Obama Reaches Past Congress for Health Care Support

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Opening a new front in the effort to promote its plans for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system, the Obama administration is courting support from Republicans and independents some distance from Capitol Hill, and aggressively publicizing the results.

In a statement distributed by the White House, Tommy G. Thompson, the former Republican presidential candidate, health and human services secretary and four-term governor of Wisconsin, offered strong praise Monday for the legislation nearing approval by the Senate Finance Committee.

The statement, issued jointly with Richard A. Gephardt, the former House Democratic leader, said that “there are some issues that remain troublesome and unresolved in the Senate Finance Committee’s bill.”

But it called the bill “another important step toward achieving the goal of health care reform this year.” And more bluntly, it said, “Failure to reach an agreement on health reform this year is not an acceptable option.”

The effort by the White House to win high-visibility support away from Congress is similar to one that was undertaken during debate on the administration’s economic stimulus package. When Republican lawmakers overwhelmingly opposed that initiative, the White House reached out to Republican governors, many of whom voiced support.

“The president is trying to build the broadest coalition possible for his approach to reforming the health care system,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a White House spokesman. “We often find a very different, less partisan approach outside the hothouse of the Beltway.”

In another statement promoted by the White House, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, the onetime Democrat turned Republican who is now turned independent but is nonetheless running for re-election this year on the Republican line, said Monday that the health care overhaul advanced by Democrats “is shaping up to merit broad, bipartisan support.”

Mr. Bloomberg, who has made health initiatives like banning smoking and trans fats a top priority of his administration, characterized the legislation unfolding in Congress as “incorporating Republican ideas and earning deserved support from Republican leaders such as former Senate majority leader Bill Frist.”

Mr. Frist, who was a Tennessee heart-lung transplant surgeon before entering politics, said publicly last week that if he were still in Congress, he would vote for the health care undertaking. In an interview Monday, he said he was not endorsing the Finance Committee’s bill per se but was backing the Democratic-led push for what he called transformational change to the health care system.

“I am not going to give up on the process,” he said. “A lot of my colleagues have said it would be easier to defeat the bill and wait until after the elections, and I disagree with that.”

He said that he believed it was essential to bring 20 million of the “hard core uninsured” under the insurance umbrella and that he favored more emphasis on reimbursing health care providers by outcome and doing more to lower the cost of care.

To draw more Republican support, he said, Democrats should expressly rule out using a legislative shortcut that would bar any filibuster of the health care bill. But he commended President Obama for pushing ahead with his initiative despite huge obstacles.

“You have to admire him for taking it on,” Mr. Frist said. “I think we have a moment where we could do something that expands access, improves quality of care and, in time, controls costs.”

Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.

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