Earlier today, I participated in press briefing - "The Next 100 Days: Some Final Hurdles in Health Reform"– held at the National Press Club. C-SPAN video of the event can be accessed here.

At the briefing, I enjoyed hearing from my fellow panelists – Gail Wilensky, Dallas Salisbury and Riza Lavizzo Mourey - about where we need to focus the discussion, and how we can build consensus for reform.

The good news is, the general consensus is health reform is very much alive and that there is a lot of room for pushing forward substantive change on issues that all Americans care about…Ever the optimist, I happen to agree…

In particular, I was struck by how much agreement there was in the room for the need to build reform around delivery system redesign and a focus on prevention – and how this is really the only way we can hope to make a dent in cost, improve quality over the long haul, and achieve a sustainable system of universal coverage.

If this is the direction that the White House and Congress decide to pursue – and emphasize – in reform, I think we will be headed on a path to get something meaningful passed this year.

From a political messaging standpoint, not only are these policies the exact type of the things that we need to do to get a handle on rising costs – they are the types of policy changes that Americans have said they want reform to focus on.

While there is agreement that prevention and delivery reform will require an investment – there are clearly many reasons to move these types of reforms forward.

And – to move beyond the now growing stale debate of whether CBO thinks prevention will save money (it can in some circumstances!) – reforms to improve Americans’ health are not just about lowering health care costs. They are about delivering better health – and boosting productivity – which is, at the end of the day, the whole point of our health care system.