CQ’s Armstrong Discusses Health Reform Timeline, White House Health Care Summit, FDA Regulation of Tobacco Products
Drew Armstrong, a Congressional Quarterly staff reporter, discusses the timeline lawmakers have set for overhauling the U.S. health care system, President Obama's role in moving reform forward and legislation that would grant FDA the power to regulate tobacco products in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ."
Armstrong says that in the past few months, it has become "obvious" who the major players are in trying to overhaul the U.S. health care system. Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) are "top players in the Senate and House" and both have said they hope to get health reform legislation out of their committees before the August recess. According to Armstrong, Obama began driving the agenda by holding a White House health care summit last week, to which he invited various stakeholders in the health reform debate to start talking about what the overhaul should look like. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is working with the insurance industry, the drug industry, some patient groups and representatives from physicians and hospitals in order to find an agreement on health care between parties whose interests often conflict, Armstrong says. Meanwhile, House and Senate Republicans are developing their own views on the issue. A letter to Obama from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other GOP lawmakers said that they would work with Obama, but that they oppose any coverage expansion that includes a government-sponsored health insurance option, Armstrong says.
According to Armstrong, many of the people involved in the current health care debate "don't want to repeat" the problems that led to the failure of former President Clinton's health care plan in 1993. Armstrong adds that Obama last week nominated Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) as HHS secretary and named Nancy-Ann DeParle to lead the White House Office for Health Reform, "so some of the pressure will be off Sebelius to be the point person on overhaul." He says, "It's going to be up to the president and Congress to answer" questions about health reform "in a way that makes people comfortable if they want to keep health care overhaul rolling."
Armstrong also discusses the upcoming congressional debate on legislation that would grant FDA the power to regulate tobacco products. According to Armstrong, the legislation, which was debated in the House in 2008, would result in new, bigger warnings on cigarette packages, stricter limits on marketing and advertising and newfound regulation of nicotine levels in tobacco products. Philip Morris, the nation's largest tobacco company, is supporting the bill, while other, slightly smaller companies like Lorillard and R.J. Reynolds are fighting it, according to Armstrong. He says some Republicans do not endorse the bill because they want a separate agency to control tobacco rather than FDA, which they consider to be already overburdened. However, Armstrong says, if Democrats in the Senate are willing to debate the bill, it should have a good chance of becoming law (Armstrong, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ," 3/9).
The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online at kaisernetwork.org
