First Edition: November 23, 2009

Today's headlines indicate that even after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid found victory Saturday night with the first health bill test vote, his measure is likely to be the subject of an even more intense debate as the measure moves forward.

Congress Targets Senior Abuse
KHN staff writer Rick Schmitt writes about elder abuse. "When it comes to political, social or health causes, elder abuse has not had the star power of some other movements focusing on the rights of vulnerable people. … The lack of glitter has been reflected over the years in federal support for protecting seniors -- which is to say, support has been limited. That may be about to change. As part of health care overhaul legislation, lawmakers are taking steps that would for the first time establish a federal beachhead in fighting elder abuse" (Kaiser Health News).

Kaiser Health News tracked weekend developments and provides news summaries of the important events, including Saturday's Senate vote and comments made during the Sunday morning news programs.

Reaction To Senate Healthcare Vote Offers A Preview Of 2010 Campaigns With the Senate's 60-39 vote to proceed to debate, after Thanksgiving, on a healthcare bill that the president is seeking by year's end, the debate of the 2010 midterm elections has been joined (Los Angeles Times).

How Health Care Reform Could Fall Apart Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid eked out 60 votes on a procedural motion to start the health care debate Saturday night - but there's no guarantee he can pass a bill on the merits (Politico).

Health Haggling Heats Up
Democratic leaders finally moved their sweeping health bill to the Senate floor, where wheeling and dealing over major unresolved and divisive issues likely will shape the legislation before its next big test (The Wall Street Journal).

Senate Votes To Move Health Debate Forward
Democrats and independents closed ranks Saturday and voted to move forward with debate on landmark legislation that would overhaul the nation's health system and extend health insurance to 31 million Americans (The Wall Street Journal).

Senate Healthcare Reform Vote: 'Now, The Debate Can Begin' With no Republican votes - and no votes to spare - Senate Democrats opened debate on historic overhaul of how the US healthcare system delivers services and how Americans pay for them (The Christian Science Monitor).

Public Option At Center Of Debate Democrats had little time to savor their weekend Senate health-care victory, as two of the lawmakers who voted to move the debate forward Saturday night indicated Sunday that they will not vote to pass the package if it includes a government-run insurance program (The Washington Post).

Senators Voice Optimism On Public Option Buoyed by their weekend victory on a vote beginning the health care debate, several Senate Democrats expressed optimism yesterday they could find a way to keep a government-run insurance plan in the sweeping bill (The Boston Globe).

Centrist Senators Say They Oppose Health Care Bill
The morning after voting to commence debate on ground-breaking health care legislation, two centrist senators, Ben Nelson and Joseph I. Lieberman, said on Sunday that they were opposed to the bill as it is currently written, particularly its inclusion of a new government-run insurance program (The New York Times).

For Health Care Holdout, It's Lonely In The Middle As one of the few senators undecided on healthcare reform, Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln faces a huge headache. Liberals attack her as an obstructionist, even though she cast a key vote keeping the effort alive. Republicans are lining up to run against her -- seven, so far, and counting. (Los Angeles Times).

Health Care Fight Swells Lobbying Companies and groups hiring lobbying firms on health issues nearly doubled this year as special interests rushed to shape the massive revamp of the nation's health care system now in its final stretch before Congress (USA Today).

Policy, Portfolios And The Investor Lawmaker When Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) this summer proposed a $4 billion tax on medical-device firms to help offset the cost of health-care reforms, an unusual mix of lawmakers joined in a chorus of protest (The Washington Post).

Daschle: Health Care Overhaul 'Within Our Reach' Senate Democrats may have scored a procedural victory Saturday night, but the real battle is set to begin after Thanksgiving, when debate over health care legislation will begin (NPR).

Gaps For Consumers In Democrat Health Care Bills For consumers, the health care bills taking final shape in Congress don't rate close to a perfect 10 (The Associated Press).

Pressure On Region's House Democrats To Back Health Care Overhaul Union-backed groups are pressuring a handful of renegade House Democrats from New York and New Jersey to back the party's efforts to overhaul the health care system (The New York Times).

Fierce Debate Raging Over New Cancer Test Guidelines President Obama's vision for making health care in America more effective and efficient collided for the first time last week with the realities and peculiarities of the nation's health-care system (The Washington Post).

Mammogram Guidelines Spark Debate Over Health Bill Lawmakers broke along party lines on a new aspect of the health care debate Sunday as a former National Institutes of Health chief urged women to ignore guidelines that delay the start of breast cancer screenings (The Associated Press).

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