Unfortunately there's not any detailed amount of information on this (due to a News embargo), but apparently all of the parties are coming to the table tomorrow with some BIG savings in Healthcare reform. This is going to be all over tomorrow. All the major players are coming to the WH tomorrow, including the SEIU, coming with 2 TRILLION (with a T) in Healthcare savings because of reform.
Marc Ambinder Article
AP Article
UPDATE: POLITICO HAS THE STORY
Politico Article
Here's what Marc Ambinder says about this:
The White House just held an embargoed briefing for reporters about a new health care cost initiative that will be announced tomorrow. I'll respect the embargo, even though the Associated Press has got the basics of it in a dispatch: representatives from major health care stakeholders have agreed to a comprehensive, multi-faceted outline (still and outline) of $2 trillion in cost-reductions. This is big -- and I'm not talking about the news. I'm talking about the dealmaking between unions, corporations, the health insurance companies and hospitals. And there all going to be at the White House tomorrow. What's the bottom line political significance of all of this: it means that the White House is gonna get health care reform, this year.
That said, there is some cautionary news coming from this from the AP article linked in Ambinder's column:
In a rare move before the administration has unveiled all the details of its proposal, the industry groups are trying to strike a deal now with Obama officials to help get coverage for all Americans in the hopes they can stave off legislation that would restrict their profitability in future years. Obama has courted industry and provider groups; he invited representatives to a health care summit discussion at the White House. There is a sense among some of the groups that this may be the best opportunity to strike a deal before public opinion turns against them, fueled by anger over costs.
Insurers, for example, want to avoid creation of a government health plan that would directly compete with them to enroll middle-class workers and their families. Drug makers worry that in the future, new medications might have to pass a cost-benefit test before they can win approval. And hospitals and doctors are concerned the government could dictate what they get paid to care for any patient, not only the elderly and the poor.
In other words the parties want to come together, but we don't know if they'll include a public plan with the administration's policy. One thing's for sure, is that the parties are actually willing to come together to get this thing hammered out. Because here's the big thing they're thinking, Whoever is not at the table will lose
UPDATE:
Dennis Rivera, chairman of SEIU Healthcare, spearheaded the effort in the last month or so, administration officials said, and they must continue to meet to draw up the full scope of potential savings.
The groups agreed to not speak publicly about the plan until the White House event Monday.
"This is very significant," another senior official said. "It fundamentally aligns the provider goals with the president's goals of getting reform done this year. That is a game changer in our opinion."
UPDATE II: Let me be clear to everyone reading this diary and the subsequent stories. Based on what is being reported online, there is no, I repeat no healthcare plan insofar. This is merely an offer that the parties coming together are working in "good faith" on the issue. That is all. A reporter did ask whether Obama wanted a public plan, he said he still does.
UPDATE III: Krugman LIKEY a Lot. Specifically, he stated that while we should be very cautious with this news, this is absolutely perfect to rejoice about.
Krugman Column
I would strongly urge the Obama administration to hang tough in the bargaining ahead. In particular, AHIP will surely try to use the good will created by its stance on cost control to kill an important part of health reform: giving Americans the choice of buying into a public insurance plan as an alternative to private insurers. The administration should not give in on this point.
But let me not be too negative. The fact that the medical-industrial complex is trying to shape health care reform rather than block it is a tremendously good omen. It looks as if America may finally get what every other advanced country already has: a system that guarantees essential health care to all its citizens.
And serious cost control would change everything, not just for health care, but for America’s fiscal future. As Mr. Orszag has emphasized, rising health care costs are the main reason long-run budget projections look so grim. Slow the rate at which those costs rise, and the future will look far brighter.
I still won’t count my health care chickens until they’re hatched. But this is some of the best policy news I’ve heard in a long time.