In a last-ditch effort to secure passage of a major health care reform, the White House is finally taking a firm stand on the minutiae issues that comprise the bill before Thursday’s bipartisan health care summit.

The health care reform process has come to a halt as the Senate and House squabble over details of the bill. Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts has also thrown a wrench in Democrat’s plans after losing their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. In his campaign, Brown promised to be the 41st vote against health care reform.

Thursday’s bipartisan health care summit is seen by many as an effort to save the president’s top domestic agenda item before November’s midterm elections.

Released Monday, the White House’s health care proposal is very similar to the version that the Senate passed on Christmas Eve with a few minor changes.

One of the major sticking points between the House and Senate was over how to fund the bill. Senate Democrats had included a tax on high-end health insurance plans – or so called “Cadillac plans” – however, that provision was adamantly opposed in the House, where the majority of Democrats were in favor of paying for the expansion of health care through a tax on the wealthiest of Americans. The Senate provision was also vigorously opposed by allied labor unions which claim that the taxes would affect many of their members whom have negotiated lower wages for better health care coverage.

House and Senate Democratic leaders had reached a compromise that would have excluded health care benefits collectively bargained for. That proposal was met with derision by Republicans who claim that excluding union members is simply a give away to political supporters.

Another controversial provision, the so-called “Cornhusker kickback,” a deal secured by Sen. Ben Nelson to ensure that his state’s Medicaid expansion would be paid for by the federal government, has been scrapped as well after it came under an enormous amount of scrutiny recently.

Nor does the plan contain the controversial public option, a key issue for liberal Democrats. The White House has repeatedly expressed its support for the government-run health care option, but when it came time to put its money where its mouth is, folded to pressure from the right.

Overall, the White House estimates that the bill will cost slightly more than the Senate bill – $950 billion over 10 years. In addition, it would cover 31 million uninsured Americans and lower the deficit by $100 billion over 10 years.

“I don’t want to see this meeting turn into political theater, with each side simply reciting talking points and trying to score political points,” President Barack Obama said in his weekly address. “Instead, I ask members of both parties to seek common ground in an effort to solve a problem that’s been with us for generations.”

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