Pelosi aide expects health care reform by Easter

Congress "can pass a reconciliation bill and have a health reform bill by Easter recess," says Wendell Primus, a top aide for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Primus, a senior Pelosi advisor on budget and health issues who spoke at Academy Health's National Health Policy Conference in Washington Feb. 9, said the only way to pass a bill is for the House to use the budget reconciliation process to change a provision in the Senate version with which the House Democratic majority disagrees (1"The Tan Sheet" Jan. 18, 2010). Republican congressional aides at the conference said they could support passing a series of smaller health-focused reform bills, such as Medicare reforms or other targeted refinements. But a Democratic aide from the Senate Finance Committee suggested Democrats are unlikely to support that approach