Health Care Summit LIVE VIDEO: News And Real-Time Updates On Twitter

Watch the health care summit live through the video below and our curated Twitter lists today.

You can also get LIVE updates from Huffington Post reporters throughout the day by clicking here.

And check out real-time analysis from a team of health care experts who are weighing in on the health care summit.

The White House laid down the ground rules for today's health care summit nearly two weeks ago. Read them here.

Do you know a tweeter who's perfect for one of these lists? Email us at [e-mail]!

Comments

[healthnews]

10:39 AM on 02/26/2010

I would hope that this brief interval of serious discussion and thought is not followed by another display of bombast by the opposition trying to spin a political gain by trashing what just went on. Maybe there needs to be more of this spotlight shown on future debates about health care and other contentious issues. Obviously this format kept everyone on their best behavior and didn't allow for the more egregious grandstanding and outright lying that TV sound bites allow.
http://healthnewscom.blogspot.com/

[Paladius the Seeker]

10:37 PM on 02/25/2010

The Republican "plan" is put together with bailing wire and duct tape. It's really no plan at all, mainly because the Republicans were too lazy to formulate one cohesive plan in the last nine months.

[Querent]

09:10 PM on 02/25/2010

Those who didn't see the Republicans for the shallow, selfish, irrational, bought-and-paid-for crazies that they are weren't watching the health care summit today.

[pantherburns]

06:18 PM on 02/25/2010

Eric Cantor on CNN is immediately on track with the same tired talking points. The repubs want desperately to begin again from square one so we waste another year and nothing gets done. If today's exchange leads to nothing more than more of the same from the opposition, I think it's time for the Democrats to move without them and let the chips fall where they may. Of course fox newz is delivering on their civic responsibility by completely ignoring the summit and having Beck talk about best seller books on survival and what makes a survivor. This is right up his alley because c0ckr0@ches are noted survivors. Any claim that their viewers are well informed can now be taken for the joke that it is.

[gtjs289]

06:15 PM on 02/25/2010

Obama is a genius, and he articulates complicated issues in a way that people can understand. Whether you like him or not, try to imagine Bush, or McCain, or Palin moderating this debate. It would have been a joke.

[somefool]

06:37 PM on 02/25/2010

Palin doesn't have enough hands for something like that.

[Paladius the Seeker]

09:19 PM on 02/25/2010

That thought is beyond preposterous.

I got a great laugh out of that.

McCain doesn't understand economics (according to him), Palin needs to go back to college (according to Bill O'Reilly), and W, well if they had let him pop open a brewski and chop some wood during the meeting, he could have had some good laughs. He may have helped us come up with a good "strategery" for reformin' health care.

President Obama is fearless in an intellectual conflict. I guess it's because he knows it's going to be a mismatch, even when the Republicans have three doctors in the room loaded with data.

He was impressive as hell, and no, there wasn't any damn teleprompter, smartasses!

[PaynesGray]

06:07 PM on 02/25/2010

Some Republicans made some good points. Some Democrats made some good points. The President made some good points too. Maybe if they had about ten more of these televised debates then we'd get past all of the talking points and actually make progress. But overall, disappointing.

For instance, the Repubs say "Take incremental steps" which if they were significant steps and enough of them could work (e.g. eliminate preexisting conditions in policies or take away the insurance industry's anti-trust exemption as say a first step). But the President claims that you can't outlaw preexisting conditions without a mandate for every person in the country to buy insurance (he calls it expanding coverage). Why is this true? Why can't the government simply outlaw the abusive practice by insurance companies of having preexisting conditions clauses in their policies? Truth is, the government COULD write such a law and enforce it.

con't...

[PaynesGray]

06:10 PM on 02/25/2010

con't from above...

But the major disappointment was the lack of discussion about the public option. Several Repubs sited opinion polls about the public not liking the Senate bill. BUT, what the Repubs FAILED TO MENTION was WHY people don't like the Senate version - and that is because it lacks the public option. And the President touted the "exchange - like Congress has" as the cost containment and better choice vehicle which was, he said, a Republican idea as the thing that would do what the public option does. True, Repubs are being hypocritical on several of these features. But, the real problem is that you have to have enough people buying into the "exchange" system in order to leverage lower prices. What keeps the insurance cartel, in the beginning, to only offer unattractive policies for purchase through the exchange AND over-pricing them? Nothing! Therefore, no one buys on the exchange and there is no leverage power for better costs. The exchange won't work.

One last thing. The President kept mentioning the 30 million people that the Senate bill would cover as if that was the total number of uninsured. Not true. There are about 45-48 million uninsured Americans. What about the 15 or so million left out of this bill? What about them?

[pragmatic one]

08:57 PM on 02/25/2010

The problem is that one part of the solution requires financing or savings from another part.

This can't be done piece meal. A major overhaul needs to be rolled out and then modified later as needed.

Eliminating the pre-existing conditions is great, but by itself it is going to raise premiums significantly for everybody else.

Tort reform won't do hardly anything, but go ahead and do it to please the right. But by itself, the results will be negilgible.

[GiveUsFree]

06:06 PM on 02/25/2010

After 7 hours of meeting, the one thing Wolf Blizter pulls out of it is that the Democrats had more time? WTF? The President should not count in your time wolf and if you look at your numbers Democrats had 59 minutes and the Republicans had 55 - a delta of 4 minutes. Come on dude. By the way, I DO NOT remember Bush or any other President holding this kind of bi-partisan discussion and staying for the entire length of time and having a firm grasp of the facts.

[afgail]

05:54 PM on 02/25/2010

The Republicans came to do battle with the president and they came armed with lies and no program of their own. The country is tired of the same old song and dance. They want the congress to put their back into governing. The Republicans are just goldbricks - collecting their paychecks and NOT earning it. Saying NO is not governing.

[ScreenName05]

05:52 PM on 02/25/2010

I agree with Boehner, meeting with Republicans is not worth while.

[pantherburns]

05:50 PM on 02/25/2010

I don't know how you could do it, but it might be instructive to find out how many times members of congress are denied claims on their insurance coverage and how this compares to the general public. I have a feeling that insurance companies handle these guys as special cases and use kid glove treatment. They may be deluded enough to think that all the rest of us get the same kind of attention, hence their belief that everything is so rosy.

[ScreenName05]

05:50 PM on 02/25/2010

If the Republican leaders had a clue what the American people wanted, and really wanted to help, they would quietly blow their brains out as quickly as possible.

[CherokeeGirl]

05:54 PM on 02/25/2010

you have a new fan, me! :)

Heather Graham is back as the public option, watch the video

http://pol.moveon.org/phio_back/

[dtmfman]

05:49 PM on 02/25/2010

mcconnell just opened the door...he said he doesn't believe there will be any republican support....
there is only one option left....RECONCIALLATION....

The rethugs are whinning now in their press conference...now saying the president used too much time....what losers they are...

[dtmfman]

05:53 PM on 02/25/2010

note to self...always use spell check...

[CherokeeGirl]

05:49 PM on 02/25/2010

Heather Graham is BAACK as the Public Option

http://pol.moveon.org/phio_back/

[jane8877]

05:45 PM on 02/25/2010

Amazing, on my local CBS news they took until 5:43 to even mention the health care summit. Then they gave it less than 30 seconds. The MSM are such h0's for the right.

[CherokeeGirl]

05:49 PM on 02/25/2010

watch MSNBC at 9pm Eastern for a two hour analysis. ( I hope Chris Matthews isn't there, yuck )

[pantherburns]

05:40 PM on 02/25/2010

I have to say that seeing Obama in this setting makes me proud that he is the president. He shows a clear grasp of the issues, a command of the minutiae on this, and a civility long lacking in the oval office. I would hope that this brief interval of serious discussion and thought is not followed by another display of bombast by the opposition trying to spin a political gain by trashing what just went on. Maybe there needs to be more of this spotlight shown on future debates about health care and other contentious issues. Obviously this format kept everyone on their best behavior and didn't allow for the more egregious grandstanding and outright lying that TV sound bites allow. Those on the right can save the sniggering about being an Obamabot and such. I'm clear eyed enough to know that he is not the saviour, but I think anyone without an axe to grind will have to admit he carries himself with dignity and seriousness, and all without a teleprompter (so can we finally drop that idi0tic issue) in sight.