President Obama's televised health summit at the Blair House yesterday ended in much the same way it began. While the President hoped to reach an agreement on how to move forward on health care reform, the bipartisan group of Members of Congress found little common ground during the summit with Republicans refusing to support legislation based on recent Democratic proposals and Democrats threatening to move forward without them.
 
The White House released Monday a summary of the President's proposal for health reform which the President used as the starting place for yesterday's conversation.  During the summit, Republican leaders continued to voice discontent with the approach the President has taken in unveiling a proposal that is based in large part on a proposal that passed the Senate along party lines. Republican leaders stated their opposition to a government-mandated minimum benefits package.  Starting the legislative process over could compromise the important oral health provisions included in the House and Senate bills.

While the Presiden'ts proposal was merely a summary, it faces challenges due to a substatial increase in funding for subsidies for Americans to purchase health insurance as well as an advisory body to regulate any increase in premiums by the insurance industry.  While there was no specific mention of benefits related to dental, the proposal did make clear that dental and vision benefits would be excluded from the excise tax on high-cost insurance plans. The White House estimates that the President's proposal would cost $950 billion over 10 years though the Congressional Budget Office has yet to evaluate the plan. To view the full summary click here.

The outlook for Congressional action remains unclear but the President stated that if significant bipartisan progress is not made Democrats will move forward on their own, suggesting that he is willing to use the controversial budget reconciliation process with a simple majority vote.

Signaling that bipartisanship is not dead, despite the stalled progress on health reform for the time being, the Senate passed a $15 billion jobs bill Monday with the support of five Republicans including newly elected Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts.  The bill includes a three month extension of the current COBRA premium subsidy as well as a long awaited fix to the physician fee schedule.  Absent comprehensive health care reform, it is likely that the Congress will continue to fold discrete health care reform measures into other legislative vehicles.