WSJ: Dems mull healthcare strategy shift

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The White House and top U.S. Senate Democrats are considering a strategy of breaking healthcare legislation into two major parts, The Wall Street Journal said.

The strategy would involve using a partisan majority to enact the more expensive provisions of healthcare reform, because top Democrats see little prospect of getting any Republican support for reform legislation, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

The decision on whether to use the tactic is being left to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Journal said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday the administration agrees with Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that bipartisan talks on healthcare reform must continue.

"I mean, that's why I said this morning that our preferred option is to go the route of getting all those involved, that are at the table, to agree to something that can be supported by both parties," Gibbs said at the daily White House press briefing.

While Obama doesn't have control over the votes, "he can, and will, continue to get agreement on both sides of the aisle on this," Gibbs said. "The president believes this issue is far too important to not try, to walk away from a perfect opportunity to bring both sides together in order to make progress on an issue that we've seen fail time after time after time."

Gibbs also conceded that the administration hasn't "pitched a no-hit game or a perfect game" regarding its message on healthcare.

"I think we just have to continue to be out there," he said.

He also reiterated Obama's position on public health insurance as option for healthcare consumers.

"The president -- I'll go slow -- the president believes we should have ... choice and competition," Gibbs said. "For people entering the private insurance market, in order to hold down costs, in order to provide quality of coverage, we have to have choice and competition. The president's preferred way is a public option. If there are others that have additional viewpoints or other ideas in policy that institute that choice and competition, he is and we are ready to hear it."