When GOP Rep. Mike Simpson and Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick shared a platform Monday to discuss health care, it wasn't exactly a meeting at the middle.

Simpson, a dentist by training, embraces the House Republicans' skepticism about government health care. A "public option," he says, will inevitably put private insurance out of business, becoming a de facto single-payer system.

Minnick, a member of Democrats' fiscally frugal Blue Dog caucus, is one of the most conservative Democrats in the House. His third-rail issue on health care reform should come as no surprise: If reform isn't fully paid for, he's not voting for it.

The Simpson-Minnick question-and-answer session before the City Club of Boise was, more accurately, a meeting at the center right. Still, that doesn't diminish its significance.

In an age where any public display of bipartisanship is rare and forced, Idaho's two House members comfortably checked their affiliations at the door. Given this summer's town hall debates over health care - which Simpson described, tongue in cheek, as "rambunctious" - a civil discussion is nothing to take for granted.

Not when the takeaway point was identical. Simpson and Minnick share a must-have: Health care reform must include cost containment.

That can mean increased use of health care paraprofessionals, as Minnick suggested. Or tort reform, as Simpson advocated. Or weaning the health care profession off of "defensive" procedures, as both congressmen support. But cost containment is a reasonable starting point to refocus this rancorous debate.

And the suggestions come from two congressmen who have, to their credit, shown a willingness to think beyond the ideology of health care, risking backlash from their respective bases.

By resisting the public option - particularly after opposing the White House on economic stimulus, auto industry bailouts and cap-and-trade - Minnick has rankled some 1st Congressional District Democrats.

By joining Minnick and most Democrats to support a $32.8 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, Simpson no doubt upset some voters in his conservative 2nd Congressional District. But, as he said Monday, he sees SCHIP as a good way to extend health coverage to the children of the working poor.

Has health care been debated to death? Guess again. Said Minnick Monday: "We are early in this health care debate." That's not necessarily a bad thing. On Monday, Simpson and Minnick provided a sense of what a reasoned health care discussion should sound like.

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