Republicans Laud Obama's Healthcare Summit But Warn Of 'Bureaucratic Takeover'

March 6, 2009 5:48 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Republicans on Thursday indicted a willingness to work with President Barack Obama after a White House health summit, but also reiterated their opposition to "a bureaucratic takeover" of the nation's healthcare system.

Following last month's "fiscal responsibility" summit, about 120 attendees gathered at the White House, including Blue Cross Blue Shield Association CEO Scott Serota, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa, U.S. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Tom Donahue and National Association of Manufacturers president and CEO John Engler, to discuss ideas on how to bring down costs and expand coverage for the nearly 46 million Americans who are uninsured.

In a statement after the summit, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, "Health care reform should not be a partisan issue, and I am encouraged by the bipartisan talks which took place today. Republicans stand ready to help lower costs and get better value for every dollar spent on health care, but are equally committed to stopping the creation of additional unfunded liabilities which threaten the long-term sustainability of any health care reform."

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), who injected "a dose of reality'' into the summit by focusing on costs, said in a statement, "The devil is always in the details and we hope that the path to achieving this goal does not start and end in the basement of Health and Human Services or some new government agency."

"Republicans will build on what works in the current system and make it better. America has the best doctors, nurses and hospitals in the world, and we will fight to preserve the relationship between these medical professionals and institutions and that single mother. We stand ready to work with President Obama to implement workable solutions that achieve these goals," he added.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who did not attend the summit, "welcome[d] the dialogue" but repeated his criticism of Obama's 2010 budget,s saying, "Taxpayers cannot afford to subsidize a bureaucratic takeover of health care with a massive tax hike on all Americans, particularly in these troubled economic times."

According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the President's 2010 budget, which was released last week, includes a reserve fund of over $630 billion during 10 years to help finance health reform. Revenues will come from a reduction of tax cuts for high income-earners and spending cuts in Medicare and other health programs.

Other Republicans in the summit were Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the ranking minority member of the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance panel, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA),the ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee.

The task of overhauling the nation's increasingly problematic healthcare system has resisted an reform efforts in previous administrations, most notably during the term of former President Bill Clinton, who had authored an ambitious healthcare plan in 1993 that ended in political disaster.

During the summit,Obama called healthcare reform a moral imperative and a fiscal imperative.

"If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy and get our federal budget under control, then we have to address the crushing cost of health care this year, in this administration," the President said.

"Everyone has a right to take part in this discussion, nobody has the right to take it over and dominate. The status quo is the one option that's not on the table, and those who seek to block any reform at all -- any reform at any costs will not prevail this time around," he added.

Obama had signed into law a bill expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in January as one of his first pieces of legislation. The measure expands coverage from 6.7 million children to 4 million more children at the cost about $33 billion over the next 4 1/2 years. Republicans had opposed the bill over concerns about loopholes, including adults and illegal immigrants benefiting from the program.