On Thursday, President Obama held his first healthcare summit, an opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to come together and reach some compromises on the stalled healthcare bill. Unfortunately for all of America, the summit did not go as smoothly as many were probably hoping. After a long seven hours of arguing, not a whole lot of productivity was achieved.



Of the topics discussed, abortion is still one of the stickiest. There was some progress made, according to the optimistic USA Today. President Obama said that he was “open to several Republican ideas — including medical malpractice changes to address the issue of defensive medicine. He is also open to other ideas, such as programs that encourage hospitals and doctors to promptly admit mistakes, offer financial restitution and fix problems to prevent more patients from being harmed.



The legislation would curb insurance industry practices like denying coverage to people who are already sick, extend coverage to about 30 million uninsured people, and help many low-income people pay for it, financed by Medicare cuts and new taxes on higher earning Americans and health providers.”

President Obama will announce the “way forward” next week, discussing the plan to incorporate both Republican and Democratic healthcare ideas. While the healthcare summit may not have brought much bipartisanship and compromise to the table, it was a respectable step in the right direction. At least the President got them to the table in the first place.