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Who can forget the mess that had various names during the 1993 "Health Care that is Always There" campaign during the Clinton administration? There were committees, closed meetings, congressional testimony by the first lady and more than 1,000 pages of a fairly complex plan that everyone thought was a way to expand government and a complete boondoggle for the insurance companies. What is most memorable about the health care plan of the early '90s is the anti-Clinton health care ads known as "Harry and Louise" and separately, the damage done by Ira Magaziner, the health care Czar hired by the Clinton White House
and the man now considered to be the sole "bad guy" of what went wrong.

Nowhere was the "bad guy" image of Ira Magaziner more evident than at last Thursday's Health Care Summit at the White House. In just one breakout session, Democrats and Republicans pilloried him twice. This time is different; it is not 1993, and there is no Ira Magaziner. It was only bipartisan President Obama who made sure all viewpoints were included in the summit. There were liberals galore but also conservatives including the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB, PhRMA's Billy Tauzin, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's
Tom Donahue, and Sen. Mitch McConnell. I just sat there in wonderment. Except for the months following Sept.11, I did not see any bipartisan effort on the part of Bush White House. It was never was going to happen and never did happen. Wow, I thought, President Obama is really walking the walk here.

Not only is the president walking the walk, but, apparently, so are some members of Congress. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that Rep. George Miller urged every committee chair to have Republicans in the room as partners. Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., said we will join hands and go all the way to the finish line, and Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said if it means overturning sacred cows, then "we must do it."

Some great ideas emerged, but one thing is clear: Everyone knows the time has come to tackle health care. From a strictly economic standpoint, AARP estimates that there were 600,000 "medical tourists" leaving the United States last year to get treatment out of the country. That's a ton of money leaving our hospitals and clinics. The big surprise is that this conference was not a "dump on government party" by the Republicans. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said that the beauty of why Medicare Part D has worked is that it was the first time government organized a medical program rather than running it, and it has worked. Competition remained, people have been able to change providers, and it has been delivered at a much lower cost than anyone thought it would be.

There were areas of strong consensus, and I sat in amazement that these political animals were willing to broaden their scope and not just think of the next election cycle. Pretty much everyone agreed that data collection and dissemination was going to be a strong key to changing the health care system. Eric Whitaker from the University of Chicago Medical School said, "The importance of data is not an easy thing to do, it is not sexy and you can't cut a ribbon for data." Others listed all the benefits of gathering information and then putting that data on the Web. Infection rates at hospitals go down as soon as that data is published. Why? Doctors and nurses start to wash their hands more when the infection rates get published. No one wants to work at a hospital that has a lousy reputation. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., said states need to be made to disclose the health care data that is already collected. What a novel idea! Government collects the data, and the citizens get to see it!

Of course, there were some of the usual expected arguments such as the need to reduce liability, but there were novel ideas presented by knowledgeable Republicans. One way to reduce re-hospitalization is to get someone back to the primary care physician within five days of discharge from a hospital; having the government set up a model for disseminating the collected information was another. Ideas were flying fast, and while there was not full agreement, there was no rancor. But the comment of the day went to Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., who said with partisanship in play you can get a bill passed in Congress, but it will not be the best bill. To have the best bill everyone has to be involved and have a stake. Amen, Rep. McKeon.