But Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) will still show up at 8 am to give a special breakfast presentation at the Health Action 2009 conference—hosted by Families USA. We were up bright and early as the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee began the day's events with a spirited town-hall style discussion.
Next up, the opening plenary session featured House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Senator Debbie Stabenow with Princeton Professor Uwe Reinhardt giving an entertaining closing presentation. Chairman of House Committee on Energy and Commerce Henry Waxman (D-CA) just gave the luncheon keynote to standing applause from packed house in the Continental Ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel.
Here are some highlights from the morning's action.

• Health Refrom: Coming Soon to a Congress Near You? All of this morning's speakers agreed that health care was an issue that demanded immediate action. Hoyer promised major health reform legislation during the 111th Congress. Waxman said he would work as Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to move legislation this year. Stabenow called the money for Health IT in the economic recovery act an important first step.
• The Economy is a Reason, Not an Excuse: Hoyer made clear that fixing the economy means fixing health care, and our current economic downturn is not an excuse to delay action. Stabenow stressed the unique moment we have before us. Reinhardt closed his presentation noting that Chinese word for crisis combines the words for danger and opportunity and Waxman argued we must make the most of this opportunity. Grassley noted that the passing an economic stimulus would not eat up the political capital to move major health reform—but that the state of the economy might require some reforms to be phased in.
• Cover Everyone: Both Waxman and Hoyer stressed this was a key to any reform component. Reinhardt argued that in order to require insurers sell to anyone (guaranteed issue) without discriminating on things like health status (community rating) you had to require everyone is covered. Similarly Grassley said he'd be open to a mandate, but stressed the importance of accessibility and affordability.
• Bipartisanship is Key: We know we and every other politician you've ever heard has been saying this for while, but it doesn't make it any less true. Grassley praised Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) for his efforts to include members from both sides of aisle to lay the groundwork for true bipartisan reform.
• Senators, They're Just Like Us! Uwe Reinhardt recalled being on a Health Action 2007 panel with a junior senator from Illinois. What did the two talk about in the downtime between the presentation? Socks. It seems both Princeton economist and the current President of the United States, Barack Obama were concerned that they were not wearing matching stocking (Obama, it seems, matches based solely on thickness, and Michelle does not sort his socks.) Also, Chuck Grassley is cooler than us, possessing accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

We're off to catch an afternoon panel with key members from the Senate Finance, Senate HELP, and House Energy and Commerce Committee. Later we'll relay some insights from a bloggers roundtable with Uwe Reinhardt (who blogs for the New York Times). Special thanks to the amazing Julia Eisman of Families USA for all her hard work arranging this.