WASHINGTON — Under the banner of consensus and cooperation, President Obama yesterday brought industry leaders, lawmakers, doctors and consumer groups to the White House for a healthcare forum to build momentum for his effort to reduce costs and expand insurance coverage.

But the largely symbolic event also showcased the political maneuvering — and potential conflicts — that are intensifying as the president moves forward on his reform initiative.

Liberal activists stepped up their campaign against the insurance industry, which many of them blame for scuttling the Clinton administration's efforts to reshape the healthcare system in the early '90s.

Several GOP lawmakers, meanwhile, pointedly cautioned the president about reaching too far to expand government's role in healthcare.

And Obama used the forum yesterday to address those who might seek to derail his reform effort.

"Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything that we want, and that no proposal for reform will be perfect," the president said as he welcomed more than 150 forum participants to the East Room of the White House.

Obama, who last week unveiled a budget that would set aside $634 billion for healthcare reform, has said he wants to tackle the issue this year, building on campaign promises to move toward universal coverage as well as improve healthcare quality and bring down skyrocketing costs.

And yesterday, the president stressed the progress being made, citing "a clear consensus that the need for healthcare reform is here and now." Many lawmakers and industry leaders at the White House yesterday echoed the president's words.

"You have our commitment to play, to contribute and to pass healthcare reform this year," said Karen Ignagni, head of America's Health Insurance Plans, one of the industry's leading lobbying groups.

But amid the optimistic words, new evidence emerged of the ideological differences and competing interests that threaten the momentum apparently gathering behind healthcare reform.

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the senior Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee, pleaded with the president to think hard about creating a new government insurance program to cover some of the more than 47 million people in America without coverage. "There's a lot of us that feel that the public option is an unfair competitor," Grassley told Obama.

Many insurance companies worry that a new government insurance program similar to Medicare or Medicaid would drive them out of business, and some providers worry about getting lower payments.