President Obama made his move today, unveiling his own comprehensive health care plan.
Now comes two more days of back-and-forth, as Republicans and some Democratic members of Congress chew on Obama's proposal ahead of Thursday's big health care summit.
Among the things to look for in the week ahead:
The summit itself: Negotiation or negation?
Republicans generally blasted Obama's plan, calling it the kind of big government contraption they opposed last year as the House and Senate passed their separate bills.
"The president has crippled the credibility of this week's summit by proposing the same massive government takeover of health care based on a partisan bill the American people have already rejected," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Boehner has not RSVP'd to the Thursday meeting, but other Republican invitees plan to attend. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said his party "will continue to offer the kind of step-by-step reforms to lower costs that our constituents have been asking for."
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the Obama plan a "starting point," and challenged Republicans to come up with specific ideas to increase insurance coverage and lower health care costs.
The key to a successful summit is "the willingness for both sides to sit down, discuss common approaches to dealing with the skyrocketing costs, to dealing with insurance abuses, and finding a way, as we have said, to take those good ideas and put them into legislation," Gibbs said.
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