Health reform came to the White House Thursday in the summit of key lawmakers and constituencies. It also came to the web, as the Obama Administration launched a new website: www.HealthReform.gov.

Managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, the website provided live coverage of the White House Health Forum, allowing visitors to share their thoughts about health reform, and sign a statement in support of enacting comprehensive health reform this year.

The site also serves as home to the Americans Speak on Health Reform: Report on Health Care Community Discussions, (pdf), a report summarizing the comments and concerns from thousands of Americans who hosted Health Care Community Discussions over the holidays.

The report represents a cross section of what real Americans are thinking. Top concerns:

• Cost of Health Insurance--31 percent
• Cost of Health Care Services--24 percent
• Lack of Emphasis on Prevention--20 percent
• Difficulty of Finding Health Insurance Due to Pre-Existing Conditions--13 percent
• Quality of Care--12 percent

President Obama received the report at the health summit yesterday from Travis Ulerick, a firefighter from Dublin Indiana (see his story here), and one of more than 30,000 Americans who participated in those community discussions.

As for the summit itself, Obama was very clear about its purpose and his administration's priorities: "[O]ur goal will be to enact comprehensive health care reform by the end of this year. That is our commitment. That is our goal."

Ezra Klein calls this the "banality of progress" because:

It is no longer a scoop to report that Obama plans to pass health reform by the end of 2009. There is no surprise when he emphasizes the fiscal necessity of change or the moral urgency of reform. Today's summit, so far, has provided for few easy headlines. It is just another step on the road to a bill. It's the process. That may be banal, yes. But when the President of the United States pushing forward on health reform becomes banal, then that, in itself, is news.

As for that process, the following themes stood out:

• Transparency: From C-SPAN to cable news to live streaming on the internet, the administration went out of its way to make this process open and transparent.
• Dialogue: Washington is used to seeing lawmakers talk. Watching them listen and engage in open discussion, well, that's what we'd call a new health dialogue.
• Urgency: As Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said in one of the breakout sessions: "We're past the Harry and Louise moment. We're at the Thelma and Louise moment." For every speaker we saw, it was clear the status quo was simply no longer an option. Health reform is no longer a question of should we or can we. As President Obama said: "This time, there is no debate about whether all Americans should have quality affordable health care. The only question is how."