News outlets report on some of the major players in the health care debate, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Iowa Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. Politico: Pelosi "now faces perhaps the...
Kaiser Health News staff writers report, "As a candidate, Barack Obama promised to pass a health plan with important benefits for the average American. ... But a year later, the health care proposals in Congress lack many of those easy-to-sell benefits, which became victims of the lengthy...
Democrats hope an upcoming meeting with President Obama will help "narrow the differences" between the House and Senate bills, The Associated Press reports. "Obama was to meet Wednesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democratic...
The Wall Street Journal: "Four years ago, the U.S. government offered subsidized prescription-drug insurance to 43 million elderly and disabled, the biggest expansion of government-backed health care in decades. Today, the program is working better than many expected." One lesson could be for...
The Wall Street Journal: "Four years ago, the U.S. government offered subsidized prescription-drug insurance to 43 million elderly and disabled, the biggest expansion of government-backed health care in decades. Today, the program is working better than many expected." One lesson could be for...
The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries. ~ "Manager's Amendment Restricts Abortion Coverage; The Final Bill Should Not," Micole Allekotte, National Women's Law Center's "Womenstake": The manager's amendment to the Senate health reform bill "is far worse regarding...
Some opponents of the congressional health bills "think their last, best hope to halt the legislation lies not in the U.S. Capitol but in the court across the street," The Washington Post reports. "A small but vocal contingent of legal scholars and many Republican lawmakers argue that the...
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) hails the Senate's procedural vote that allows the Senate to move forward with its proposed healthcare reform plan. The plan includes a wide range of provisions that would help ensure older adults access to quality, cost-effective care, and make the Medicare...
The American Nurses Association (ANA), the largest multi-purpose nursing organization in the country, applauds Senate lawmakers for passing H.R. 3590, "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act". This landmark legislation was approved by a vote of 60-39. ANA had urged passage of the...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, released the following statement on the Senate's passage of historic health care reform legislation: "With this bill, we will begin the process of cutting health care costs, while maintaining quality...
President Obama told Senate Democrats Tuesday in an hour-long meeting that they are on the "precipice" of health reform and said that he was "cautiously optimistic" that health reform would get done, the Los Angeles Times reports. "President Obama, acknowledging that he will have to accept...
MarketWatch/The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on "the five biggest myths about health reform" -- that reform would lead to a government takeover of health care, that it would ration care, that it wouldn't address "out-of-control" growth, that you could keep your insurance if you like it, and...
USA Today reports that the health care bills moving through Congress have dozens of "lesser-known provisions" that include ideas that failed to gain traction in the past but are benefiting by hitching their proposal to health care reform. Among the ideas: "Companies with 50 or more employees...
News outlets are focusing on the stories of individual consumers to explain how health care reform legislation may affect the lives and health of people around the nation. PBS NewsHour reports on a young uninsured person, Samantha Young. She was billed $7,000 for an emergency room...
The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries. ~ "Stopping Stupak in the Senate," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), The Hill's "Congress Blog": "I'm extremely disappointed that one of my fellow Democratic colleagues is introducing a measure similar to the House's...