Three Reasons Health Summit Could Kickstart Reform (and 3 Barriers that Remain)

But on the flip side, the dialogue may have indicated that stronger differences exist between the parties—and that agreements may be difficult to achieve.

Here are three barriers that impede the Democrats in moving forward with a large health reform program:

1. The continued push to start over.

A common theme voiced by many of the Republican attendees was that they wanted to push aside the bills already approved by the House and the Senate in favor of a new one.

As Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said: "Let's start over in the sense that we change the vision and work together to do the things that we agree upon—but do it in a way that doesn't destroy the fundamental market system that's made the American healthcare system the best in the world," he said. "And if we do that, we can make a deal."

This is a move, however, that the president indicated at the end of the summit that he is unlikely to take.

2. Disagreements over individual mandates versus insurance reform.

Mandating that individuals obtain insurance "is a significant issue across the country," said Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), the ranking minority member on the House Ways and Means Committee.

"The American people are telling us that the individual mandates—the requirements to buy insurance—are something that they want us to scrap and start over on," Camp said. "That's why you're seeing state legislatures around the country passing resolutions saying, our citizens are going to have a choice on whether they buy health care."

However, Obama and many of the Democrats said that it would remain difficult to reform the healthcare marketplace and keep costs down if individuals did not have to purchase healthcare insurance.

3. The size and complexity of the bill.

Throughout the summit meeting room, copies of the current 2,700-page reform bill sat next to several Republicans who cited the size of the current legislation—and said they would not vote for something this large.

Obama appeared unmoved by the request. "I did not propose—and I don't think any of the Democrats proposed—something complicated just for the sake of being complicated. We'd love to have a five page bill. It would save an awful lot of work."

He said the reason they didn't do it is because "it turns out that baby steps don't get you to the place where people need to go," Obama said.

"[People] need help right now. And so a step by step approach sounds good in theory, but ... we can't solve a preexisting problem if we don't do something about coverage," he added.