Democrats Raise Alarms Over Costs of Health Bills

[IndianaGreen]

Democrats Raise Alarms Over Costs of Health Bills

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: November 9, 2009

WASHINGTON — As health care legislation moves toward a crucial airing in the Senate, the White House is facing a growing revolt from some Democrats and analysts who say the bills Congress is considering do not fulfill President Obama’s promise to slow the runaway rise in health care spending.

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The debate underscores a fundamental tension inside the White House between cost-containment idealists and pragmatists.

The first group includes officials like Peter R. Orszag, the budget director, and Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, the medical ethicist whose brother Rahm is the chief of staff. The second includes Rahm Emanuel and Nancy-Ann DeParle, the director of the Office of Health Reform, who must contend with the realities of getting legislation passed.

“Let’s be honest,” Rahm Emanuel said in a recent interview. “The goal isn’t to see whether I can pass this through the executive board of the Brookings Institution. I’m passing it through the United States Congress with people who represent constituents.”

He went on: “I’m sure there are a lot of people sitting in the shade at the Aspen Institute — my brother being one of them — who will tell you what the ideal plan is. Great, fascinating. You have the art of the possible measured against the ideal.”

Mr. Orszag would not be interviewed. But in an e-mail message sent through a spokesman, he said the current legislation “lays the foundation” for cost-cutting over the long-term, adding: “Will more need to be done in the future? Absolutely.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/health/policy/10cost.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&ref=politics&adxnnlx=1257858318-n/p/tWeRsOz4c5/7tgFj+w

[global1]

1. Yeah - Really? - If Your Constituents Are Insurance, Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Companies......

"I’m passing it through the United States Congress with people who represent constituents.” Rahm Emanual

[IndianaGreen]

2. Evan Bayh's wife, Susan, sits on the board of Wellpoint

The Bayhs will always represent the health insurers and Big Pharma against the people.

[geek tragedy]

3. Yep, it's the ConservaDems who are pushing this.

Look who else is chiming in:

Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican whose vote the administration is courting, convened a news conference on Monday with Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a member of the Republican leadership, to spotlight her concerns over cost containment. Ms. Collins said she had been meeting with a group of moderate Democrats who shared her views.

“I don’t believe we need more pilot projects to show us that health care delivery reforms are necessary,” she said in an interview. She added, “I think people are much more upset over the cost of care than the administration is acknowledging.”