Coverage of yesterday's White House summit on healthcare reform (including the lead stories on all three networks) tends to highlight partisan sniping and broad policy disagreements. Ultimately, most analysts agree that yesterday's failure to reach a bipartisan deal sets the stage for Democrats to enact their bill through the tactic known as "reconciliation." The AP's Ron Fournier (2/26), for example, says that "from its conception, Thursday's healthcare 'summit' was destined to be little more than a stage where Democrats and Republicans would recite their lines and further their political agendas." Thus Obama's was "to cast the Republicans as obstructionists," because he "hopes to ram his proposal past a GOP filibuster." And by "that narrow and cynical scale, the summit was a success." Along similar lines, on the CBS Evening News (2/25, story 3, 1:00, Couric), reporter Chip Reid was asked whether Obama accomplished "what he needed to do" at the summit. Reid said, "He really did. ... What he really wanted to do was convince the American people...and, wavering Democrats in Congress, that the Republicans are the party of no," and that "he now has no choice but to move ahead with Democrats alone."

 

        Typical of much of the print coverage is the report in today's Los Angeles Times (2/26, Levey, Hook), which describes the situation thus, "Facing unbending Republican opposition to a healthcare overhaul...Obama confronted a stark reality Thursday as his televised summit ended: If he and his Democratic allies in Congress want to reshape the nation's healthcare system, they will have to do it by themselves."

 

        Likewise, describing the session as "sometimes testy," McClatchy (2/26, Thomma, Lightman) reports, "With Republicans apparently unmoved by a day-long faceoff on live TV...Obama and Democrats in Congress now face the test of whether they can overhaul the nation's healthcare system by themselves."

 

        The AP (2/26, Babington) also refers to an "often-testy...debate" which cemented "the widely held view that a meaningful bipartisan healthcare bill is not possible as time grows short in this election year," and the New York Times (2/26, Stolberg, Pear) reports, "By day's end, it seemed clear that the all-day televised session might even have pushed the parties even farther apart," and "Democrats were talking openly about pushing it through Congress on a simple majority vote using a controversial parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation." The summit, says USA Today (2/26, Page), was "less conversation than illustration: A stark depiction of a gulf between the Democrats and Republicans."

 

        Politico (2/26, Allen) cites "a Democratic official" who said before the summit that it was "expected to 'give a face to gridlock,'" and NBC Nightly News (2/25, lead story, 3:25, Guthrie) said that with "no major breakthroughs, the President hinted at the close of the session he's looking to Democrats now to go forward -- and the voters will have the final verdict on what they do." The CBS Evening News (2/25, lead story, 3:15, Couric) reported that the summit "was less negotiating than speech-making," and also noted that at its end, the President "strongly" suggested "Democrats are ready to go it alone." The decision to move with Democratic support alone, says the Washington Post (2/26, A1, Murray, Kornblut), was Obama's "clear message" yesterday. The Post adds that "Republicans often used reconciliation in recent years when they controlled the Senate, but GOP leaders now cite the procedure as evidence that Democrats are prepared to manipulate Senate rules to muscle their bill through despite public opinion." AFP (2/26, Collinson), the Wall Street Journal, The Hill  and Bloomberg News (2/26, Jensen, Dodge, Runningen) also cover the summit.

 

The Los Angeles Times (2/26, Helfand, Lifsher) reports that California state Attorney General Jerry Brown's office "said Thursday that it had subpoenaed financial records of California's seven largest health insurance companies as part of an investigation into whether they illegally raised customer premiums and denied payment of legitimate claims." The firms include: Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Health, Blue Shield of California, Cigna, Health Net, Kaiser Permanente and PacifiCare. The AG's office said that it is looking at "how much they spend on healthcare, marketing and administration," as well as "how they review claims."

 

        The AP (2/26, Hindery) reports, "The subpoenas cover fee-for-service health plans that reimburse doctors and hospitals for each service performed." The AG gave the firms "30 days to hand over the requested documents."

 

        Bloomberg News (2/26, Rosenblatt) reports, "The rate-setting and claims practices may be illegal," according to Brown, who added that "the investigation was undertaken in response to reports that California insurance providers deny almost 40 percent of claims."

 

        KCBS-Radio San Francisco (2/25, Culross) reported, "Brown is concerned that the state's largest health insurance companies may be violating California's unfair business laws by raising rates and denying claims, and he wants more information about their finances."

 

        The Sacramento Bee (2/26, Sanders) reports on the Assembly's action, explaining that the subpoena "came two days after Anthem Blue Cross President Leslie Margolin and other company executives were grilled by the Assembly Health Committee about plans to raise premiums by as much as 39 percent on hundreds of thousands of Californians." The committee "split along party lines" in its "6-4 vote to issue a subpoena but to delay service for two weeks, giving Anthem time to voluntarily produce information about executive compensation and internal rate deliberations."

 

        Rate Hikes Said To Have "Stunned" Some Small Businesses. The San Francisco Chronicle (2/26, Colliver) reports, "While Anthem Blue Cross has been taking the heat for proposing rate increases of up to 39 percent on individual consumers, other health insurers have stunned some small businesses with hikes that in some cases exceed 75 percent." The Chronicle noted that "businesses in the small-group market -- those with fewer than 50 employees -- are reeling from the latest spikes in their health rates. Those who reported the highest rate increases appeared to have a high deductible Blue Shield policy paired with a savings account."

 

        Sebelius Invites CEOs Of Top Insurance Companies To Discuss Rate Hikes. The Chicago Tribune (2/26, Japsen) reports, "The parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, along with other health insurance giants, has been summoned to meet with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in Washington next week to discuss rate increases." In a letter to Health Care Service Corp., Sebelius said, "I am concerned about these increases...and eager to hear the justification for these increases and steps we can take to create a more stable system." The Tribune adds that "CEOs of WellPoint Inc., Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Cigna Corp. also were requested to attend the meeting, scheduled for Wednesday."

 

        The AP (2/25) ran a transcript of an interview with Sebelius on CNN's Newsroom. Sebelius said that "too many Americans are really in a life-or-death situation, they desperately need the coverage. They don't have a large employer to negotiate on their behalf, and yet they're being kicked out of the marketplace because they simply don't have thousands of dollars extra to put on the table." She added, "I think definitely part of the underlying health reform is to really pay a more reasonable rate for the products that are delivered."