Sebelius Says Obama Views Bipartisan Health Care Talks As 'Closing The Loop'

A top member of President Obama's health care team said today that his summit with Republicans and Democrats will help move the health care reform measure forward.

"I think he sees this as a step to actually accelerating the process forward. He wants to move forward. He wants a bill at his desk and he sees this as kind of closing the loop and let's go," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Huffington Post after a speech today at an event sponsored by health care magazine Health Affairs and Academy Health.

She also said Obama wants to tell Republicans, "Rather than just sitting on the sidelines and saying 'We don't like this, we don't like that,' come forward and show us your plan."

In her speech she said the team must get the GOP to "re-engage" in the process.

"I think it is not acceptable that half of the legislative body pushed away from the table when this conversation began months ago and basically said, 'We don't want to participate in this process.' If you remember, for a long time, the discussion was, 'Well, we don't want to participate in anything that has a public option in it,'" Sebelius said, according to Huffington Post.

"Well, as far as I have determined, the public option is no longer part of the plan and yet no one has come back to the table and said, 'We will now talk about how to move forward with a private market strategy,'" she said.

More from the report:

[Sebelius said] ... Obama is willing to "add various elements" to health care legislation suggested by Republican lawmakers during an upcoming bipartisan meeting on the topic. But he won't change the entire plan and he is "absolutely not" hitting the reset button on the legislative process, the former Kansas governor insisted.