U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled a new $950 billion health care plan on Monday, which will put "American families and small business owners in control of their own health care," a statement on the White House website said.

The plan comes ahead of a bi-partisan summit on health care, which will be held in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 25.

Tenants of the proposal include new tax credits to offset insurance premium costs, plans to close coverage gaps in prescription drug plans for the elderly, excise taxes on high-cost "Cadillac" health care plans, and implementing a 2.9 percent tax assessment on individuals who earn more than $200,000 a year.

The plan also proposes creating a new federal oversight committee, the Health Rate Authority, that will monitor rate increases from insurance companies.

"We view this as the opening bid for the health meeting," Dan Pfeiffer, communications director for Obama, told the New York Times on Monday.

"We took our best shot at bridging the differences," he added.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) suggested that delegates "start from scratch" at the summit, but the White House maintained that previous work done on the policy was too good to be discarded.

Meanwhile, a recent survey put out by the Barna Group showed that Christian support for Obama is waning a year into his presidency.

According to the survey, only 35 percent of born again Christians are satisfied with the president's overall performance, while 36 percent have expressed dissatisfaction.

In the 2008 election, 42% of all born again adults voted for Obama, with the born again vote representing 40 percent of Obama's aggregate support in the general election.

On the issue of health care, 33 percent of believers have shown approval for Obama's work compared to 46 percent of the general public.

The Barna Group's survey was conducted with a random sample of 1,005 adults across the United States via telephone interviews from February 7 to 10.