreement...And I heard some ideas from our Republican friends that I believe are very worthy of consideration."

Obama then pointed out where the two parties had differences in approaches to health care reform, including on accountability of insurance companies when denying people care or arbitrarily raising premiums, giving tax credits to small businesses and how to enable those with pre-existing conditions to obtain coverage. Obama is in favor of accountability, tax credits and ensuring pre-existing conditions coverage. He said that some disagreements may be able to be resolved, some may not, and the final bill as a compromise will not please everyone.

The President did not stop his efforts with his weekly address. On Tuesday, he also sent an open follow-up letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and Republican leaders Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Representative John Boehner (R-OH).

"I'm very pleased that our meeting at Blair House offered the American people and their elected representatives a rare opportunity to explore different health reform proposals in extraordinary depth," the President stated. He then said that the meeting moved beyond "the usual rhetoric and sound-bites that have come to characterize this debate," and was able to identify areas of agreement and disagreement. "I also left convinced that the Republican and Democratic approaches to health care have more in common than most people think."

The President discussed more issues the parties have in agreement: reforming insurance markets, increasing purchasing powers for small businesses and individuals, eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, and lowering health care costs. He then pointed out a fundamental disagreement: what role oversight of the health insurance industry should play in reform, saying, "I don't believe we can afford to leave life-and-death decisions about health care for America's families to the discretion of insurance company executives alone."

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