White House Team Joins Talks on Health Care Bill

A delegation of senior White House officials met on Wednesday at the Capitol with the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and the chairmen of the Finance and health committees, as Democrats turned their full attention to merging competing versions of the comprehensive health care legislation. The effort to combine the two bills is complicated and, politically, a potentially treacherous task. The Democrats must negotiate sharp disagreements between the liberal and centrist members of their party while also trying to hold the support of Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, the one Republican so far to support the legislation.