Members of House, Senate Discuss Goals for Overhauling U.S. Health Care System

Summaries of recent news about lawmakers' approaches and goals for overhauling the U.S. health care system appear below.

• House: Attempts at health care reform this year might not result in a single, comprehensive piece of legislation but instead could be done in "stages," according to House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), CongressDaily reports. In an interview with CongressDaily, Pallone said such efforts could come in three parts. These include an upgrade of government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, an increase in employer-sponsored health plans -- potentially incentivized via the tax system -- and availability of a federal option for health coverage. Pallone said the goal of universal coverage would take precedence for any health-related committee. Medicare and Medicaid upgrades could include changes to the administration of the Medicare drug benefit and altering the Medicare physician payment system, according to Pallone. Pallone said his "second priority is food safety and the FDA globalization bill," which aims to strengthen the agency's ability to manage food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cosmetics by giving it more resources to fund inspections and more authority to prevent and detect contamination. According to Pallone, House Democrats will attempt to work on health care overhaul efforts and FDA improvements simultaneously. Pallone added that he does not believe a measure to allow FDA to approve generic versions of biologic drugs will be attached to overhaul legislation. Pallone also said he plans to try to reverse a recent Supreme Court decision that protects medical device makers from lawsuits (Edney, CongressDaily, 2/24).
  
  
• Senate: At the White House economic summit on Monday, which included a session on health care that was the "first major ... event on health care overhaul under" President Obama, several senators discussed their goals for health reform, CQ Today reports. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chair Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said his goal was to move a Senate health care overhaul bill by Memorial Day. Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said he expected the reform process to be completely bipartisan. Republicans present at the session said any reform effort would be unsuccessful unless Obama ensures their participation and includes their ideas, according to CQ Today. At a separate session, Baucus said that Obama could find a different way for the government to deal with health care premiums by looking at the tax code regarding health care premiums for businesses. Businesses currently are exempt from paying taxes on the money they spend on employees' health premiums, which precludes the federal government from collecting between $140 billion and $200 billion annually in taxes. Baucus added that he was not calling for a complete repeal of the tax exemption but potentially a partial one, which Republican lawmakers previously have suggested (Armstrong, CQ Today, 2/23).