WASHINGTON – Reactions to President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech on Wednesday night were varied in support for Democratic proposals, but stakeholders are in agreement that America needs healthcare reform.

The Republican response to the president's speech, given by newly elected Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, agreed that lawmakers should move forward on healthcare reform, but not through methods that would expand the federal government's power or raise costs.

In an e-mail to GOP supporters, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) echoed McDonnell and touted the recent Republican victory in Massachusetts, where Scott Brown replaced the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Democrat who championed healthcare reform.

"The people of Massachusetts confirmed last week what we have been saying for a long time – the American people want a change in Washington and an end to big government solutions to problems like healthcare," McCain said.

McCain said he looks forward to working with Brown to "block government-run healthcare, tax increases and increased federal spending."

Blair Childs, senior vice president of public affairs for the Premier healthcare alliance, said alliance members share Obama's belief that "we can't afford to miss this historic opportunity to enact meaningful reform legislation that improves the quality, safety and affordability of healthcare for all Americans."

Childs is optimistic that lawmakers can find common ground on aspects of healthcare reform. He noted that both parties support aligning incentives to improve quality of care.

"These areas of agreement include delivery system reforms supported by Premier, such as hospital value-based purchasing, quality measures development, voluntary accountable care organizations, bundled payment pilots, comparative effectiveness research and increased transparency of cost and quality information," Childs said.

"At a minimum, these policies with broad bipartisan support should continue to move forward as part of a consensus bill. Premier remains committed to transforming healthcare, and we believe these delivery system reforms are long overdue," he said.

David Kendall, senior fellow for health and fiscal policy for Third Way, a Washington, D.C.-based moderate think-tank of the progressive movement, said the president's speech shifted the momentum in the healthcare debate back to passing reform.

"President Obama didn't walk away from the challenge of passing controversial policies. Instead, he made reform more important than ever to the success of his agenda," Kendall said. "Without reform, the middle class will have less money to spend on college for their children, more anxiety about losing their coverage and greater healthcare costs in retirement.

"Healthcare reform is now linked to another key feature of the president's agenda: fiscal reform. Healthcare reform will create a platform for restraining healthcare costs that are driving up entitlement spending," Kendall said. "In short, he has given Congress the impetus it needs to complete its work to give healthcare stability and security to all Americans.

Bruce Merlin Fried, an attorney and partner at Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal, LLP in Washington, D.C., said, "The president both acknowledged that the path to achieving healthcare reform had become even more difficult and that the need for healthcare reform was increasing as costs continue to rise and more people become uninsured."

"The issue will not go away, and he won't let it," Fried said.