[MarignyBywater] Obama.....Louisiana Health

[nolarussell at bellsouth.net]

With the fed offering 1.6 bil, for Health, we should redo the healthcare system in Louisiana. DHH Levine has made a convincing case that we need to change the way we are doing things. My understanding from DHH is their needs assessment may be helpful. Single payer; parish or regional system of care  Yes we can.

Russell Henderson
Organizing for Louisiana





ADMINISTRATION NEWS 1.  President Obama Discusses Need for Overhauling U.S. Health CareSystem at 'Fiscal Responsibility Summit'


     President Obama on Monday at the WhiteHouse hosted a "fiscal responsibility summit" during which headdressed health care and other issues, CongressDailyreports (Condon, CongressDaily, 2/24). According tothe San Francisco Chronicle, the "summitserved several purposes: to establish Obama's credibility as aDemocrat who cares about budget deficits despite the stimulus, tocourt allies in both parties who are pivotal to his aims and tothrow down the gauntlet on health care reform."

During the summit, Obama and White House Office of Managementand Budget Director Peter Orszag said that efforts to limitMedicare spending will require broader health care reform. Orszagsaid, "Let me be very clear: Health care reform is entitlementreform," adding, "The path of fiscal responsibility must rundirectly through health care" (Lochhead, San FranciscoChronicle, 2/24). He cited efforts to limit health carecosts as the "single most important thing we can do" for long-termfiscal stability (Condon, CongressDaily, 2/23).

Obama said, "Putting America on a sustainable fiscal course willrequire addressing health care," adding, "Many of you said what Ibelieve, that the biggest source of our deficits is the rising costof health care" (Kranish/Wangsness, Boston Globe, 2/24). In addition,Obama said that he seeks to "educat(e) the public" on the"tradeoffs involved in health care" reform (Young, The Hill, 2/23).

Obama also announced plans to hold an additional summit on healthcare in the middle of next week (Thomma, McClatchy/Miami Herald, 2/23). Thesummit on health care will focus on proposals to expand healthinsurance to more U.S. residents and reduce health care costs(Boston Globe, 2/24). According to TheHill, "by scheduling a White House summit on health reformin early March, Obama is sending a clear message to Congress andthe public that he is not setting aside his ambitious health careagenda" (The Hill, 2/23).
Budget Proposal
During the fiscal responsibility summit, Obama also discussed theoutline of his fiscal year 2010 budget proposal, which he willrelease on Thursday. He said that the proposal will target Medicarespending. Obama said that efforts to reduce the federal budgetdeficit and the nearly $11-trillion national debt will requireefforts to limit health care costs in public programs and theprivate sector (Wolf, USA Today, 2/24). According to theWashington Post, the White House"offered no timetable for those goals and few explicit ideas forhow to achieve them, disappointing some lawmakers and otherparticipants, who had hoped the summit might produce greatermomentum to fix the chronic imbalance between government spendingand tax collections that is driving the national debt to dangerouslevels" (Montgomery/Goldstein, Washington Post,2/24).

Obama in recent days also indicated that he "has no plans to backaway from campaign promises to revamp the nation's health caresystem and create new sources of clean energy, both of which costmoney, at least in the short term," Roll Call reports(Koffler, Roll Call, 2/24). According to the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, his"challenge is clear: He will have to increase spending on healthcare and energy if he wants to accomplish the policy overhaul hepromised during his campaign, yet he also needs to cut spendingelsewhere and increase revenue to meet his deficit goal" (Kuhnhenn,AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/24). The Obamaadministration and congressional Democrats "are putting out a newline ... that plans to revamp the health care system are the key tocost savings that will help reduce spending on Medicare," accordingto Roll Call (Roll Call, 2/24).

According to a Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday,few U.S. adults believe that Medicare and Social Security willprovide them with benefits through retirement. The telephone poll,conducted from Feb. 19 to Feb. 22, includes responses from a randomsample of 1,001 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plusor minus three percentage points. Eight percent of adults are veryconfident that Medicare will provide them with benefits throughretirement, the poll found. Among adults ages 65 and older, 67%believe that Medicare will provide them with benefits throughretirement, according to the poll (Fletcher/Cohen, WashingtonPost, 2/24).

 Complete results of the pollare available online.
Speech
On Tuesday night, Obama will address a joint session of Congress,during which he likely will "launch arguably the most ambitiouscomponent of his domestic agenda: providing medical insurance toall U.S. residents," CQ Today reports (Bettelheim,CQ Today, 2/23). According to the Washington Times, Obama plans to"use a significant portion" of his speech "to highlight his plansfor health care reform" and "tell Congress and the nation thatoverhauling the country's health system is the country's nextsignificant priority" (Lengell, Washington Times,2/24).

"Experts say that by designating health care as a priority now,Obama is trying to take advantage of a narrow window of opportunitywhen the public and many interest groups favor change and theeconomic crisis is making health coverage an imperative," CQToday reports (Bettelheim, CQ Today, 2/23).
Omnibus Appropriations Bill
In related news, congressional Democrats on Monday introduced anomnibus appropriations bill (HR 1105) that includes the FY 2009 Labor-HHS-Educationappropriations bill and the eight other unapproved FY 2009appropriations bills. Since last October, the federal governmenthas operated under a continuing resolution that will fund mostCabinet departments and federal agencies at FY 2008 levels untilMarch 6. The omnibus appropriations bill would fund thosedepartments and agencies from March 7 until Sept. 30, the end ofthe fiscal year (Wayne, CQ Today, 2/23). The billrepresents an 8%, or $30 billion, increase over comparable budgetsfor those departments and agencies in FY 2008 (Sands/Bellantoni,Washington Times, 2/24).

The House plans to vote on the bill this week (Kelley, USA Today, 2/24). The Senate likelywill vote on the bill next week (Bendavid, Wall Street Journal, 2/24).

The bill would provide $625.6 billion in Labor-HHS-Educationappropriations, which includes about $152 billion in discretionaryspending, an almost $6 billion increase from FY 2008. Under thebill, the HHS budget would increase by about 4% from FY 2008. Thebill would increase the NIH budget by $932 million from FY 2008. In addition,the bill would increase funds for a program to train health careworkers by 12% from FY 2008 to $393 million (Wayne, CQToday, 2/23). The bill also includes $6.6 billion forCDC (WallStreet Journal, 2/24).

The bill would provide $20.5 billion in discretionary spending forAgriculture appropriations. The bill includes $2 billion forFDA and $14.5million to establish a nationwide animal tracking system designedto prevent disease outbreaks and improve food safety (Sternstein,CQ Today, 2/23).
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