Docs, payers try to prevent a new federal health plan for the uninsured.

In a bid for a seat at the healthcare-reform table, representatives of the healthcare industry have offered President Barack Obama $2 trillion in cost reductions over 10 years.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says all systems are go for sweeping healthcare reform legislation this summer. And the White House began to mobilize Obama’s grassroots supporters to pressure Congress to do just that.

The American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, and the American Hospital Association said Monday they’ll pare back the growth of healthcare spending by 1.5 percentage points a year, according to news reports.

Same Promises Made in the ’70s

Don’t get too excited about the healthcare industry’s promises, the Brookings Institute warns. They sound eerily similar to vows made -- and broken -- during the Carter administration.

In 1976, the same groups said they would work together to cut the growth in medical spending. Then, as now, they wanted to keep the government out of their hair, the Brookings Institute said. Those groups succeeded, politically. But they never did make a dent in healthcare spending. In the next seven years, healthcare spending outpaced income growth by 3.2 percentage points, the same as in 1976, the Brookings Institute said.

This time, the healthcare industry -- particularly commercial insurers -- would like to fend off a proposal to establish another federal insurer like Medicare to compete for currently uninsured American customers. Republicans say Obama’s proposal to create a new public health plan to cover millions of uninsured Americans would undermine the private health care market and exacerbate already huge budget deficits, according to Reuters.

All Factions Join the Battle

The battle isn’t just GOP vs. Democrats. A group of fiscally conservative House Democrats on Tuesday demanded access to healthcare-reform negotiations, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a letter to House leaders, the Blue Dog Coalition complained they are being left out of discussions on the overhaul of U.S. health care, demonstrating the difficult job House Democratic leaders have in shepherding changes in health care through Congress.