Headlines
- Obama on the road to pitch health billSeeking to close the deal on a health care overhaul, President Obama is getting out of Washington, leaving the city he loves to bash and giving himself a platform to portray himself as an outsider going up against big insurance companies and their Capitol Hill lobbyists.
- Four big obstacles remain for ObamacareHouse Democratic leaders concede they do not have enough support to pass President Obama’s health care package, but the party is hopeful it will come up with the 216 votes needed to pass the bill before the March 18 deadline set by the White House. But first they will have to clear a number of hurdles standing in the way of passage.
- Hidden Dangers It’s all supposed to be voluntary, those ‘home visits’ that are tucked into the mammoth Obamacare bill. All voluntary, they say, but once you ‘volunteer’ to have the oh-so-helpful folks from Social Services come in to help with your newborns, or with a number of other specified issues, will you ever be able to get rid of them? The bill provides for federal funding and supervision for this vast expansion of government intrusion into family life… Is your family being ‘targeted’ for such home visitations? Let’s see if you fit into one of these very broad categories…
- President Obama takes reform on the roadA trio of national polls taken in late February shows opposition to the Democrats’ health plan at between 47 percent and 52 percent. Support hovers in the 41 percent-to-44 percent range, with most of the intensity on the side of those opposed. Moreover, a big majority of poll respondents say they want the White House to focus more attention on job creation and the economy than on the yearlong health reform push.
- A Handy Road Map for the Final WeeksThis really is the home stretch in the health care debate. But after 199 laps around the racetrack, it is hard not to feel dizzy, and even a little lost. So here is a handy road map for the next three weeks - a sort of GPS guide to the health care finish line.
- Obama to appeal for public support on health care With the fate of his signature legislative initiative far from certain, President Barack Obama is taking his last-ditch push for health care reform on the road… Though his plan has received only modest public support, Obama has implored lawmakers to show political courage and not let a historic opportunity slip away..
- Baird: Healthcare votes of retiring Democrats aren’t necessarily in the bag Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) stressed Sunday that the votes of retiring Dems such as himself aren’t necessarily in the bag. Appearing across from Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ Baird heartily agreed in principle with the need to reform healthcare but expressed reservations about the current bills. He responded ‘yes’ when host Candy Crowley asked if he would vote against the current proposals even if it meant that healthcare reform went down.
- Lieberman: Bipartisanship the best route for health careSen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., who broke with Democratic leadership on a public option and expansion of Medicare as part of health care reform, is now not sure he will vote for the overhaul if it depends on use of reconciliation. In a conference call Thursday, Lieberman said a Republican colleague told him there will no agreement on any legislation going forward if the major health bill passes through this parliamentary tactic, which requires only a simple majority, avoiding a filibuster and the 60 votes needed to overcome one. He said reconciliation is usually “not used on something this big,” and said the best thing is to have bipartisan agreement.
- A dozen Democrats may sink health care reform over abortion Appearing this morning on ABC’s Good Morning America, Rep. Bart Stupak told George Stephanopoulos that he and 11 other Democrats will not vote for the health care bill unless it includes more stringent language to prevent federal funding from going toward abortion services. The Michigan Democrat was the author of the Stupak Amendment which became part of the House bill after a vote of 240-194.
- Dems Race to Pass Health Care Bill as Tea Partiers Plan Town Hall WaveDemocrats are racing the clock to pass health care reform ahead of a wave of Tea Party-driven town hall meetings planned for the spring recess — the kind of gatherings that nearly derailed the package last August. But there’s a big difference this time around. Last summer, Democrats were encouraged to hold the town hall meetings, and they were blindsided by the backlash, which was recorded and promoted in countless YouTube clips. This time around, they have a good idea of what’s coming — and they’re lying low, in case work on health care carries over into the recess.
- Obama wants Dems to keep trying on stalled planPresident Obama’s Republican-flavored health-care proposal landed with a thud on Capitol Hill, where backers face a brutal fight to get it passed… ‘The fact is, reconciliation wasn’t designed to be, and has never been, used as a partisan political tactic to force wildly unpopular policies on America,’ said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.
- W.H. warns Dems: Don’t flip-flopTwo senior administration officials said the White House is telling Democrats reconsidering their support for health care reform that they will pay the price for their original vote no matter what happens, so they should reap the political benefits of actually passing a law.
- President Launches Last Push on Health-Care Overhaul With polls showing that the legislation is unpopular and congressional Democrats bracing for big losses in this fall’s elections, the president urged them to ignore the politics. ‘I do not know how this plays politically, but I know it’s right,’ he said. ‘Let’s get it done.
- Obama: ‘Congress owes the American people a final vote on healthcare’Republicans seem pretty certain about how they think it will play with voters: ‘This is politically toxic in the extreme,’ said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). ‘What we know about the healthcare bill is that the people don’t want it passed. It’s overwhelmingly unpopular. I assure you that… there’s an overwhelming likelihood that every Republican candidate will be campaigning to repeal it,’ McConnell said.
- President Obama looking for up-or-down voteObama is expected to stop short of formally calling for the use of reconciliation when he addresses his plans for health reform in remarks at the White House Wednesday, but officials say his message will be clear - Congress should take an up-or-down vote on a comprehensive plan.
- Obama cites GOP ideas as he preps health care planIn a bit of political sleight of hand, Obama said he might include four GOP-sponsored ideas in his plan, even though virtually no one in Congress or the White House thinks it will procure a single Republican vote. The move is aimed instead at wavering Democrats, especially in the House. Some of them might find it easier to vote for the health care package if they can tell constituents it had bipartisan elements that Republicans should have supported.
- What Obama ‘left out’ about the uninsuredOver the last year, Obama has offered three rationales for reform: cutting costs, curbing insurance industry “abuses” that undermine middle-class security, and insuring the uninsured. In his riposte to Barrasso, though, the old community organizer really seemed to be speaking from the heart. This was a case for health reform as social justice, and Obama made it with conviction. Just one question: Does it correspond to the facts?
- Government heath care—whether you want it or notAmericans do not want this massive government takeover of our health care. Fearing that Cajun extraterrestrial James Carville is correct, Obama is intent on ramming it down our throats. This is not about what’s right; it’s about politicians perpetuating their power.
- Reconciliation on health care would be an assault to the democratic processAmerica’s Founders gave us a system of governance designed to limit government power and maximize liberty… No single branch has all the power… To impose the will of some Democrats and to circumvent bipartisan opposition, President Obama seems to be encouraging Congress to use the “reconciliation” process, an arcane budget procedure, to ram through the Senate a multitrillion-dollar health-care bill that raises taxes, increases costs and cuts… But the Constitution intends the opposite process, especially for a bill that would affect one-sixth of the American economy.
- Pelosi’s challenge: Hold the lineThe world has changed a lot since the House passed its health care bill last fall. Back then, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed the bill with just two votes to spare. If she took the same vote today, she’d have the bare minimum of votes she would need, after the death of Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, three House resignations and the defection of the only Republican to vote yes.
- EDITORIAL: Canada’s warning against government health care President Obama and congressional Democrats are ramping up efforts to ram through a government takeover of the health care system. The vast majority of Americans are opposed to this bureaucratic power grab because they know government will do what it always does, which is increase cost while lowering efficiency and service. In case there’s any doubt, all you have to do is look to our neighbor to the north for tales of doom and gloom that come with nationalized health care. Canada provides a clear warning about government involvement in health care as even its most prominent citizens come to America for important procedures.
- Health care summit uselessBefore last Thursday’s health care summit devolved into a classic blame game, there was a slight hope of some meaningful health care reform. Republicans and Democrats both mentioned fraud prevention and tort reform as worthwhile goals. Many Republicans also want to allow people to buy health care across state lines, increasing competition. Unfortunately, Democrats will not pass any of these goals. They see themselves too close to their ultimate objective of a massive increase in the power of the federal government to make sacrifices for health care.
- Democrats dig in for last standDemocrats, including President Barack Obama, like to say Americans care more about the shape of a final bill than the way it was passed. But the Senate health care bill has suffered, in part, because of a voter backlash over the tactics Democrats employed to secure 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans are craving a repeat.
- McCain: Obama, Congress Must Move Past ‘Unsavory Deals’McCain said he hoped last week’s health care summit at the Blair House could be “the basis for some good negotiations,” but said that would be undercut if Democrats tried to move the health care reform bill under reconciliation protections requiring just a simple majority in the Senate. McCain said he and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) would unveil legislation limiting the use of reconciliation related to entitlement programs.
- Pelosi to Dems: back health bill even if it hurtsHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. health care even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue’s massive role in this election year.
- Democrats push ahead on health care, against nation’s wishesThese promises are of a kind with the others made by supporters of health care reform: that people will be able to keep their existing coverage; that those in the middle class will face no tax increases to pay for the expanding coverage; that the quality of care will not decline. These promises are empty. These promises are false. They have no connection with economic reality.
- The aftermath of the health care summit: Confusion, conflict
So that means a party looking to emerge from the summit with a clear sense of the path forward instead find itself in the same old place - fighting the clock to finish health care, with an uncertain timeline, a complex legislative path and no idea if its leaders can muster the votes. - At health-care summit, Obama tells Republicans he’s eager to move aheadPresident Obama declared Thursday that the time for debate over health-care reform has come to an end, closing an unusual seven-hour summit with congressional leaders by sending a clear message that Democrats will move forward to pass major legislation with or without Republican support.
- More Talk, No Deal at Health Summit At the end of the session, the president suggested that if no deal was at hand, Democrats would press forward alone and let voters be the ultimate judge. ‘That’s what elections are for,’ he said.
- President Urges Focus on Common Ground By day’s end, it seemed clear that the all-day televised session might have driven the parties even farther apart. Republicans said there was no way they would vote for Mr. Obama’s bill, and Democrats were talking openly about pushing it through Congress on a simple majority vote using a controversial parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation.
- Less health care for massesAmericans are going to hear lots of scare- mongering anecdotes at today’s health care summit, such as the 39 percent increase in insurance premiums announced this month by Anthem Blue Cross, a California company. President Obama and the Democrats have a solution: Pass a law to impose additional coverage by insurance companies, eliminate the multimillion-dollar cap insurance policies have on total benefits, and pile on lots of new red tape. These policies are guaranteed to raise rates.
- What to watch for at the health care summitThursday’s made-for-TV health reform summit is shaping up to be more like a presidential debate (without the podiums) than a backroom negotiation in which horses are traded and deals get done. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be illuminating, with Democrats and Republicans debating their differences in living color, not just on health care but on the role of government in American life. Here is what to watch for Thursday…
- Report Concludes President Obama’s Health Proposal Would Lead to Public OptionPresident Obama’s new health care plan will all but guarantee the elimination of private insurance and lead to a single payer government-run health care system, says a new report, “White House Health Care Plan Contains Back Door to a Public Option” by policy analyst Matt Patterson of the National Center For Public Policy Research.” Learn more about the findings.
- Senate Dems warm to reconciliationAn idea that seemed toxic only weeks ago - using a parliamentary tactic to ram health reform through the Senate - is gaining acceptance among moderate Democrats who have resisted the strategy but now say GOP opposition may force their hands… Democrats remain hesitant about using the procedure, fearful that Republicans will be successful in convincing voters that it is an end-run around the normal legislative process.
- Obama’s nanny care insults the American spiritYou are victims. You are helpless against the wiles of big corporations and insurance companies and you need protection. You need the government to take over and do things you cannot do for yourself.That is the thinking of what David Brooks calls ‘the educated class’ that favors the Democrats’ health care bills… But voters quickly sniff out what this means. The government will use the ’science’ of comparative effectiveness research to achieve cost savings the only way government can: denial of care.
- For Dems and GOP alike, optics are everythingThe official objective of Thursday’s health care summit at Blair House is to air a frank, public exchange of ideas that could lead to a thus-far elusive bipartisan compromise demanded by the American people. The Democrats’ unstated goal, of course, is to make congressional Republicans look like a bunch of whiny, cynical, ideologically bankrupt crybabies who don’t have a plan of their own.
- Key Dems: The public option is deadAfter months on life support, the public option died Tuesday. The White House and House leaders on Tuesday pronounced the government-run health program dead even as some Democratic senators continued their effort to resurrect it.
- Tony Fratto: Instead of Fixing Health Insurance Markets, Obama Plans to Fix PricesMake no mistake: having a White House-appointed panel set prices in health insurance is - effectively - government-run health insurance, and far more onerous than the so-called ‘public option’ rejected by Congress and the American people over the past year.
- Weiner: ‘This is a 51 vote plan, not a 60 vote plan’[T]his bill is a 51 vote plan and not a 60 vote plan - that is great news,’ Weiner said in a statement. ‘Democrats wasted a year bowing to the altar of Olympia Snowe, Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson and it got us nowhere.
- Obama is the real obstructionist at his health-care summit
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) says of this week’s bipartisan health-care summit: ‘Sounds like the Democrats spell summit: S-E-T-U-P…’ The president’s real objective is to paint GOP leaders as obstructionists — so that Democrats have an excuse to ram through their health-care legislation using extraordinary parliamentary procedures. - New health care plan, but with the same old problemsThe White House opened its last-ditch push for health reform Monday by releasing a $950 billion plan that signaled a new phase of hands-on presidential involvement. But by day’s end, President Barack Obama was staring down all the same old problems. Republicans called it a retread of the same bills Americans have panned, even though it included some GOP ideas. “Déjà vu all over again,” said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.).
- Obama sets stage for summit fight
Republican leaders fiercely criticized the proposal, declaring it a partisan document that contradicts Obama’s claim that he will enter Thursday’s healthcare sit-down with an open mind. ‘The president has crippled the credibility of this week’s summit by proposing the same massive government takeover of healthcare based on a partisan bill the American people have already rejected,’ House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio.) said. ‘This week’s summit clearly has all the makings of a Democratic infomercial. - Sebelius: White House may fight for public option in health bill
Eighteen Senators have signed a letter asking Harry Reid to push for the public option using reconciliation, which would allow Democrats to pass it with just 51 votes. (Republicans may be able to slow or halt the processing with procedural objections.) Appearing on MSNBC tonight, Sebelius said the administration would back that decision. - Obama to Offer Health Bill to Ease Impasse as Bipartisan Meeting Approaches
Democratic officials said the president’s proposal was being written so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The procedure, known as budget reconciliation, would let Democrats advance the bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority. Congressional Democrats, however, have not yet seen the proposal or signed on. - Obama to get specific on healthcare legislationPresident Obama, after sustaining months of criticism for not being clear about what he wanted in healthcare legislation, will post specific proposals for a comprehensive plan on the Internet by Monday, according to the White House… ‘I think the idea is that it will take some of the best of the ideas [from the House and Senate bills] and put them into a framework moving forward,’ Sebelius said.
- Rep. Boehner: If Democrats are finishing the healthcare bill, why have a summit?
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) doesn’t much like the fact that Democrats continue to piece together an agreement on healthcare reform in advance of a bipartisan summit next week - and mocks their inability to do so successfully… ‘We don’t need a six-hour infomercial for the latest Democratic backroom deal. We need to start over on real health care reforms to lower costs. That’s what the American people want, and what they deserve.’ - Republican Holds Out Hope on Health Care Overhaul Unlike some of his lame-duck colleagues, Sen. Judd Gregg isn’t disillusioned with Congress. Bipartisanship isn’t dead, he says, and neither is health care reform… But the plan is almost secondary to the approach Gregg is pushing: Start from scratch and work through the goals Republicans and Democrats agree on one by one rather than using the Democratic bills as a starting point or pitting them against a Republican-crafted alternative.
- Four more Dem senators sign on to public option letterFour more Democratic senators have signed on to a letter asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring the public option back up for a vote. Today, Sens. Al Franken, Pat Leahy, John Kerry and Sheldon Whitehouse signed on to the letter sent to Reid yesterday…. Still, its inclusion in a reconciliation bill is a long shot, as many Senate Democrats are loath to refight the public option battle.
- Zogby Poll Shows Americans Unwilling to Pay Higher Taxes to Insure EverybodyThe poll showed that Americans opposed the health care legislation by a 51 percent to 40 percent margin. More tellingly, the intensity was on the side of the opponents, with 43 percent saying they ’strongly oppose’ the bill compared to just 20 percent who say they ’strongly support’ it.
- Is Health Care Overhaul Doomed to Failure?As Democrats and Republicans sharpen their knives ahead of President Obama’s summit on health care, experts are questioning whether the president’s health care agenda is doomed to fail just as President Clinton’s did in the 1990’s. ‘If I had to place a bet on it, I would say two to one, it doesn’t [pass],’ said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and a proponent of health care reform.
- Both sides push health debate mythsAhead of next week’s White House summit on health care, both parties are pressing story lines on how the reform debate has played out that aren’t as tidy or truthful as Democrats and Republicans would like voters to believe…. The summit could help reset the negotiations, but with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, other top administration officials and 37 lawmakers all in attendance, the likelihood of a serious breakthrough appears dim.
- Excise Tax Loses Support Amid White House Push An agreement to tax high-cost, employer-sponsored health insurance plans, announced with fanfare by the White House and labor unions last month, is losing support from labor leaders, who say the proposal is too high a price to pay for the limited health care package they expect to emerge from Congress… With support for the tax eroding, Congressional leaders are searching for alternative sources of revenue.
- Progressives and the growing dependency agendaMost Democrats favor a ‘public option’ — a government health insurance program. They say there is insufficient competition among the 1,300 private providers of insurance…For congressional Democrats, however, expanding dependency on government is an end in itself. They began the Obama administration by expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. It was created for children of the working poor, but the expansion made millions of middle-class children eligible — some in households earning $125,000.
- Dems Eye ‘Reconciliation’ on Health Care, But Tactic Is No Smooth SolutionReconciliation is a seldom-used and controversial tactic that allows bills to be passed in the Senate with only a simple majority of votes, and Democrats said this week they are considering it as part of a plan to push through their stalled health care reform legislation in the face of entrenched Republican opposition…some Democrats believe the threat of reconciliation will be an effective negotiating tool going into the bipartisan health care reform summit scheduled for later this month.
- Get ready to call time of death on healthcare reformHealthcare reform is clinically dead. It is like a patient who has unexpectedly slipped into a coma without a do-not-resuscitate order. No one wants to disconnect life support. What was once so promising and vibrant is suddenly lifeless…There are many reasons why reform has failed. Here are my top 10…Reform must be bipartisan…’What’s in it for me?’ was never adequately answered…It never was true health reform..
- Interview with Senator Judd Gregg I think it is possible for a fair number of conservative senators, like myself, be willing to sign onto a bill that unalterably bends in the odd year the cost of health care and uses Medicare savings to make Medicare solvent. There is extraordinary fertile ground there. We are talking not hundreds of billions but trillions of dollars of potential adjustments in the unfunded liability and Medicare.
- Obama maps a way forward for a health OverhaulDespite their enthusiasm and Mr. Obama’s, it is no longer clear that Senate leaders could muster even 51 votes to make fast-tracked changes to the Senate-passed health bill, let alone the 60 votes it would take to approve a revised measure under the normal rules.
- Obama suggests Republicans could have a role in health-care billPresident Obama urged congressional Democrats on Wednesday “to finish the job on health care,” but amid tentative signs of bipartisan outreach on Capitol Hill, he suggested that Republicans could be enlisted to play at least some role in negotiating a final bill.
- Scott Brown sworn in as new Massachusetts GOP SenatorScott Brown was sworn in by Vice President Biden shortly after 5 p.m., ending the Democrats’ supermajority in the Senate and becoming the Republicans’ so-called “41st vote” to block Democrats’ proposals on health care reform — as well as anything else Republicans are able to line up to block by filibuster.
- Democrats protect backroom dealsThe health care bill is in trouble, but a series of narrow deals - each designed to win over a wavering senator or key interest group - is alive and well, despite voter anger over the parochial horse-trading that marked the rush toward passage before Christmas… But Washington being Washington, none of that has cooled the appetite of senators and House members to tailor the bill to their specific needs - even though some Democrats worry that it could help destroy any chances of resurrecting reform, if lawmakers seem oblivious to voters’ concerns.
- Obama’s words fail to bridge health care dividePresident Barack Obama exhorted Democrats to ‘finish the job’ on a health care overhaul Wednesday, but his comments failed to bridge deep divisions within his party… The legislation remains stuck in limbo, and there were fresh signs Wednesday of greater skepticism among some rank-and-file Democrats. California Reps. Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa, both moderates who voted for the House-passed health bill, burst out laughing when asked about the issue’s fate.
- Scott Brown will be sworn in as Massachusetts senator ThursdaySen.-elect Scott Brown (R), the successor to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), will be sworn in to office Thursday afternoon, giving Republicans 41 seats in the upper chamber… Brown’s entry into the Senate marks the formal end of the Democrats’ filibuster-proof Senate majority.
- Matt Patterson: Rhetoric of fear behind health care agendaHow do you convince people who are happy with what they have to go along with radical change? Convince them that what they are happy with can be lost at any time, and through no fault of their own. In other words, scare them… It is true that America’s peculiar system of employer-based health coverage makes the prospect of job loss all the more terrifying, but this is an argument for decoupling health insurance from employment, not an argument for expanding government. In fact, the existing system that creates so much insecurity is a result of too much government — World War II-era wage and price controls.
- Republicans urge Democrats to start all over on health careAs senior Democrats struggled to rescue their health-care legislation, Republicans urged President Obama and congressional leaders to give up on the unpopular bill and launch bipartisan talks on a new consensus approach… Despite the GOP’s near-lockstep opposition to Democratic health-care efforts over the past year, Boehner insisted that he wasn’t urging his Democratic colleagues to walk away from the cause. ‘Let’s start over on common sense steps that we can take to make our system work better,’ the Ohio Republican said. ‘No one in Washington thinks our current health care system is perfect and certainly not Republicans.’
- Deja vu a
nightmare for Democrats?The parallels to 1994 - the last time health reform died - are unmistakable. Democratic senators huddled for weeks in backroom meetings, groping for a workable alternative. Some of the attempts at reviving it were genuine, while others were only designed to suggest forward progress, observers recall. After four or five weeks, the effort was abandoned as Democrats geared up for the midterm elections. The same signs are all there for health care, circa 2010. No one in Congress will say it’s dead, but smart people can’t figure out how it stays alive. - Democrats quietly working to resuscitate healthcare overhaulPresident Obama’s campaign to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system is officially on the back burner as Democrats turn to the task of stimulating job growth, but behind the scenes party leaders have nearly settled on a strategy to salvage the massive legislation. They are meeting almost daily to plot legislative moves while gently persuading skittish rank-and-file lawmakers to back a sweeping bill. This effort is deliberately being undertaken quietly as Democrats work to focus attention on more-popular initiatives to bring down unemployment…
- Senate Dem: Health care bill ‘on life support’President Barack Obama’s health care appeal failed to break the congressional gridlock Thursday, dimming hopes for millions of uninsured Americans. Democrats stared down a political nightmare - getting clobbered for voting last year for ambitious, politically risky bills, yet having nothing to show for it in November.
- Health care moves to back burnerDemocrats in Congress said all the right things Thursday to show they were dutifully heeding the president’s call to keep plugging away on a health reform bill… But listen more closely, and it’s clear health care is already falling to the back of the legislative line, behind the Democrats’ feverish new focus on jobs and the economy.
- Pelosi launches two-track approach to salvage healthcareHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday described a two-track healthcare strategy, in which House Democrats will look to move a number of smaller measures that can gain widespread support as they try to pressure the Senate into adopting, through reconciliation, a package of House-made changes to the Senate healthcare bill.
- State of health reform: Still grimWith Democrats in Congress looking for a way out of the health care impasse, President Barack Obama offered them words of encouragement but little else -no concrete plan to jump-start progress on a bill, no timeline for getting it done and no guidance on what he wants to see in what was once his top legislative initiative.
- Obama tries to salvage health care billHis health care remake near collapse, President Barack Obama on Wednesday implored lawmakers not to abandon a historic opportunity even as he accepted part of the blame for failing to sell the complex plan to average Americans… With more than a year of work in danger of being wasted, Obama failed to give lawmakers a roadmap - or timetable - for getting health care done. Deep disagreements on how to move forward have broken out among House and Senate Democrats and the speech didn’t bridge them.
- Backlash on W.H.’s backroom dealsA top House committee responded to the mounting voter backlash against backroom deals on health reform by seeking more information Wednesday about White House negotiations with industry groups.
Hours before President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address, Republicans and Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee agreed to pursue a revised GOP request for additional documentation about the talks that led to a series of controversial administration agreements with doctors, hospitals and drug makers at the outset of the health care debate. - Obama to Party: Don’t ‘Run for the Hills’ President Obama vowed Wednesday night not to give up on his ambitious legislative agenda, using his first State of the Union address to chastise Republicans for working in lock-step against him and to warn Democrats to stiffen their political spines… Still, after a year of working to get health care passed, Mr. Obama said his No. 1 issue is now the economy and jobs. ‘Jobs must be our No. 1 focus in 2010,’ Mr. Obama said, adding ‘People are out of work. They are hurting. They need our help.
- All Eyes on the State of the Union AddressWhat will President Obama say about health care? White House officials have offered a preview in recent days of some of the main features of the president’s State of the Union address on Wednesday night… But officials were less forthcoming about what the president would say about the embattled health care overhaul, which for the moment, at least, remains Mr. Obama’s top domestic priority. On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers have already turned their attention to the issue of jobs and the economy, convinced that the health care bill at best will be stalled for several weeks and may not survive at all..
- Backroom health care deals fuel voter angerSpecial legislative favors, especially one designed to secure a Nebraska senator’s vote for the embattled health care package, ignited so much public outrage that President Barack Obama is calling them a mistake and House leaders say the bill can’t be resurrected unless such sweetheart deals are scrapped.
Obama says Americans were understandably upset by the backroom dealmaking that he called ugly… He acknowledged making ‘a legitimate mistake’ by letting White House and congressional negotiators include the items during last month’s closed-door negotiations. - Democrats Slow Efforts on Health Senate Democrats, struggling to find a way forward on their health bill, signaled Tuesday that they are no longer in a rush to pass the overhaul. After dominating the congressional agenda for months, fixing the health system is taking on less urgency as Democrats place more emphasis on measures to create jobs and help the economy recover.
- Dem impasse on health bill continues Democrats searching for a way to resuscitate health reform ran into a wall of opposition from party moderates Tuesday - throwing into doubt whether congressional leadership can salvage the sweeping reform plan that once was President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority. Signs were everywhere that Democrats were quickly shifting their focus from health reform that dominated 2009 to a jobs-and-economy agenda they believe must dominate this midterm election year, with congressional leaders saying they doubted Obama will gave any clear guidance on how to proceed during Wednesday’s State of the Union address.
- Dems look for a way to press ahead on health carePresident Obama’s top adviser and senior Democratic lawmakers on pledged to push forward with health care reform, insisting that the nation still wants legislation despite weakening poll numbers and a Republican win in a Massachusetts election that became a referendum on their proposal… Axelrod insisted that Scott Brown’s victory over Democrat Martha Coakley in the race to fill the seat long held by Ted Kennedy was not a signal from voters that they reject the $1 trillion Democratic health care proposal.
- Democrats focus on key elements of health billThe White House, with its health-care initiative in doubt, on Sunday zeroed in on several elements it hoped would survive, including measures to extend the life of Medicare, lower prescription drug costs for seniors and cap consumers’ out-of-pocket medical expenses… White House officials notably didn’t emphasize that any revised legislation should include a major expansion of health insurance. Expanding coverage to the uninsured was the key plank of the parate health bills passed by the House and Senate last year, but such efforts largely accounted for the about $1 trillion cost of the bills, and Republicans decried them as too costly.
- Hatch calls for restart on health care reformSen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Sunday that Congress needs to hit the reset button on health care reform and that Republicans will work with their counterparts on new legislation — if Democrats allow it. ‘I don’t know one Republican who does not want health care reform,’ Hatch said on CNN’s State of the Union. ‘I don’t know one Republican who wouldn’t try to work together with the Democrats. We weren’t even involved in this process. We weren’t even asked.’
- Cohn HeadsIgnoring Brown’s huge upset victory and the fact that half of those who voted for him cited his stance on healthcare reform as the reason they did so, they are now arguing that the election results was not a referendum on health reform… Americans want affordable, understandable health care reform. To respond to that demand, legislators should stop listening to ‘experts’ who shaped the health care bill and excuse the deals needed to ram it through.
- Pelosi: House won’t pass Senate bill to save health-care reformAs Democrats continued to grapple with the consequences of their loss in Massachusetts, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday eliminated the most obvious avenue for completing health-care reform, saying the House will not embrace the version of the legislation already approved by the Senate.
- Filibuster reform headed for Senate floor; measure faces uphill battleSen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) soon intends to introduce legislation that would take away the minority’s power to filibuster legislation. Harkin’s bill would still allow senators to delay legislation, but ultimately would give the majority the power to move past a filibuster with a simple majority vote.
- Dem health care talks collapsingHealth care reform teetered on the brink of collapse Thursday as House and Senate leaders struggled to coalesce around a strategy to rescue the plan, in the face of growing pessimism among lawmakers that the president’s top priority can survive. The legislative landscape was filled with obstacles: House Democrats won’t pass the Senate bill. Senate Democrats don’t want to start from scratch just to appease the House. And the White House still isn’t telling Congress how to fix the problem.
- Calif. Democrats revive single-payer health careA key legislative committee in California revived a bill Thursday to create a government-run health care system in the nation’s most populous state, two days after Massachusetts elected a senator who opposes the president’s national health care plan… Republicans mocked majority Democrats for reviving the bill as health care reform flounders in Washington, and California struggles with a new $20 billion deficit. ‘California Democrats are either tone-deaf or delusional,’ California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring said in a statement.
- House Democrats reluctant to take up Senate health-care reform billObama added to the confusion Wednesday when he seemed to endorse one option: having both the House and the Senate start from scratch, by voting on a scaled-back package of popular provisions that would crack down on insurance companies but provide health coverage to far fewer additional people… That message alarmed House Democratic leaders who had been seeking to round up votes for the Senate bill — Obama’s first choice, they had believed.
- Democrats weigh scaled-down reformThe White House’s stripped-down plan would include provisions such as tighter insurance regulations and moderate coverage expansions, according to Democratic officials. But it would amount to a major retreat from Obama’s initial vision of near-universal coverage - a stunning comedown made necessary by Republican Scott Brown’s Senate win.
- Rep. Barney Frank walks back comment that healthcare compromise is ‘dead’Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Wednesday walked back comments he previously made that the current healthcare reform negotiations are ‘dead.’ … ‘I have realized that my statement last night was more pessimistic than is called for, although I still regard the fact that the Republicans have now elected a 41st Senator as a serious obstacle to getting health care done,’ Frank said.
- Obama retreats on healthWinning Republican support for even a modified version of the bill also seemed unlikely. ‘You can’t drive a policy that doesn’t have the support of the American people,’ said Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, the Republican who had shown the most openness to passing the bill during last year’s health negotiations. Republicans said the election results were a clear order to stop the health bill and start over. Asked whether he thought the bill was dead, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said: ‘I sure hope so.’
- Malpractice system survives healthcare overhaul intactCritics, especially Republicans and doctors, had long complained that the medical malpractice system showered huge fees on attorneys, did little for ordinary Americans and added billions of dollars in costs… Even President Obama in a speech to the American Medical Assn. said he recognized the issue as a problem. But after a massive lobbying campaign and party-line votes in Congress, the malpractice system is largely untouched by the Democrats’ healthcare overhaul.
- Upset could trigger healthcare rush Congressional Democrats are considering passing healthcare reform before the winner of the Massachusetts special election is seated in the upper chamber, Democratic sources say… This would be complicated enough in normal circumstances, but if Brown wins, they would have to do it within a span of seven to 15 days… ‘Trying to delay the seating of duly elected senator to jam through a bill that is tremendously unpopular would be met with outrage,’ said [a Congressional] aide. ‘The perception of this would be catastrophic.
- No easy rescue plan for health care Ever since health care reform flamed out in the 1990s, Democrats thought lots of things might derail their longtime dream this time around. Losing a Senate seat in liberal Massachusetts was not on the list. But that is the harsh reality sinking in among Democrats - that a Republican victory Tuesday could spell the end of health reform because there is no good option to rescue the plan from this latest brush with political death.
- Exchanges to raise prices, limit choices Both the House and Senate health-reform bills create health insurance exchanges, and both, I hope, will be scrapped by Democrats who are forging the final legislation. Of the two versions, however, the House plan is by far the worse. It is both national and more sweeping in scope, severely limiting choices and driving up premiums for everyone — especially for the young and healthy.
- Democrats in Congress: Pass The Health Care Bill At Your Own PerilAmericans are already mad, but if the Democrats in Congress shove this unconstitutional, buy-off-their-union-friends, Nationalized Health Care Bill down the collective throats of free Americans, we can’t predict the level of the unintended consequences or the fierce backlash that will result.
- Health reform: ‘Repeal It’ campaign has Utah supporters A group of Utah politicos have signed a pledge to help repeal any health reform bill that Democrats may get into law… Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is the most prominent politician from the state to sign the one-sentence pledge that says the signer promises ‘to sponsor and support legislation to repeal any federal health care takeover passed in 2010 and replace it with real reforms that lower health care costs without growing government.
- Where U.S. Health Care Ranks Number One The comparative ranking system that most critics cite comes from the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO). The ranking most often quoted is Overall Performance, where the U.S. is rated No. 37… What apparently does not matter is that our population has universal access because most physicians treat indigent patients without charge and accept Medicare and Medicaid payments, which do not even cover overhead expenses. The WHO does rank the U.S. No. 1 of 191 countries for ‘responsiveness to the needs and choices of the individual patient.’ Isn’t responsiveness what health care is all about?
- House Democrats confer on health-care reformWorried House Democrats held a caucus-wide conference call Thursday to strategize about health-care reform before lawmakers return to Washington next week… With Senate Democrats barely able to muster the 60 votes necessary to pass their own bill and President Obama leaning toward the Senate’s position on some key issues, House Democrats are increasingly concerned that they could be marginalized at the bargaining table.
- Medicare and the Mayo Clinic President Obama last year praised the Mayo Clinic as a ‘classic example’ of how a health-care provider can offer ‘better outcomes’ at lower cost. Then what should Americans think about the famous Minnesota medical center’s decision to take fewer Medicare patients? Specifically, Mayo said last week it will no longer accept Medicare patients at one of its primary care clinics in Arizona. Mayo said the decision is part of a two-year pilot program to determine if it should also drop Medicare patients at other facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, which serve more than 500,000 seniors..
- An unhealthy procedureCongress is about to perform one of the biggest mash-ups the country has ever seen in order to deliver a health care reform package to President Obama’s desk by February. And you won’t be in on it…Reform, something so contentious and important to the nation’s future, should not be dropped in our laps with a wink and a wave once the final bill has been hashed out. Political bickering, wheeling and dealing, and fact-twisting are inherent parts of government, but Americans must be part of the process - even if it is just watching the madness through a camera lens.
- Democrats in Congress look for end run to health care winCongressional Democrats, eager to complete health care legislation by the end of the month, will try to skip the step of having a committee of House and Senate members craft a compromise bill from the different versions produced by the two chambers. Democratic leaders are close to an agreement to negotiate a compromise informally between the two chambers, thus bypassing the conference committee process that would allow Senate Republicans many opportunities to block the bill through the use of a filibuster.
- Democrats in final push on US healthcare overhaulDemocratic leaders could bypass a formal conference between the House and the Senate, shutting out Republicans and avoiding potential partisan procedural roadblocks, to work behind closed doors in concert with the White House to strike a compromise… That would allow Obama and his fellow Democrats to turn to other issues ahead of November’s congressional elections in which they will try to protect their majorities in the House and Senate.
- Senate Likely to Have Edge as Democrats Craft Final Health BillSenate Democrats will have the upper hand as U.S. lawmakers return to Washington this month to confront the last major hurdle in the effort to overhaul the nation’s health-care system… Senate Democrats have more clout because they have no room for defections, analysts and lawmakers said. Even so, House members will push for their provisions, including the public insurance program, likely making the negotiations among the most complex in congressional history.
- More healthcare votes ahead for CongressReporting from Washington - The Senate passed its version of the healthcare overhaul on Christmas Eve. Here are some questions about what’s next as the legislation continues to work its way through Congress.
- Senators Call Healthcare Bill Unconstitutional In a signal example of being a day late and a trillion dollars short, several key senators have recently admitted that healthcare ‘reform’ is unconstitutional. That’s right. Just in time to do absolutely nothing about it, several lawmakers have decided to cop to the fact that nowhere in the Constitution they have sworn to uphold is Congress (or any other branch of government, for that matter) empowered to establish a new healthcare system, overhaul an old healthcare system, or do anything at all regarding the purchase of insurance for medical treatment.
- One Hurdle Remains in SenateRepublicans are forcing the Senate to vote Wednesday on whether the Democrat-backed bill is unconstitutional. Sen. John Ensign (R., Nev.) raised a point of order Tuesday against the bill, arguing that the Constitution doesn’t give Congress latitude to force Americans to buy health coverage, as both the House and Senate bills do.”What’s next?” Mr. Ensign said. “Will we consider legislation in the future requiring every American to buy a car? Will we consider legislation in the future requiring every American to buy a house?”
- Most voters against health care reform plans, poll findsA new nationwide poll suggests a majority of American voters disapprove of the health care reform plans being discussed in Congress and President Barack Obama’s handling of the issue. Quinnipiac University’s Polling Institute in Connecticut surveyed 1,616 registered voters from Dec. 15-20 and found 53% “mostly disapprove” of the health care changes being considered in Congress, compared to 36% who “mostly approve.” Meanwhile 56% disapprove of Obama’s handling of the issue compared to 38% who approve.
- To win bill’s passage, deals had to be madeThe latest version of the Senate bill is filled with lots of concessions and for lawmakers and interest groups. Some of these early Christmas “presents” are outlined by the Associated Press.
- Senate health-care reform bill passes another hurdleThe Senate cleared the second of three key procedural hurdles on President Obama’s health-care legislation early Tuesday with another party-line vote, continuing the effort to pass the bill before Christmas… Although they lack any obvious way to torpedo the bill at this point, Republicans remain bitterly opposed to the legislation and have shown little indication that they are ready to relent in their increasingly negative standoff with Democrats.
- Change Nobody Believes In The Senate Majority Leader has decided that the last few days before Christmas are the opportune moment for a narrow majority of Democrats to stuff ObamaCare through the Senate to meet an arbitrary White House deadline. Barring some extraordinary reversal, it now seems as if they have the 60 votes they need to jump off this cliff, with one-seventh of the economy in tow.
- Why health care bill is too big a riskI wanted to support President Obama’s health care reforms if I possibly could… This bill will push health care costs farther up, not down. Where is the extra money to come from? The Senate bill promises to find half a trillion of savings in Medicare over the next 10 years. Good luck with that.
- Senate Democrats Push Forward on Health Care Bill Following Key Test VoteSenate Democrats won a crucial test vote on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, putting them on track for passage before Christmas of the historic legislation to remake the nation’s medical system and cover 30 million uninsured. All 58 Democrats and the Senate’s two independents held together early Monday against unanimous Republican opposition…The vote came shortly after 1 a.m. with the nation’s capital blanketed in snow, the unusual timing made necessary in order to get to a final vote by Christmas Eve presuming Republicans stretch out the debate as much as the rules allow.
- Health-care bill clears crucial vote in Senate, 60 to 40 Not a single Republican voted to advance the measure, including Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, the one GOP lawmaker who had backed an earlier version. The Maine moderate was lobbied heavily by President Obama, but announced Sunday night in a statement that she remained “concerned” about the measure, while objecting to “the artificial and arbitrary deadline of completing the bill before Christmas.” Though admittedly outflanked, Republicans declined to relent. In the hours before the cloture vote, GOP lawmakers took turns condemning the bill in impassioned speeches on the Senate floor. Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) called it a “historic mistake.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) accused Democrats of producing “a mess” that represented “a blind call to make history.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who ran against Obama for president last year, vowed to “fight until the last vote,” a threat that could keep senators at their desks until well into the night on Dec. 24.
- Senate Democrats Warn House Not to Toy With Health Bill Do not mess with this bill. That was the message Senate Democrats sent to their colleagues on the House side over the weekend, warning them not to make any significant changes to the health care package heading toward a vote in their chamber if they want the bill to survive past Christmas….Liberal Democrats are eager to negotiate and try to win back items that were stripped from the Senate bill like a government-run insurance plan. But the final version would again need 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, and Senate moderates warn that any big changes in conference could erode that bloc.
- Passing health reform could be a nightmare for Obama Barack Obama’s quest for historic health-care legislation has turned into a parody of leadership. We usually associate presidential leadership with the pursuit of goals that, though initially unpopular, serve America’s long-term interests. Obama has reversed this. He’s championing increasingly unpopular legislation that threatens the country’s long-term interests. “This isn’t about me,” he likes to say, “I have great health insurance.” But of course, it is about him: about the legacy he covets as the president who achieved “universal” health insurance. He’ll be disappointed.
- Harry Reid plays it close to the vest As Reid works furiously to line up the 60 votes he needs for the most sweeping health care bill in generations, the majority leader is playing an insider’s insider’s game. He’s having private, one-on-one conversations with colleagues, and he’s not sharing the contents with others. He’s floating proposals to congressional budget analysts that not even members of his leadership team have seen. And he’s keeping his strategy largely to himself.
- A Race to Win One More Vote for Health Bill The White House and Senate Democratic leaders seem willing to give Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, just about anything he wants to win his support of major health care legislation. Anything, that is, but the item at the top of Mr. Nelson’s wish-list: air-tight restrictions on insurance coverage for abortions.
- Woman diagnosed with 17lb ovarian cyst after months of people thinking she was pregnant A woman who was constantly approached by strangers asking when her baby was due has told of her distress after learning she had a 17 lb ovarian cyst.When Janet Delaney went to the doctors after her stomach swelled from 32 inches to 49 inches, she was told she was suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and given medication.
- Reid Fights for 60th Vote on Health Bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid struggled to win over the last Democratic vote on health-overhaul legislation as uncertainty grew about whether the measure can be brought to a vote before Christmas. After more than two weeks of debate, Mr. Reid (D., Nev.) remained a vote short of the 60 votes needed to ensure passage of the White House-backed initiative.
- In Senate Health Showdown, Round Goes to G.O.P.The conflict on Wednesday illustrated the frustration growing in both parties after more than two weeks of desultory debate, as Senate Democrats struggle to line up 60 votes and pass their health care bill before Christmas.
- GOP senator freezes health care debateThe congressional health care debate stalled briefly Wednesday as Senate Republicans insisted that a 767-page mega-amendment be read out loud in its entirety… Coburn defended the tactic in a written statement, saying that Americans should hear competing proposals and that the health care debate needed to slow down. ‘It’s unfortunate that [Majority Leader Harry] Reid waited until the last minute to introduce his bill and now wants to rush it through the Senate,’ Coburn wrote.
- Toast To ReidCare’s Demise
Advocates of universal health coverage who hold their fellow humans dearer than their ideology should thank Sen. Joe Lieberman, the man most responsible for killing ReidCare, rather than hissing ‘mass murderer’ at him… ReidCare–the brainchild of the Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid–was the worst proposal yet on the table. Even though it’s not going anywhere anymore, it has exposed the zealotry and heartlessness of the left on this issue. - Nancy Pelosi in ‘campaign mode’And if the Senate can complete its bill this month, she will work to try to send a House-Senate compromise to the White House before the State of the Union… she downplayed differences over the public option for coverage, saying the emphasis had always been on giving consumers an insurance option, not that it be public or government run.
- Obama: ‘Last chance’ for health reformThe Senate races to pass the measure by Christmas, in the face of a costly setback this week. Senate Democrats say they are prepared to drop a plan to expand Medicare coverage after Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said he could not support it… Senate strategists say the current impasse will have to resolved in the next couple days in order to allow passage by year’s end.
- Senate health bill unlikely to include Medicare buy-in Senate Democratic leaders appeared poised Monday night to abandon efforts to create a government-run insurance safety net in their push for health-care reform, as they attempted to close ranks around a bill they hoped would win the backing of all 60 members of their caucus.
- Democrats Drop Plan to Expand Medicare Senate Democrats on Monday evening dropped a plan to expand Medicare, winning the support of moderates and the reluctant acquiescence of liberals, in another major step toward building enough support to pass a health-care overhaul.
- Lieberman Throws Monkey Wrench Into Reid’s Health Care PlansLast Tuesday night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared that a compromise had been reached on the ‘public option.’ Even though he wouldn’t say what it the deal was, and even most Democrats didn’t know, the media soon declared that passing a health care bill was inevitable. But less than a week later, the deal has already fallen apart, thanks to Sen. Joe Lieberman — with an assist from Sen. Ben Nelson.
- Two Senators Doubt Medicare Compromise Two key senators on Sunday raised concerns over one aspect of a proposed compromise on the health-care bill, putting up a hurdle to passage of the measure in the Senate… ‘It will add taxpayer costs. It will add to the deficit. It’s unnecessary,’ Sen. Lieberman said on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ Sen. Nelson, appearing on the same show, called the buy-in proposal ‘the forerunner of single-payer, the ultimate single-payer plan, maybe even more directly than the public option.
- High hurdles ahead for health planSenate Democrats scrambling to pass a sweeping health care reform bill before Christmas begin this critical week facing a host of nettlesome problems that threaten to derail the Democrats’ fast-track timetable.
- A savings mirage on health care Many critics (including me) have argued that President Obama’s “reform” agenda wouldn’t control rapidly rising health spending and might speed it up. The logic is simple. People with insurance use more health services than those without. If government insures 30 million or more Americans, health spending will rise. Greater demand will press on limited supply; prices will increase. The best policy: Control spending first, then expand coverage.
- Lieberman Rules Out Voting for Health Bill In a surprise setback for Democratic leaders, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, said on Sunday that he would vote against the health care legislation in its current form… But on Sunday, Mr. Lieberman told the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to scrap the idea of expanding Medicare and abandon any new government insurance plan or lose his vote.
- Report: Senate Health Bill Will Raise Costs The report, compiled by the chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, estimated that total health costs in the U.S. would be $234 billion higher than if the bill weren’t passed. President Barack Obama has said Democrats’ health plan would reduce the growth of health-care costs.
- Pelosi Indicates Support for Senate’s Medicare DealHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed support Thursday for a Senate Democratic proposal to expand Medicare, raising prospects that the two chambers of Congress can work out differences on health-care legislation.
- Moderates uneasy with Medicare planSenate moderates who are the linchpin to passing a health care reform bill raised fresh worries Thursday about a proposed Medicare expansion, complicating Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hopes of putting together a filibuster-proof majority for the legislation in the coming days.
- Polls show dim support for health care billPolls show Americans aren’t buying into the health care reform bill being crafted by Democrats as doubts surfaced Wednesday on Capitol Hill over the “public option” deal that President Obama said cleared the way for passage of his top agenda item.
- High Premiums in Senate Democrats’ Health PlanSenate Democrats have provided few details about their latest health care proposal, but this much seems clear: Anyone who wants to buy the same health benefits as members of Congress, or to buy coverage through Medicare, should be prepared to fork over a large chunk of cash. According to the Congressional Budget Office, a family of four earning $54,000 in 2016, when the health legislation is fully in effect, would be eligible for a subsidy of $10,100 to help defray the cost of insurance under the health legislation being debated by the Senate.
- Health care reform satire game “Death Panel” comes to the iPhoneCasting a satirical view on the healthcare reform debate, a game called Death Panel is debuting on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch devices today. Made by developer People Operating Technology, the game tests a user’s knowledge of healthcare reform.
- For Some Ages 55 to 64, Medicare Will Cost Too MuchMillions more Americans could get access to Medicare under the latest health proposal by Senate Democrats. But the program may not be cheap enough to entice some of them to sign up.
- All’s not fair in health reform billsPresident Obama has called it a ‘core ethical and moral obligation.’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced her bill by saying, ‘We also have a moral responsibility to pass health insurance reform and we will do so this year.” And Senate majority leader Harry Reid has opined that ‘health care is a moral issue.’ Strong words on ethics and fairness. But the actual bills are unimaginably unfair.
- Medicare sausage?
The 11th-hour “compromise” on health-care reform and the public option supposedly includes an expansion of Medicare to let people ages 55 to 64 buy into the program…. However, the last-minute introduction of this idea within the broader context of health reform raises numerous questions — not least of which is whether this proposal is a far more dramatic step toward a single-payer system than lawmakers on either side realize. - Liberals’ public option dream fadingThe idea of an immediate plan to offer government insurance for all effectively died in the Senate this week of a thousand cuts… Also in the past month, some progressive health policy thinkers began to openly question whether the public option was really worth all the fuss, at least in the form envisioned by Congress.
- Senators Strike Health Deal Senior Senate Democrats reached tentative agreement Tuesday night to abandon the government-run insurance plan in their health-overhaul bill and to expand Medicare coverage to some people ages 55 to 64, clearing the most significant hurdle so far in getting a bill that can pass Congress.
- Democrats’ Ideas To Expand Medicare Raise Hackles Of Doctors, Hospitals, Insurers While details of the package remain fluid, people aged 55 to 64 who were uninsured or could not afford employer-sponsored health insurance would be allowed to enroll in Medicare… more people would compel hospitals, doctors and others to jack up charges to private insurers and employers to make up the difference.
- Reid Says Deal ‘Should Satisfy Everybody’
Many senators and their aides believed that the compromise would be a version of the public plan proposed by Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine… And behold: the tentative deal includes a public option on a trigger - similar, if not identical, to what she originally proposed. - Democrats create health care horrorThe Senate health reform debate is well under way. Democrats have promised that this bill and its companion measure in the House will accomplish three major things: Extend health coverage to the uninsured; provide those who already have insurance with better health care choice; and cut health costs. In truth, both bills fail on all these counts.
- Government health care rationing puts women at riskCongress is still considering health care reform. Unfortunately, legislators appear ready to push our medical system in the wrong direction, and to empower government to ration access to potentially life-saving treatment. The U.S. medical system needs serious attention. But the objective should be to improve the care received by all Americans. The bills being debated by Congress will not do that.
- Obama to Capitol on Sunday to Rally SenatorsWith the Senate clashing over health care legislation through the weekend, President Obama will head to Capitol Hill on Sunday afternoon to meet with the Democratic caucus in a session that aides at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue said was designed to galvanize lawmakers, even as they remain internally divided over many important issues… The public option, in particular, is proving an extremely difficult gap to bridge. Some centrist senators, including Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, have voiced unbending opposition to the idea, while a number of liberals are just as firmly opposed to removing the public plan from the bill.
- No Way, No How, to the Public OptionHe’s crucial to mustering the 60 votes necessary to overcome Republican filibusters. Mr. Lieberman says he was ’surprised’ to have his influence, but he isn’t afraid to use it… He has the power to strip a public option out of the Senate health-care bill, and even demand a more moderate rewrite. Mr. Lieberman himself puts the odds of a bill getting through at ‘greater than 50-50′ but bluntly warns: ‘It won’t be what Senator Reid put in.’
- New Government-Run Health Proposal EyedDemocrats wrestled with a new proposal on a government health-insurance plan that would give private entities a central role in running the program, in a bid for compromise on one of the health bill’s most divisive issues.
- Role Reversal, on Medicare CutsIf America’s elderly think there is an eerie echo in all of the warnings in Washington about frightful cuts to Medicare as a result of the Democrats’ proposed health care legislation, they are right… Senate Democrats have proposed reducing government spending on Medicare by nearly $500 billion over 10 years to help pay for the legislation…
- Daschle draws health care fireTom Daschle’s history as an adviser to some of the health care industry’s most influential companies is raising the ire of public interest groups and GOP officials, who have questioned his increasingly prominent role in discussions on health reform among senior White House aides and senators… ‘Mr. Daschle’s presence in this meeting raises serious ethical concerns and should make clear to the American people that special interests, not their interests, are behind the 2,000-page health care bill on the Senate floor.’” (Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX))
- Senate Breaks Health Stalemate; First Votes Today But even as lawmakers announced an agreement to begin voting Thursday, Democrats accused Republicans of stalling debate and obstructing the legislation… ‘That’s an odd charge about a bill that would cost $2.5 trillion, when fully implemented, and restructure one-sixth of the economy, affecting 300 million people,’ said the Senate’s No. 3 Republican, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Noting that the Senate had spent one month on a farm bill, seven weeks on an education bill and eight weeks on an energy bill, Mr. Alexander said, ‘Surely we can spend at least that much time on a comprehensive health care bill.
- Cost control?American medical care over the past 60 years has come under increasing government regulation, control and economic dominance, thanks in part to Medicare and Medicaid. Each of these programs has overrun its initial cost estimates, not by a mere 10 percent or 20 percent, but by a factor of 10 to 20…the budget-balancing act assumes Congress won’t renege on imposing new taxes and spending cuts. This is like watching a skilled carny operator shift the three walnut shells, in hopes we can find the one that contains the pea. Problem is, the fellow palmed the pea way back at the start.
- Don’t count on lower premiumsYes, that’s certainly what most ‘working families’ would like to see: an end to hefty boosts in their insurance premiums. Unfortunately, they won’t see relief for seven years at a minimum, even with the bill Bennet supports. Who says? The Congressional Budget Office, in an analysis released this week. And while the CBO is hardly infallible in its forecasts, it at least tries to keep its feet on the ground…Here’s what is not in dispute: Virtually every one of the reforms represents a bureaucratic fix to rising medical costs as opposed to empowering consumers or entrepreneurs to act in ways that drive costs down.
- Deadly DeclineAs the Senate begins to debate reform legislation, the deadly disasters inherent in socialized medicine in the model nation of Britain should make the discussion a sober one…’Up to 10,000 people,’ the British Guardian reported Sunday, are dying needlessly of cancer each year ‘because their condition is diagnosed too late, according to research by the government’s director of cancer services’…More government involvement won’t correct the ills government has already created. Yet the Democratic leadership in Washington is determined to force more federal control over health care on a public that doesn’t want it.
- Americans against health bill
Americans remain inclined against the health care overhaul in Congress as debate began on the Senate floor today. The USA Today/Gallup poll released today found 49 percent saying they would tell their representative to vote against the bill and 44 percent saying they would urge a yes vote. - CBO: Senate’s Health Care Reform Bill Would Cause Individual-Market Insurance Premiums to RiseAccording to a report released by the Congressional Budget Office this morning, the average price of insurance premiums bought on the individual market-that is, premiums not purchased through employers-would go up by 10 to 13 percent in 2016 if Congress passed health care reform legislation now in the Senate.
- U.S. Senate Opens Work on Healthcare Bill Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Americans do not want the healthcare bill to pass and the CBO report showed why. ‘A bill that’s being sold as a way to reduce costs actually drives them up,’ McConnell said. Senator Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said the CBO report showed the Senate bill would not fix a fundamental problem — the high cost of healthcare.
- Senate formally starts health care debateAfter months of negotiation, the U.S. Senate started formal debate today on an $848 billion health care bill crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Things quickly got off to a rocky start. As the official debate on the legislation got underway, Reid proposed a series of rules. One would have… required lawmakers to post their amendments on their websites before filing them. Republicans objected because, according to Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., they were not given time to review the specific language of the proposals beforehand.
- Biden: ‘Who do you trust?’ More health care propaganda from the White HouseToday the White House Blog posted a video hosted by Vice President Joe Biden titled ‘Who Do You Trust?’… Biden starts out the presentation with his first lie: ‘Do you trust the defenders of the status quo?’… No one in the United States of America wants the ’status quo’. Even insurance companies agree that reforms are necessary… What Biden neglects to mention is that there are thousands of doctors and nurses who are against the bills that are in the House and Senate…
- Divided Senate opens health care debate on MondayWith the Senate set to begin debate Monday on President Barack Obama’s signature domestic issue, the all-hands-on-deck Democratic coalition that allowed the health care reform legislation to advance is coming apart.
- In health-care reform, no deficit cureAs the long battle over health care is rejoined in the Senate this week, experts remain deeply divided over whether the legislation would rein in soaring health-care costs or simply add millions of people to a system that is already driving the nation toward bankruptcy… The measure would not deliver on Democrats’ most ambitious claims, the CBO found. While the package would not worsen the nation’s record deficits, it would not significantly improve them, either now or in the future.
- Senate Debate on Health Bill Set to Begin MondayDemocrats would like to pass a bill by Christmas, but have yet to find a formula that can win 60 votes… Complicating the situation, lawmakers from both parties are planning to introduce dozens of amendments… The aim isn’t just to shape the bill but also to make political points… Any of the amendments will also likely require 60 votes to pass, because opponents can threaten to filibuster any amendment that has less support. That sets a high bar, but even unsuccessful amendments can send a message.
- Seven issues to watch as the Senate begins amending the healthcare billSenators will be asked to cast their votes on numerous amendments as they begin a debate to reshape the country’s healthcare system. Some amendments will be designed to improve the bill, some to satisfy a special interest or pet peeve. Still others will be presented as poison pills… The notion of creating a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private companies is seen as vital by liberal Democrats but centrists range from skeptical to deeply antagonistic, even though states could opt out.
- One “compelling story” about health care Obama doesn’t want you to hearGovernment sponsored healthcare seems ideal, but in reality there are more horror stories associated with Medicare and Medicaid. Increasingly, life and death decisions are being made based on cost… When you take the individual out of the medical equation, everyone suffers, and many believe that national healthcare is clearly not the answer.
- Big Government the Wrong Answer on Health CareLast week a government appointed panel issued a set of recommendations regarding mammograms and self-exams for women in their 40s and 50s… This panel’s recommendations were more about costs than about saving the lives of women from one of the most common and treatable cancers our nation… This bill actually gives much more power to this very same government panel…In short, it is a serious step toward government intervention and away from patient and doctor control over individual healthcare decisions
- The unsustainable ‘Public Option’ Economists say there is much that could be done to help the situation, including breaking Medicare up into smaller, privatized companies and allowing insurance competition across state lines… Instead, Congress is attempting to expand health care spending to an additional 36 to 45 million people in an open-ended, taxpayer-financed, government-run takeover
- More on That ‘98 Percent’ Coverage ClaimIn a floor speech on Saturday morning, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York said: ‘This bill will provide coverage for more than 94 percent of Americans - 98 percent when accounting for the elderly population’…the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the official scorekeeper on such matters, has predicted that by 2019, 92 percent of non-elderly Americans would be covered under the Senate legislation, with that number rising to 94 percent if illegal immigrants were excluded. Note that: 94 percent - not 98.
- Republican governors: ‘Opt out’ unworkableEven with the ‘opt-out’ option, Republican governors who gathered here last week weren’t buying in to President Obama’s plan to overhaul the nation’s health care system…’If they enacted the opt-out provision, but said you still have to pay the taxes on the public plan, it would be very difficult for any state to opt out of the plan,’ South Dakota Gov. Michael Rounds said in an interview. ‘Unfortunately, if you as a state opt out, you will be taking away the ability of the folks in your state to get the benefits of the public plan, but they would still be paying the subsidy of the public plan,’ he added.
- Lieberman Digs In on Public Option So any version of a public option will compel Mr. Lieberman to vote against bringing a bill to a final vote? ‘Correct,’ he says…Maybe the Lieberman stance is posturing, or a maneuver to force a watering down of the public option into something he and like-minded Democratic conservatives can swallow. In any case, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tries to solve the Rubik’s Cube that is health legislation, Mr. Lieberman just might represent the hardest piece to flip into place.
- Public option at center of debateSen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), another centrist who supported the move to continue debate but has made it clear he has many objections to the legislation as currently written, restated his opposition to a public plan. ‘I don’t want a big-government, Washington-run operation that undermines the private insurance that 200 million Americans now have,’ he said on ABC’s ‘This Week’…Moderate Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) also have deep misgivings about the Senate language — a public option with a state opt-out clause — and have expressed varying degrees of unhappiness about other approaches under consideration.
- Health care’s ‘public option’ would cover little of population A proposed government-run health insurance program, among the most divisive issues in the health care debate, would cover less than 1.5% of the population, new estimates show… Paul Ginsburg, an economist with the Center for Studying Health System Change, questions the impact the public option proposals would have on families seeking health coverage… ‘It’s not going to have any impact on our health system.
- Mending Health Care ReformWith unemployment numbers at 10.2%, it’s not surprising that, by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans want Congress to focus on deficit reduction and economic recovery before tackling health reform. Yet, if the health bills currently in Congress were to pass, most Americans could see their economic situation decline further, and the unemployment situation would worsen.
- Health care reform has not yet been passed, but has rationing already begun?Why would anyone believe that it is possible to provide quality health care coverage to an additional 31 million people, without an increase to the number of doctors and while decreasing the cost of health care? The most logical conclusion that can be reached is that the government must begin to ration services, and the quality of our health care will be impacted in a very negative way.
- Health care: A trillion(s)- dollar billThere is now widespread consensus that our health care system needs some kind of reform. But surely it must be possible to control health care costs, improve quality and extend coverage to more people without bankrupting the nation. Health care reform now goes to the Senate. There are 3 trillion reasons to hope they are not as fiscally reckless as their counterparts in the House.
- Republicans Say Cancer Screening Guidelines Portend Medical RationingA federal task force’s new recommendations on breast cancer screening had confirmed the worst fears of people who oppose a government role in medical decision making. ‘I mean, let the rationing begin, said Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee. This is what happens when bureaucrats make your health care decisions.’ Mr. Camp said the screening recommendation released Monday… foreshadowed the role the government would play in regulating insurance offerings under the health care bill passed by the House this month.
- Health reform’s hidden land minesBut Democrats have glossed over nagging details of just how limited reform’s reach would be for some Americans. And if voters figure it out, experts warn there could be a political backlash. ‘These things can be enormously popular early on,’ said Robert Blendon, a Harvard University health policy professor and co-director of a polling project by the Kaiser Family Foundation. ‘But if the expectations are wrong, then they start to become much less popular.
- Government Health Fixes Will Leave Us BrokeProponents of the measure claim that it will eventually pay for itself — and even lower the nation’s healthcare costs and the federal deficit. This is nonsense. For evidence, look no further than our history with Medicare.
- 3 Democrats Could Block Health Bill in Senate
Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, says he is not sure he is ready to help a Democratic health care proposal clear even the most preliminary hurdle: gaining the 60 votes his party’s leaders need to open debate on the measure later this week. Two of his fellow Democrats, Senators Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, are proving tough sells as well, raising the prospect that one or perhaps all three of them could scuttle the bill before the fight over it even begins on the Senate floor. - ‘Opt out’ health care provision not so simpleWhen Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the Democrats’ health care bill would include a government-run health plan, he also said it would have an “opt out” provision for states that do not want to participate. ‘Under this concept, states will be able to determine whether the public option works well for them and will have the ability to opt out if they so choose,’ Reid said in late October… Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says it’s not such a simple decision as Reid makes it sound…’What does that opt out mean? Does that mean we still have to pay the bill as taxpayers in Utah and get none of the benefit?
- AP Poll: Fine print in health care prompts worriesAmericans are worried about the fine print in the health care overhaul, an Associated Press poll says, and those concerns are creating new challenges for President Barack Obama as he tries to overcome doubts in Congress… The poll found that 43 percent of Americans oppose the health care plans being discussed in Congress, while 41 percent are in support. An additional 15 percent remain neutral or undecided.
- Poll: Deep divisions linger on health careAs the Senate prepares to take up legislation aimed at overhauling the nation’s health care system, President Barack Obama and the Democrats are still struggling to win the battle for public opinion. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Americans deeply divided over the proposals under consideration and majorities predicting higher costs ahead.
- Health Care Reform Likely to Include More Taxes for Many AmericansThe Senate Finance Committee health care reform bill, which could hit the Senate floor as early as this week, would impose new taxes on insurance companies, drugmakers and medical device manufacturers. It would also impose a 40 percent tax on the portion of insurance premiums exceeding $8,000 a year for individuals and $21,000 a year for family plans. That tax would be imposed on insurance companies, though it would likely be passed on to consumers, including many middle-income families, say experts.
- Time Crunch Looms for Health Bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pressing to advance his version of health-care legislation past a key juncture this week in a bid to avoid a timing crunch that could otherwise kick the proposed revamp into next year… Republicans will likely filibuster the “motion to proceed,” which simply allows the Senate to begin debate. Delaying consideration of the bill until 2010, an election year, could jeopardize its chances and turn the intricacies of the Senate timetable into a political tool for the bill’s opponents.
- Reid Seeks to Unify Democrats Split on Health CareSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid will unveil legislation to overhaul the U.S. health-care system as early as this week. The floor debate that follows is likely to divide his Democratic Party. Reid wants to include a government-run insurance program that would let states opt out, which may cost him Senate votes. His version probably won’t require employers to cover workers and will be funded through a tax on high-end insurance plans, which would put him at odds with House Democrats.
- Health Bill Would ‘Massively’ Expand GovernmentSen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.) said the real issue at stake in the debate over health-care legislation was the expansion of the federal government… Gregg, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said the bills would “end up massively expanding the size of government” by creating new benefit programs. He estimated that under the House bill, the size of government would grow to as much as 24% of the U.S. economy from the current 20%.
- A health plan even some Democrats hateThis may sound surprising, but Republicans don’t have a monopoly on opposition to health care reform. Some Democrats also have doubts - if not on the merits of the plans before Congress, then on the decision to put health care ahead of reviving the economy.
- Drug-Plan Costs Go Up Medicare beneficiaries may have to shop for a better deal on a prescription-drug plan. The average premium seniors pay for stand-alone drug plans will rise 11% to $38.94 a month in 2010, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on health-care issues. About 1.2 million Medicare beneficiaries would pay at least $10 more in monthly premiums if they remain in their current plan… In addition, health-policy analysts say some seniors will lose their Advantage plans altogether, while others could see plans reduce benefits or drop vision, dental or other benefits not covered under traditional Medicare.
- Small group of senators holds key to health billLast summer, a senatorial “Gang of Six” met to negotiate legislation to remake the U.S. health-care system. This winter, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will need a posse of 60 to pass it. But already, a handful of renegades are threatening to hold the bill hostage — and maybe even kill it.
- Can the Dems Keep Putting Up with Joe Lieberman?
Lately [Senate Democrats'] biggest headache has been one of their own. And while they would dearly love to fire back at Joe Lieberman of Connecticut after his almost weekly bomb-throwings, there is little they can do but bite the insides of their cheeks and bear it. Lieberman said he would support a Republican filibuster of health care reform if the Democratic bill included a public option - as it currently does. ‘I feel so strongly about the creation of another government health-insurance entitlement,’ Lieberman told CBS’s Bob Schieffer. ‘I think it’s such a mistake that I would use the power I have as a single Senator to stop a final vote.’ - Half done on health reformWhile House Democrats spent the week congratulating themselves for squeezing out the midnight passage of their version of health-care reform, neutral observers were reminding them: You’ve left the job half done… Unless you find more realistic ways of paying for the promises included in the bill, you are simply setting up the public for more frustration — and yourselves for a political backlash.
- Reid Mulls Medicare Tax Increase for High Earners
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is considering a proposal to increase the Medicare payroll tax on high-income workers to help offset the costs of providing health insurance to millions of Americans, Senate aides said Thursday. The proposal is part of a legislative package that Mr. Reid has put together in secrecy and submitted to the Congressional Budget Office for analysis. Mr. Reid, Democrat of Nevada, has said the Senate could begin debate on the legislation as soon as next week, although members of his own party do not yet know details of the bill he has assembled from pieces approved by two Senate committees. - Number of Insured Varies by BillThe health bills passed through Senate committees would extend insurance to fewer people than the final bill passed through the House over the weekend, and Senate leaders have been refining their bill to increase that number. Hospitals and insurance companies warn that if the final Senate bill doesn’t cover more people than its earlier drafts, insurance prices will increase and industry pledges to cut costs could fall apart…Nearly all the money to be spent will go toward extending insurance coverage. But how many people must be covered in order to consider that spending worthwhile?
- Senate Democrats look to start health reform debate next week
“Remember in July, when it had to be done by the August break? Then it was expected to come up right after Labor Day and it wasn’t, and here we are three months later,” said Chuck Grassley (Iowa), ranking Republican on the Finance Committee. “What’s happening is they’re finding out how difficult it is to put a bill together. They’re learning what [Finance Committee Chairman] Max Baucus [D-Mont.] and I went through in May, June and July.” - Congress to miss health care deadline, key senator saysCongress will miss President Obama’s deadline to enact health care reform by the end of the year, a key Democratic senator said Tuesday. Illinois’ Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, said he hopes, at best, to pass the Senate’s version of a health care bill by that time.
- Feds alone in charge of healthRegardless of whether a public option is included, the reforms under consideration in Congress would impose such rigid control on private health plans that it amounts to a government-run health-care system — even if the insurance companies remain technically under private ownership,’ concludes the report by scholar Robert A. Book of the conservative-oriented Heritage Foundation.
- Pelosi Jeopardized Vulnerable Democrats With Healthcare VoteIn all of the celebratory remarks by President Barack Obama and other Democrats about making history with this weekend’s House vote in favor of healthcare reform nobody is really talking much about the fact that the Democrats did it by the skin of their teeth… With no idea of what the final Senate version of health reform will look like, or even when it will be voted on, Pelosi called on her most electorally vulnerable members…to make a tough vote in favor of sweeping healthcare reform…
- Maine Finds a Health Care Fix Elusive
Maine is the Charlie Brown of health care. The state’s legislators have tried for decades to fix its system, but their efforts have always fallen short: health insurance premiums are still among the least affordable in the nation, health care spending per person is among the highest and hospital emergency rooms are among the most crowded. Indeed, many overhauls to the system have done little more than squeeze a balloon - solving one problem while worsening another. - ‘Opt-Out’ Proposal Puts State Leaders to the TestIn the two weeks since the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, embraced a proposal that would allow states to opt out of a new government health insurance plan, state leaders have begun debating whether to take part, and the question has emerged as a litmus test in some campaigns for governor.
- House-passed health plan mixes good ideas, deep flawsIn terms of raising new revenue and curbing unsustainable health spending, however, the House bill leaves much to be desired. It’s based on a dubious commitment to cut costs and threatens to make medical spending an even bigger part of the federal budget and nation’s economy than it would otherwise be.
- Democrats Raise Alarms Over Costs of Health BillsAs health care legislation moves toward a crucial airing in the Senate, the White House is facing a growing revolt from some Democrats and analysts who say the bills Congress is considering do not fulfill President Obama’s promise to slow the runaway rise in health care spending.
- How universal care could backfire on poorAs in other developed nations, everyone should have access to doctors, to medicine, to preventive services. The House bill would take America a giant step closer to that goal… But the bill also could take America a step closer to bankruptcy… If federal debt continues rising on its present path, hastened by a $1 trillion health-care bill, it is the poor and vulnerable who will be most harmed.
- Effort to Assist Older Voters May Raise Costs for the YoungThe bill would limit how much insurers can vary premiums based on the age of the person buying the policy. The narrower the range, the lower the premiums for older people, a help to those who currently pay some of the highest rates for insurance and often need coverage the most. But such a limitation tends to raise premiums for younger folks, who are sometimes reluctant to buy coverage.
- Why is reforming health care so hard?A substantial majority of those polled expressed satisfaction with the health-care system. In fact, nearly eight in 10 said the system meets their needs ‘very well’ or ‘pretty well,’ while three out of four insured respondents rated their coverage as ‘good’ or ‘very good.’ Furthermore, fewer than one in seven said an insurer had refused to cover a doctor-recommended treatment or procedure, and fewer than one in 15 said an insurer had denied a request to see a specialist.
- GOP officials say Dems put agenda ahead of countryVoters are ‘tired of the borrowing, the spending, the bailouts, the takeovers,’ said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, the No. 3 House GOP leader, pointing to GOP victories in gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey last week… ‘On a narrow partisan vote, the Democrats put their liberal, big government agenda ahead of the American people,’ Pence said. ‘If Democrats keep ignoring the American people, their party’s going to be history in about a year.’
- Sweeping Health Care Plan Passes House After a daylong clash with Republicans over what has been a Democratic goal for decades, lawmakers voted 220 to 215 to approve a plan that would cost $1.1 trillion over 10 years… ‘This government takeover has got a long way to go before it gets to the president’s desk, and I’ll continue to fight it tooth and nail at every turn,’ said Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas. ‘Health care is too important to get it wrong.’
- Not so fast: House health care vote is just the first stepAny momentum from Saturday’s historic House approval of a sweeping health care overhaul is likely to be short-lived as the focus moves to the Senate, where progress has been stalled for weeks… ‘Most of our constituents agree we have a very serious problem with the health care system, but in terms of how you fix it, the country is very divided,’ said Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., one of the Democrats who voted no.
- U.S. healthcare measure faces tough path in SenateThe battle now shifts to the Senate, where work on Obama’s top domestic priority has been stalled for weeks as Democratic leader Harry Reid searches for an approach that can win the 60 votes he needs to overcome Republican procedural hurdles… ‘The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate,’ Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation,’ calling it ‘a bill written by liberals for liberals.’
- Activists bring ‘tea party’ to Capitol HillWith the stage set for a historic House vote on health-care reform this weekend, an estimated 10,000 conservative activists descended on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a campaign-style rally in a last-ditch effort to defeat a bill they demonized as ‘Pelosi-Care.
- Democrats’ plan to help ‘uninsurables’ questionedYou’re afraid your cancer is back, and a health insurance company just turned you down. Under the health care bills in Congress, you could apply for coverage through a new high-risk pool that President Barack Obama promises would immediately start serving patients with pre-existing medical problems. Wait a second. Read the fine print. You may have to be uninsured for six months to qualify.
- House Democrats Push for Saturday Health Vote
House Democratic leaders are pushing for a Saturday vote on their sweeping health-care bill, but they are struggling to win over shaky rank-and-file members who could hold up its passage… As of Wednesday, House leaders didn’t appear to have secured the 218 votes they need to pass the bill. They were moving to quickly swear in two Democrats elected Tuesday, which would give the party 258 seats in the House and allow leaders to lose as many as 40 Democratic votes without losing their majority. No Republicans are expected to vote for the bill. - Handicapping the House Republicans’ Health Bill
“House Republicans put forward their version of health care legislation on Tuesday, and Democrats immediately slammed it as too little, too late… The Republican bill has no chance of passage, a fact that Republicans leaders keenly understand. And House rules, set by the Democrats, will also prevent the Republicans from having any other opportunity to express their views on health care, other than in a substitute bill.” - Health-Care Reform’s Hidden Taxes“As a candidate and President, Barack Obama has had one core message for the middle class: I won’t raise your taxes… But as Congress inches closer to forging a massive package of health-care reforms, it’s increasingly clear how difficult it will be to keep that pledge. To pay for the near trillion-dollar health-care system overhaul-not to mention reining in the deficit and funding other ambitious plans Obama has laid out for the years ahead-many outside the White House believe the middle class will not be spared. Republican critics contend that the White House is misleading the public about who will ultimately shoulder much of the cost of extending coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans.”
- House Democrats clear the way for health care voteHouse Democrats cleared the way Wednesday for a pivotal floor vote on health care overhaul as early as the weekend, after tweaking their 1,900-page bill to crack down harder on insurance companies… The House bill would be paid for by boosting taxes on upper income earners and cutting Medicare payments to health insurance companies, hospitals and other medical providers.
- House liberals’ wish list for government health plan: no citizenship requirements, triggers or opt outs and more subsidiesThe most liberal factions of the House sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, telling her that the House health care bill must strengthened to ensure the government-run insurance plan is not subjected to triggers or an “opt out” mechanism… The group is also demanding language be added to the bill that would ensure subsidies are great enough to help those who can’t afford insurance and they want a provision added to guarantee that no citizenship or residency verification is required for purchase of insurance in the health Insurance exchange that would be created under the House bill.
- US health overhaul could penalize Mass.
Under some versions of the federal legislation, Massachusetts could face pressure to reduce the subsidies it now provides to low- and middle-income residents who get insurance under the state system… That is because the proposed federal subsidies are less generous, particularly under the bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee. If such a bill passes, Massachusetts could be forced to choose between scaling back sharply to match the federal payment levels, jockeying for a special deal from the federal government, or dipping even more deeply into state taxpayer dollars to make up the gap. - The Conversation: Baucus health reform bill would prove costly
In fact, the Baucus plan would, at best, increase the number of non-elderly Americans with health insurance by just 11 percentage points over the next decade. But in order to do so, it would spend billions of taxpayer dollars, curtail patients’ health care choices, and still leave 30 million Americans without insurance. That’s far too great a price to pay for little more than a cosmetic improvement in the uninsured rate. - Reid indicates timetable for health care may slipIn a blow to the White House, the Senate’s top Democrat signaled Tuesday that Congress may fail to meet a year-end deadline for passing health care legislation, leaving the measure’s fate to the uncertainties of the 2010 election season.
- Major Congressional Reforms Demand Bipartisan Support For decades, a rule of thumb in Washington has said that there should be popular support and a bipartisan majority before approving an initiative that significantly affects tens of millions of Americans. Health-care reform-ObamaCare-has neither, yet Democrats want to impose it anyway. If they succeed, the consequences could be devastating for the country and probably for the president and his party.
- G.O.P. Counters With a Health Plan of Its OwnHouse Republicans have come up with an answer to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drafting an alternative health care bill that would reward states for reducing the number of uninsured, limit damages in medical malpractice lawsuits and allow small businesses to band together and buy insurance exempt from most state regulation.
- Reid: Senate not bound by Obama’s health deadlineLate Tuesday evening, House Democrats announced 42 pages of amendments to the 1,990-page bill they introduced last week, including new checks to make sure illegal immigrants don’t get health coverage and the creation of five new offices to monitor the health of minorities. Democrats said the completion of the “manager’s amendment” starts the legislative clock, giving lawmakers 72 hours to digest the bill before putting it on the floor for debate and a vote.
- Health care plan hits rich with big tax increasesThe typical family would be spared higher taxes from the House Democratic plan to overhaul health care, and their low-income neighbors could come out ahead. Their wealthy counterparts, however, face big tax increases that could eventually hit future generations of taxpayers who are less wealthy… But unlike other income tax rates, the new tax would not be indexed for inflation. As incomes rise over time because of inflation, more families - and more small business owners - would be hit by the tax.
- States likely to shape health reformHealth policy experts are concerned not only about the ability of the states to shoulder their share of the cost of reform but also about their administrative and analytical capacity. Some states are well-positioned to manage a new federal program that seeks to cover the uninsured while pressuring doctors and hospitals to deliver care more efficiently… At the other end of the spectrum are states with poor collaboration in the health sector, lax insurance regulations and small, disorganized Medicaid programs…they could find the post-reform transition particularly harrowing.
- CBO:US House Health Bill Would Attract Less-Healthy Enrollees Health-care legislation pushed by U.S. House Democrats would attract less-healthy enrollees for insurance coverage than Senate legislation and therefore would result in higher average health costs, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
- Why health care ‘reform’ will kill your benefitsThe way the Democrats are reshaping the incentives in the health insurance market, it is much less likely that the employer-provided health insurance people are satisfied with and want to keep will still exist… The insurance industry has been warning for weeks that the combination of guaranteed issue with a weak individual mandate will spike premium rates. Democrats have denounced the industry and stepped up punitive measures directed against it. But the industry’s logic is irrefutable.
Orszag: Health care efficiencies may take decadesThe White House budget director said Wednesday that it may take decades for America to have an efficient health care system even if Congress passes a major overhaul this year.
