US President Obama urges bipartisan cooperation on health care reform plan to House Republicans

In remarks at the House Republican Issues Conference on January 29, US President Barack Obama praised the Bipartisan Policy Center's (BPC) plan for reforming health care, entitled: "Crossing Our Lines: Working Together to Reform the US Health System," as a bipartisan health care proposal that is worthy of consideration by both Republicans and Democrats.

According to President Obama, the plan, which was developed by former US Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle and Bob Dole, members of the BPC's Advisory Board and Leaders' Project on the State of American Health Care, is "pretty similar" to the legislation currently being considered by Congress. The President urged bipartisan cooperation in reforming the US health care system and said, "We've got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality."

The comments come after the President's State of the Union message last week when, following a setback to is hopes for health care reform due to a defeat in a Senate election in Massachusetts, he refocused his priorities on employment (The Pharma Letters passim).