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Washington (AP) – President Barack Obama said Tuesday he was open to four new Republican proposals on health care legislation, in a gesture of bipartisanship meant to jump-start his stalled drive to overhaul the system.

Obama detailed the ideas, all of which were raised at a bipartisan health care summit last week, in a letter to congressional leaders. In a nod to his 2008 presidential rival, Obama also said he was eliminating a special deal for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in Florida and other states that drew criticism at the summit from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The proposals Obama listed are: sending investigators disguised as patients to uncover fraud and waste; expanding medical malpractice reform pilot programs; increasing payments to Medicaid providers and expanding the use of health savings accounts.

“I said throughout this process that I’d continue to draw on the best ideas from both parties, and I’m open to these proposals in that spirit,” wrote Obama, who will make remarks Wednesday at the White House on a path forward for his legislation.

He rejected the GOP’s preferred approach of scrapping the existing sweeping overhaul bills and starting afresh with step-by-step changes.

Obama’s announcement is not likely to win any votes from Republicans. Nor is there any guarantee that Democratic leaders will agree to incorporate the administration’s suggestions in revised legislation. But it could give wavering Democrats political cover by showing the White House has been willing to compromise in the wake of last week’s summit.

At its core the Democrats’ legislation would extend coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans over 10 years with a first-time mandate for nearly everyone to buy insurance and a host of new requirements on insurers and employers. However, the package soon to reach the House will be less expensive than the one that passed in November and will contain no government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers, making it more appealing to some moderates.

Obama said he was open to these four GOP ideas:

–Conducting undercover investigations of Medicare and Medicaid providers to search for waste, fraud and abuse, an idea put forth by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., at least week’s summit.

– Experimenting with specialized health courts as an alternative to jury trials in medical malpractice cases to cut down on defensive medicine. That idea has been promoted both by Democrats and Republicans, including Coburn and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who attended the summit.
–Obama also agreed that health savings accounts would be offered in new markets his plan sets up for individuals and small business to purchase coverage. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., brought up the idea at the summit.
–Obama also suggested increasing reimbursements to Medicaid providers, a concern raised by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

As expected, the changes did not appear to win over Republicans.

“That’s just one thing,” Coburn said of the president’s desire to incorporate his proposal. “We need to start over,” Coburn said, contending the bill doesn’t address underlying issues of health care costs and quality.

Democrats contend the GOP calls to scrap the existing legislation and start anew further their argument that Republicans have been unreasonably opposed to almost any compromise, justifying the White House decision to push for passage with no GOP help at all.

A small number of House Democrats who opposed the legislation on the first go-round may be Obama’s most important constituency when he unveils his revised proposal.

At least nine of the 39 Democrats who voted “nay” when the House passed sweeping overhaul legislation 220-215 in November are now undecided or withholding judgment until they see Obama’s final product, according to an Associated Press survey.

Some lawmakers will almost certainly have to change from “nay” to “aye” in order for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to round up the votes necessary to pass the Senate’s version of the legislation, along with a package of changes that Obama proposes. The changes – designed to make the Senate bill more palatable to House Democrats by rolling back a tax on high-value insurance plans, among other things – would get through the Senate under controversial rules allowing for a simple majority vote.

With four vacancies in the House, Pelosi will need 216 votes.