Obama To Meet With Top Dems Ahead Of Health Reform Speech

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 09 Sep 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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President Obama will meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday to discuss strategy on health reform ahead of his scheduled speech before a special joint session of Congress on Wednesday, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, the speech is intended, in part, to pressure Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to take action on health reform legislation (Calmer/Pear, New York Times, 9/8). Over the weekend, Baucus circulated a new draft health reform proposal to the so-called "Gang of Six" bipartisan negotiating group that is expected to cost between $850 billion and $900 billion over 10 years, the Times reports (Pear, New York Times, 9/7). According to Politico, the new plan would establish not-for-profit consumer-owned health insurance cooperatives instead of a public insurance plan option (Budoff Brown, Politico, 9/7).

In addition, Baucus' plan would expand Medicaid to all U.S. residents -- excluding undocumented immigrants -- whose incomes are up to 133% of the current federal poverty level. In addition, tax credits would be granted to help low- and middle-income families buy private insurance and establish insurance exchanges where individual and small businesses could purchase coverage. Under the plan, about $400 billion in cost savings would be produced from proposed Medicare changes (Murray, Washington Post, 9/7).

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and senior adviser David Axelrod on Sunday addressed questions about Obama's stance on the inclusion of a public health insurance plan option in health reform legislation, saying that it remains an important element in the ongoing reform debate, CongressDaily reports (Strohm, CongressDaily, 9/6).

Axelrod on NBC's "Meet the Press" said that Obama "believes the public option is a good tool" but noted that it "shouldn't define the whole health care debate" (Berger, New York Times, 9/7). According to Axelrod, Obama continues to believe that the public option is "important," but declined to say whether Obama would withhold his support for legislation that does not include such a plan.

However, in an appearance on ABC's "This Week," Gibbs said that Obama in his speech plans to rally support for the public option (Fields, Wall Street Journal, 9/7). Gibbs also said that Obama might use his speech to broadly outline his own legislation. "People will leave that speech knowing where he stands," Gibbs said (New York Times, 9/7).

According to the New York Times, Obama's "straddle reflects the Obama team's recognition that the more liberal House will not pass a health care bill without a public insurance option, while the Senate will not pass one with it" (Calmes/Pear, New York Times, 9/8).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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