Public Health Scene

On July 16, Doug Elmendorf, Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said “a large-scale expansion of insurance coverage would represent a permanent increase of roughly 10 percent” to the federal budget, which is on an “unsustainable path.” With that declaration, the President’s end-of-summer deadline for signing a health care bill died.

CBO reached that conclusion after a thorough in-house analysis. But the agency also regularly consults with a cadre of non-D.C.-based economists. SPH professor Roger Feldman serves on the CBO’s Panel of Health Advisors. Recently, he’s been asked to weigh in on how malpractice reform would affect health care costs and the economic implications of a public option.

This isn’t Feldman’s first time at bat with health care reform or Washington politics--he served on the senior staff of the Council of Economic Advisors during Reagan's presidency and assisted the health reform task force for the Clinton administration. Feldman says this time around a weak economy boosts CBO’s power in the reform process. “The mood in Congress and in the country is very cautious about increasing the deficit,” he says. “CBO has much more influence in this kind of environment.”