The Plum Line (Greg Sargent's new blog at WP) Major CEOs Warm To Obama On Health Care (good sign!)

[Pirate Smile]

Major CEOs Warm To Obama On Health Care

Here’s another sign that bodes very well for President Obama’s efforts to overhaul the health care system.

With soaring health care costs dragging down major corporations like anchors, more major players in the business community are looking to get on board with reform this time. The key question is whether the business community can find enough common ground with labor and other stakeholders to unite behind a plan.

And this is a good sign: We just spoke to the Business Roundtable president John Castellani, who represents CEOs across the country and is a major player in the health care debate, because he’s playing a lead role in articulating what the business community needs to get on board.

Castellani tells our reporter, Ryan Derousseau, that he finds Obama’s budget, which allots $634 million for health care reform, “very encouraging.”

What does big business want from reform? Among their priorities: Making medical delivery more efficient; reform markets so each state doesn’t have its own rules; have government shoulder some of the costs.

There’s a long way to go, of course. But for now Castellani says he likes Obama’s rhetoric on health care. “They are looking at this through the lens of fiscal responsibility,” he says, a suggestion that that Obama’s approach is on its way towards creating common ground for big business and labor, a key step towards getting reform done.

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Posted by Greg Sargent | 02/26/2009, 02:20 PM EST

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/major-ceo-warm-to-obama-on-health-care/

[aquamarina]

1. This is good.