Obama's Blogger Conference Call on Health Care

Sometimes amazing things happen. Your humble blogger was invited to be part of a blogger conference call today with Pres. Obama, David Axelrod and Nancy Ann DeParle, to talk about health care. No one would think it odd if you paused for a moment to question the rightness of this, whether the leader of the free world should take time out of his day to talk on the phone with bloggers and whether or not I should be included in the grouping.

The call started out with remarks by the President, followed by about 15 minutes of questions and answers. The President signed off but Axelrod and DeParle stayed for another half hour answering more questions. An audio recording of the call is available. Bloggers at mydd (Jonathan Singer), crooks and liars (John Amato), huffington post (Sam Stein), americablog (Joe Sudbay), and our own Pennsylvania Progressive (John Morgan), (who all asked questions) have posted their impressions. Some of those posts have links to other posts on the call.

Since others have provided audio or written rough transcript I'm going to just give some specific points from the call:

* just keep the pressure on members of Congress, There is a default position of inertia, pushing against that, the desperation that ordinary families are feeling every day. People have to feel that in a visceral way.

*confident that this can be achieved on the suggested timeline. Using the reconciliation process is not optimal, but the important thing is to pass the legislation. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good

* the House and Senate bills won't be the same and the conference committee will have difficult and lengthy work to do, but they will agree on 80% of things

* Sen DeMint has said that he just wants to delay and delay and eventually use this issue as the GOP's waterloo, to break Obama

* What you are seeing right now is really hard work on the part of the finance committee. Remain confident we can pass a bill. Give the American people a serious reform package that lowers cost increases coverage in a way that is rational and makes our health care system smarter.

* for us to have the American Medical Association, the nurse's assoc, the hospitals assoc and even pharma and large employers like Wal-Mart, I wouldn’t underestimate the importance of this in helping us get things done.

* Speaking for the Obama admin, I've committed myself consistently, if you have health insurance that you like and a doctor that you like you can keep it. I won’t sign a bill that would make it tougher for people to get health insurance. If current trends continue more and more people will lose their health care and more and more people will pay more for their health care.

* Does this cover all Americans, does it drive down costs in public and private sector, does it include quality, emphasis prevention and wellness, package of insurance reform, preexisting conditions, relief for small business, serious public option in place -- these are the items wanted

* eager to spread the word, frustrating that coverage focuses on trees and not forest. The president articulated where he is and where he’s driving, laid out the parameters that are important for him. Important for you guys to spread the word. Seen health care premiums rise much faster than wages. Saw today Michael Steele say under the Obama plan people would pay more for less, that’s what’s happening every day already.

* Over the weekend we saw Sen DeMint say the goal is to delay process to kill it “we can break him with this” there are millions of Americans breaking every single day. That’s what we are concerned about.

* Here in Washington the president always likes to say they have a scorekeeper's mentality, who’s up, who's down, like it’s a game, forcus on trees not forest. What we’re trying to stress is the other side is using a scare tactic, the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. what we have know is unsustainable. We can’t go with 10 or 12 or 14K people a day losing their health insurance. We have a health care system right now that works well for insurance companies and drug companies but not so well for individuals or small businesses being crushed by the costs. The thing you can communicate is this sense of urgency. The program that the president will ultimately sign will make the whole system work better, more transparency, really bring about reform.

* We are closer today than we have ever been to achieving comprehensive health care reform. We have some agreement on 70% of issues. We didn’t arrive on Capital Hill in January with stone tablets and ask people to swear fidelity. Nancy Ann and her team working closely with Congress from the beginning. Haven’t tried to dictate. Had we done that we would not be in the position to achieve what we are now.

* We expect the bill he signs to have a public option choice.

John Morgan brought up the issue of single payer and the effort to have that in Pennsylvania.

The president was very friendly and welcoming but clearly interested in and informed about the topic. He is hoping people will keep up the pressure on Congress to pass a bill. Axelrod and DeParle were also friendly and unassuming. It was a real pleasure to be included on the call.