AON Consulting Invites D.C. Leaders To Respond On Health Care

October 26, 2009 – AON Consulting

Aon Consulting invited key leaders from both sides of the health care reform debate to let us know their thoughts. We thank House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) for providing our readers with their perspectives on health care reform. We encouraged them to offer their thoughts as each deemed appropriate, and as you'll see, one responded through a Q&A, and the other as an opinion piece. Please click on the following links to read the articles from both Speaker Pelosi and Senator Chambliss.

Last Week in Washington

Discussions over the public option continued to dominate the debate, as lawmakers mull over including variations of the public option. The various forms of public options being proposed include a "robust" federal public option, based on Medicare reimbursement; Senator Olympia Snowe’s (R-ME) delayed trigger option; and a newly discussed option for states to opt out of or opt in to a created public option. Democratic leaders are feeling increased pressure from liberal members to include a public option, but are also receiving significant pushback from moderate Democrats, including both moderate Senate Democrats and the House Blue Dog Coalition. Representative Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) stated, "For those of us in rural districts, the robust public option would be like a BTU tax vote," referring to a 1993 vote on tax that many members believe resulted in lost elections in 1994.

The Senate Finance Committee released for public view the legislative language of the America’s Healthy Future Act. Top Democratic leaders of the Finance and Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions Committees continued to work behind closed doors on merging the two respective bills.
In the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated their bill would reduce the U.S. budget deficit over 10 years and cost roughly $871 billion.

What to look for this week:

Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) may introduce the newly merged Senate health reform bill early this week. The bill will then be sent to the CBO for an official cost score. Once the merged House and Senate bills are produced, the debate about how to finance health reform will intensify, given significant differences between the House and Senate.

The House and Senate are expected to start floor debate on health care legislation next week.