Back to D.C. On health care, president needs bipartisanship.

COLUMN: IN OUR OPINION

After weeks of bruising town hall meetings around the country, the health-care debate reconvenes in Washington, D.C. this week, with President Obama slated to give an address on Wednesday to a joint session of Congress. Although some are portraying that speech as a "make or break" moment for Mr. Obama, the truth is that all Americans have a share in these stakes.

The White House and its Democratic allies in Congress surely bear much responsibility for the faltering fortunes of the reform effort. Too often, legitimate questions have been dismissed. Assurances that Americans can keep the plans and doctors they like, at a price they can afford, simply do not square with the plain language of the bills on offer. The administration has passed too lightly over the very steep price that its reforms would exact on the businesses and individuals who are the engines of the American economy.

Critics also share responsibility for muddying the debate. Legitimate concerns over details of the proposed reforms have been distorted into talk of "death panels." Debate has been drowned out at times by ordinary citizens, from the left or the right, frustrated by the administration's policies on the economy or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The public acrimony obscures the fact that, behind the scenes, there is much agreement. Everyone knows medical costs are increasing in an unsustainable fashion. While health outcomes in the U.S. are generally good - and it's hardly fair to compare this nation with smaller places with homogeneous populations - most agree they could be better. The number of uninsured Americans is subject to fierce debate, but there is no doubt that getting uninsured Americans into preventive, primary care means better overall health at a lower cost than having them rely on emergency rooms, or going without any care.

The problem with reform has always been how to translate the points of agreement into policies that can win broad support. Precisely because that is such a vast undertaking, and so profoundly affects the nation's economy, the recent talk of Democrats forcing through their agenda on simple majority votes is unrealistic. The reform of health care is simply too important to be done in any fashion but a bipartisan one. If there's one legacy of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy that should be borne in mind this fall, it is that reaching across the aisle isn't just a way to get things done in Washington - it may be the only way.

That bipartisanship on health care may not ripen this fall, but Mr. Obama has an opportunity to promote it if he is willing to slow down and make his case more openly and forthrightly than he has to date. He will need all his political and rhetorical skills to do so. Congress, and the nation, should hear him out, with open ears and minds.