Obama lays down markers on healthcare

It’s just two-pages long and most of what it says could’ve been lifted from the Obama campaign website but the letter President Obama sent to Capitol Hill Wednesday could well mark the moment when the epicenter of healthcare reform moved west on Pennsylvania Ave from Capitol Hill to the White House.

One day after meeting with more than 20 Democratic senators, Obama sent a letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that more rigidly defines what he wants in the healthcare reform bill he’s hoping to sign before the end of the year.

Obama starts out by praising the senators work so far and observing that they are all most on the same page. For example, Obama writes, “The plans you are discussing embody my core belief that Americans should have better choices for health insurance, building on the principle that if they like the coverage they have now, they can keep it, while seeing their costs lowered as our reforms take hold.”

The president then goes on to say the bill’s got to have a public option, it can’t legally require poor people to buy insurance they can’t afford, it can’t mandate that small companies offer insurance or pay into healthcare fund, and hints pretty strongly that Obama still doesn’t like the idea of taxing workers’ health insurance benefits.

– Jeffrey Young