Reply #21: Bush's allies have quietly begun lobbying Republican lawmakers --heads [View All]

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up!

.....President Bush's allies have quietly begun lobbying Republican lawmakers on some of the health-care proposals he will outline in his State of the Union address this month.

Former Bush economic adviser R. Glenn Hubbard said he was briefing Republican leaders in the House and Senate and their staffs on his recommendations, which are shaping up as central elements of Bush's 2006 domestic agenda.

The President said Friday that he would aim to make health savings accounts more widespread, seek price disclosure for medical services, and make health insurance more widely available to the 45.8 million Americans whom the Census Bureau said were uninsured in 2004.

"I decided this is a national issue that requires a national response," Bush said in a speech in Sterling, Va., a Washington suburb. The government, he said, must ensure "that health care is available and affordable."