President Obama has called for a bipartisan health care reform summit to be held on February 25.  The meeting is expected to bring together members from both parties to discuss action moving forward.

Speaking on behalf of the administration this week, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius held a press conference to discuss health care reform and told reporters that that President Obama is willing to “add various elements” to health care legislation suggested by Republican lawmakers during the proposed summit.   But she said he won’t change the entire plan and he is “absolutely not” hitting the reset button on the legislative process.

Obama’s refusal to start at square one has upset several Republicans, who have started to question whether or not they will attend the summit, unless the option to start over is on the table.  Obama has hinted that he may be open to rebooting the process, but doesn’t want Congress wasting another year of partisan tactics and bickering only to end up in the same place.

Sebelius said that the president views the bipartisan meeting as a needed pivot to move reform forward.  Asked if the president will expedite the legislative process following his various sit-downs with congressional Republicans, she replied “I certainly think so.  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.”

Meanwhile, in Congress, with nearly all of Washington D.C. “closed” because of back-to-back blizzards, relatively little, if any, progress has been made on health care reform in the past few weeks.  House lawmakers leaving a Democratic Caucus meeting last week said they’re waiting for signals from the Senate on health reform before deciding on a strategy, even as they prepare for stand-alone votes on one or more small-scale provisions.  They said they’re taking time off from health care reform discussions to reconnect with the public and find out what measures can pass the House and Senate.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) told reporters following a budget hearing that it will be more clear “in the next couple days” on whether health reform could move through reconciliation.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that she wants to move forward with smaller, more manageable portions of health care reform next week with a repeal of anti-trust exemption for health insurers.  Other possible carve-out bills include the medical loss ratio, banning health plan rescissions and other smaller provisions that can’t be tackled through the complicated reconciliation process, and have enough support to pass.

Congress is scheduled for a week-long recess beginning February 12.