Groups find common ground on health care overhaul

WASHINGTON — Groups often at odds over health care reform — consumers, insurers, doctors, employers — reached a broad agreement Friday that could serve as a starting point for lawmakers trying to overhaul the system.

Although the long-awaited report of the Health Reform Dialogue avoided some of the most contentious issues, the agreement does have the kind of far-reaching support lawmakers will need to meet their goal of passing legislation this year.

"You can bet I'll be working closely with these groups," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who is trying to find consensus on Capitol Hill.

In their report, the groups said the uninsured should be covered through a mix of expanded government programs and subsidies to purchase private health coverage. They called for savings from making the health care system less wasteful and urged that prevention become the foundation for medical care. Many of their ideas are shared by President Barack Obama and influential lawmakers such as Baucus.

But the five-page proposal was thin on details, starting with how to pay for the plan. And the groups avoided such divisive issues as whether insurers should be forced to compete with a new government-sponsored insurance plan, as Obama has proposed.

Critics minimized the result. "They've moved the health care debate forward a few inches," said Richard Kirsch, director of Health Care for America Now, a grassroots campaign backed by labor.

The 18 groups met for six months. Along the way, two major unions pulled away, but other groups representing seniors, businesses, nurses, drug makers and patients kept talking.

"What the agreement tries to do is achieve a balance for coverage expansion through the two key pillars of health care today," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a liberal advocacy group that stayed in the talks. "One is employer-sponsored private coverage and the other is safety-net coverage."

Other participants included the National Federation of Independent Business and the health insurance industry, who were instrumental in sinking the last attempt at a health care overhaul in the 1990s. Also in the talks were staunch supporters of guaranteed coverage for all, such as AARP and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.