WASHINGTON — President Obama and congressional Democrats are rethinking their healthcare strategy in the wake of a Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, giving serious consideration to abandoning the comprehensive approach in favor of incremental steps that might salvage key elements of the package. Now without a filibuster-proof Senate majority, which was lost in the GOP victory, some Democrats believe they could win Republican support for limited changes to the healthcare system, including restrictions on insurance companies and new initiatives to restrain costs. Obama appeared to endorse such an approach Wednesday. ‘I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements in the package that people agree on,’ the president said in an interview with ABC News. ‘We know that we need insurance reform. The health insurance companies are taking advantage of people,’ Obama said. ‘We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up. And we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance for their families. Those are the core — some of the core — elements of […]