Business concerns focus of Obama's holiday party lobbying

Politico: "President Barack Obama took on the role of health care lobbyist Monday when he pulled Business Roundtable President John Castellani out of a White House holiday party and personally urged him to stick with the reform effort." The president "'impressed upon him that the bill will bring down costs for business,' according to an administration source." Castellani said he used the opportunity to "encourage the president to back a package of amendments being offered by freshman Democratic senators aimed at accelerating cost containment measures." The "Roundtable's board last week raised alarms that the cost containment provisions in the Senate bill were not aggressive enough and would not accomplish that goal. The group also opposes a new set of taxes and fees that would affect its membership" (Cummings, 12/16).

---

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.