Obama's Letter to the Congressional Leaders on Health Insurance Reform

In his letter to the Congressional Leaders on Health Insurance Reform March 2nd, he mentioned the Bipartisan Health Care Reform Summit. He stated that in the summit, he was glad that the opposing sides were able to show their difference, and share some common goals. He also has become convinced "that the Republican and Democratic approaches to health care have more in common than most people think."

Obama then listed some examples where the Democrats and Republicans agreed. The three main ideas that the two party's agreed on was

“the need to reform our insurance markets. We agree on the idea of allowing small businesses and individuals who lack insurance to join together to increase their purchasing power so they can enjoy greater choices and lower prices. And we agree on the dire need to wring out waste, fraud and abuse and get control of skyrocketing health care costs.”

Obama also listed some of the areas of disagreement between the Democrats and Republicans. These disagreements include "what role the oversight of the health insurance industry should play in reform". And Obama adds his opinion by stating that

“I believe we must insist on some common-sense rules of the road to hold insurance companies accountable for the decisions they make to raise premiums and deny coverage. 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.”

Obama, in his letter to the Congressional Leaders on Health Insurance Reform, also goes to write the "four policy priorities identified by Republican Members at the meeting that [he is] exploring"