Top 12 Key Players in 2011 Health Care Reform Debate

Employee Benefit Adviser, a website/blog targeted at benefit brokers and other advisors, just published a slideshow of the top 12 players in Washington D.C. on the health care reform debate that has already begun in this new year. (One time registration for the EBA site may be required to view.) I briefly summarize the list, below; more analysis is available in the slideshow itself:

AGAINST:
• Sen. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) – Chair to House Energy and Commerce Committee.
• Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) – Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee.
• Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) – Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee
• Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) – Chair of the House Budget Committee (this committee will oversee funding of health care reform; if House Republicans stymie appropriations needed to implement reform, as is widely expected, Rep. Ryan will be instrumental in this process).
• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) – Ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee.
• Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) – Speaker of the House.

FOR:
• Donald Berwick – Head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) – Senate Majority Leader.
• Jacob Lew – Director of the Office of Management and Budget, replacing Peter Orszag
• Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) – Chair of the Senate Finance Committee
• Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services
• President Obama (natch).