The Health care Issue the U.S. Leaders have to resolve

Differences have emerged as President Barack Obama urged top Republicans and Democrats to focus on agreements at a six-hour televised healthcare summit.

He urged 40 congressional Democrats and Republicans in Washington DC to avoid political theatre, as part of a fresh bid to save his troubled reform plans.

For the first time, Mr Obama offered his own version of a healthcare plan on Monday.

But Republicans say the plan is not acceptable and a fresh start is needed.

Analysts say the contentious debate is likely to be beset by bipartisanship: even the shape of the table for the debate at Blair House, opposite the White House, has been the subject of dispute.

President Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden and other leading Democrats are facing senior Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Arizona Senator John McCain.

Mr Obama opened the debate by emphasising that everyone present understood the importance of the healthcare issue, adding that there were significant points of potential agreement between the two parties on healthcare reform.

“We all know this is urgent and unfortunately, despite all the negotiations that have taken place, it became a very ideological battle; it became a very partisan battle where politics ended up trumping common sense,” he said.

He added that he wanted to avoid the televised session becoming merely political theatre, hoping that those involved would work together to try to solve the problem.

“If we keep an open mind and are not trying to score political points then we may be able to make some progress,” he said.

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander responded by saying that in order for Mr Obama to succeed on healthcare, he should scrap the health care bill that Senate Democrats passed in December, and start afresh with a clean sheet of paper.

“If we can start over, we can write a healthcare bill,” he said. “It means working together… reducing healthcare costs… and going step-by-step to regain the trust of the American people.”

Republican Senator Jon Kyl went on to argue that Democratic efforts to overhaul the current system would give Washington too much control over healthcare.

“There are some fundamental differences between us here that we cannot paper over,” said Mr Kyl. “We do not agree about the fundamental question about who should be mostly in charge.