Daytime television has never sounded so good.

Watching Thursday's health summit at the White House, carried live on C-SPAN, as well as some of the some cable news networks, was a refreshing experience.

We'll be back later with more on the summit, but in case you weren't able to watch, we thought we'd share President Obama's words summing up the event. Below are Obama's closing remarks from the Summit (his opening remarks are available here) as well as the inspiring words of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who joined Obama on stage at the event's end:

THE PRESIDENT: To Sir Edward Kennedy. (Applause.) That's the kind of greeting a knight deserves. (Laughter.) It is thrilling to see you here, Teddy. We are so grateful for you taking the time to be here and the extraordinary work that your committee has already started to do, along with Mike Enzi; I know Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley on the Senate side; Henry, I know that you guys are gearing to go on the House side.

So I just want to, first of all, thank all of you for participating. Today was the first discussion in this effort, but it was not the last. In the coming days and weeks we'll be convening a series of meetings with senior administration officials here at the White House to further explore some of the key issues that were raised today and to bring more voices into the conversation.

But my understanding is, is that we had an extraordinarily productive set of sessions throughout the day. And I've gotten a readout from some of the breakout groups and breakout sessions. And I just want to summarize a few things that my staff thought were notable and that I thought were notable and are worth mentioning before I start taking some questions or some comments.

First of all: A clear consensus that the need for health care reform is here and now. Senators Hatch, Enzi, Congressman Jim Cooper and many others agreed that we can do health care reform. Senator Hatch said that we needed leadership on both sides, and he believes that Democrats and Republicans need to put politics aside and work together to do it. Senator Whitehouse said this isn't a "Harry and Louise" moment, it's a "Thelma and Louise" moment. (Laughter.) We're in the car headed toward the cliff and we must act.

Now, I just want to be clear—if you actually saw the movie, they did drive over the cliff. (Laughter.) So I just want to be clear that's not our intention here. (Laughter.)

Insurers agree: Scott Serota with Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said to consider past opposition the past, it is not the present; the time is right for action now. The American Medical Association said that they are here to be partners and to help. Tom Donahue, with the Chamber of Commerce, said that in the previous debate we knew where everyone stood; people are in different places now, including business, and that there is a vigorous understanding with all parties that improvements are needed. And Congressman Joe Barton complimented the process we've begun and said that he can agree with the principles that we've laid out. My staff thought that was a very notable statement, they complimenting the process. Melody, I think, slipped that one in. (Laughter.)

With respect to the cost of care, Richard Kirsch with the Health Care for America Now said that we can't have a false dichotomy between coverage and costs, that by covering more people we can also lower costs at the same time, presumably because those who are not insured at the moment are ending up using extraordinarily expensive emergency room care.

Senator Whitehouse—you've got two quotes in here—(laughter)—Senator Whitehouse pointed out that we pay more than a trillion dollars—we pay more than a trillion dollars more than other countries for the same or lower qualities of care.

Ken Powell, CEO of General Mills, and a member of the Business Roundtable, stressed the need to preserve the role of employers, and that many employers are investing in excellent prevention programs that are reducing costs and improving productivity. And I can testify to that. I've met a lot of extraordinary companies that have really taken the bull by the horns and are doing extraordinary work. Many participants stressed the need to invest in prevention to lower costs and improve care, to tackle obesity, manage chronic care, invest in comparative effectiveness.

Congressman Dingell talked about the need to simplify the system to reduce costs and medical errors. Senator Baucus mentioned the need to make investments up front, such as health IT and comparative effectiveness to get big savings and that we have to align incentives towards quality. And Congressman Waxman suggested the same point that's been made earlier: that we can't control costs unless everyone is covered.

With respect to the public plan, Congressman Jan Schakowsky and the AFL-CIO talked about the need to create a public option in order to reduce cost to consumers and save money within the system. There were others who raised the—some concerns about the impact of a public plan limiting choices.

As for paying for reform, Congressman Rob Andrews challenged the group to identify additional ways to pay for reform and suggested that everyone needs to put something on the table to get reform done. And Senator Wyden raised the issue of modifying the tax exclusion for higher income Americans.

Last set of points that we thought were notable: Senators Grassley and Hatch and Congressman Dingell all discussed the need to address medical malpractice and reduce defensive medicine as a cost saving measure.

So that's just some of the points that were made. I know that many of you had other insights. They have all been recorded, and we are going to be generating a document coming out of this that summarizes much that was heard in these various breakout sessions.

But what I want to do is just take some time now to give all of you a chance to hear from me directly, and I'm going to call on some members; I'm going to call from some of the groups that were participating, as well. I'm not going to be able to get to everybody.

And since he got such a weak reception when he walked in, I think that—(laughter)—it's only fitting that we give Ted Kennedy the first question. So we've got a microphone here, Ted, go ahead—or comment; it doesn't have to be a question.

SENATOR KENNEDY: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I join in welcoming and seeing all of you once again at this very special gather.[ing] I join with all of those that feel that this is the time, now is the time, for action. I think most of us who have been in this room before have seen other times when the House and the Senate have made efforts, but they haven't been the kind of serious effort that I think that we're seeing right now.

If you look over this gathering here today, you see the representatives of all the different groups that we have met with over the period of years. I mean, you have the insurance companies, you have the medical professions—all represented in one form or another. That has not been the case over the history of the past, going all the way back to Harry Truman's time.

But it is the case now. And it is, I think, a tribute to your leadership in bringing all these people together and really a leadership of so many that are gathered here today. Just in a very brief look around, you can see representatives of so many of the different interests. It'd be hard to think of those interests being together and being as concerned and providing the leadership that they are as they are demonstrating that kind of a commitment as we have today.

What it does is basically challenges all of us to really do the best we can. And I know that you and all of your staff—I congratulate Max Baucus and my colleagues who have done such an extraordinary effort to date. Just say that I'm looking forward to being a foot soldier in this undertaking. And this time, we will not fail.