Monday, November 24, 2008 Capitol
Hill Watch
Sen. Wyden, 14 Other Senators Send Letter to
President-Elect Obama Touting Healthy Americans Act
Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and 14
co-sponsors of Wyden's Healthy Americans Act (S
334) on Friday sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama asking
him to consider the plan as a model for universal health care, CQ
Today reports. The bill would effectively replace the
employer-sponsored health care system with a system in which individuals
would be required to purchase private health insurance through
state-administered purchasing pools (Wayne, CQ Today, 11/21).
Congressional Budget Office
Director Peter Orzsag estimated that the plan would become "more than
self-financing" after a few years (Bolton, The Hill, 11/21).
The also letter was
signed by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Bob Bennett (R-Utah), Maria
Cantwell (D-Wash.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Bob
Corker (R-Tenn.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Daniel Inouye
(D-Hawaii), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Bill Nelson
(D-Fla.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). The
lawmakers did not propose that Obama back Wyden's plan, but they wrote
that health care overhaul should reflect the principles behind the bill,
including establishing universal health coverage, ensuring affordable
coverage, overhauling the private insurance market and improving health
care quality (Wayne, CQ Today, 11/21). In addition, the
lawmakers said Obama must demand reform that promotes improved disease
prevention, makes health care prices and choices easier for consumers to
understand and modernizes federal tax rules for health
coverage.
The senators wrote, "Over the last two years, we have
come together as Democrats and Republicans to co-sponsor the Healthy
Americans Act because we believe that for health reform to succeed it must
be bipartisan," adding, "We also believe that in these tough economic
times with soaring budget deficits, it is critical to fix our broken
health care system without breaking the bank" (The Hill,
11/21). The letter states, "We believe Congress must explore financing
mechanisms that would maximize the use of existing health care dollars and
ideally produce savings in the future" (CQ Today,
11/21).
Wyden said he plans to "work very closely" with the
incoming Obama administration, as well as Senate Finance Committee
Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) -- both of whom are crafting separate
health care overhaul legislation.
Baucus Meets With Budget Leaders
In related news, Baucus
last week met separately with Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.),
ranking member Gregg and members of the Senate HELP Committee to discuss
how pay-go rules could affect efforts to overhaul the health care system.
According to CongressDaily, "Baucus has said recently that he
will try to convince Conrad and Gregg that a health care overhaul will
need to skirt budget pay-go rules, given the economy." Baucus said, "I
think there are going to be upfront investments that are necessary -- that
you have to invest in order to reap long-term savings and increase in
value."
According to CongressDaily, Conrad "is a
fiscal hawk who is unlikely to throw pay-go rules to the wind"; however,
last year he said that health care reforms that have "potential for
long-term savings, even though they may have upfront costs" should be
considered. House
Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Thursday
said, "I really don't see if you're talking about education, health care,
infrastructure, that you can possibly say that you can't afford it when
your economic status means that you're not competitive now."
CongressDaily reports that House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) "has
echoed those thoughts on pa-go" (Edney, CongressDaily,
11/21).