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Ryan budget floor vote foreshadows fiscal showdown

The House Budget Committee approved the measure in a late vote Wednesday. Meanwhile, because it "fractures" the spending agreement reached last summer between the White House and congressional Republicans, both sides may be fixing for a fight as the election gets closer.

23 Mar 2012

State roundup: Union seeks $80M from N.Y. for health aides' insurance

As Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers lurch toward a budget deal, the state's largest health-care union is asking Albany for another bailout of its troubled insurance fund. The union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, is asking the state for $80 million more in Medicaid dollars so it can keep on providing health insurance to personal-care aides.

23 Mar 2012

Status checks on the health overhaul's implementation

A top Health and Human Services official told a congressional panel on Wednesday that his office is still figuring out how employers will be asked to determine their workers' health insurance status once the overhaul law goes into effect. The issue is important because beginning in 2014, companies with 50 or more full-time workers will be required to provide health insurance coverage or face paying a penalty.

23 Mar 2012

Longer looks: Health literacy's effect on costs

In many families, women are the health care decision makers. When children go for their checkups, we are often the ones who make the appointment and sit in the room holding their hand. When elderly parents see a new specialist, we are the ones carrying the folder with all their health information. ... In the past, this also meant that many women would take care of their own health last. By the time they got around to it, women found a system stacked against them. But thanks to the health care law, that's changed.

23 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Health law's threat to individual liberty; Conflicting opinions on the constitutionality of the individual mandate

On Monday, the Supreme Court will begin an extraordinary three-day hearing on the constitutionality of ObamaCare. At stake are the Constitution's structural guarantees of individual liberty, which limit governmental power and ensure political accountability by dividing that power between federal and state authorities. Upholding ObamaCare would destroy this dual-sovereignty system, the most distinctive feature of American constitutionalism.

23 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 22, 2012

Today's headlines include examinations of the health law as it approaches its two-year anniversary and its review by the Supreme Court, as well as reports about what's next for the Ryan budget plan.

22 Mar 2012

State roundup: Oregon's coordinated care program moves ahead

Ten thousand more employees at five city agencies have signed on to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to raise monthly health insurance premiums by $50 for employees who fail to participate in a "wellness program" to manage chronic health problems. Emanuel hopes to save $20 million in 2012 -- and $240 million over four years -- by riding herd over costly, but controllable problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and asthma.

22 Mar 2012

Health law message machine, implementation rolls on

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was in Florida Tuesday pointing out the health law's accomplishments. Meanwhile, news outlets offer implementation reports from California and Arkansas.

22 Mar 2012

Ryan budget plan would revamp Medicare, Medicaid

The blueprint is an election-year marker that envisions a smaller government and deep cuts to entitlement and safety net programs. It has no chance of passage this year.

22 Mar 2012

Supreme Court braces for health law frenzy

The high court is scheduled to hear three days of oral arguments related to the legal challenges to the health law. Amid the expected media attention, political posturing and spin contests, interested parties are finalizing their arguments and strategies.

22 Mar 2012

Some praise Rep. Ryan's budget plan as a bold approach; Others worry about 'dangerous' cuts to Medicare, the poor

A look at the initial editorials and opinions on the budget proposal released Tuesday by the House Budget Committee chairman.

22 Mar 2012

Health law oral arguments: Analyzing the moving parts

News reports explore the constitutional questions to be explored in the high court's review of the health law and the most likely potential outcomes.

21 Mar 2012

Roundup: States face new revenue downturn; Calif. county has disparities in life expectancy

Revenues in most U.S. states increased in the fourth quarter of 2011, but their recent surge is tapering off, as they grew just 2.7 percent from the final quarter of 2010, according to a report released on Monday. "This is a noticeable slowdown from the 11.1 (percent) and 6.1 percent year-over-year growth reported in the second and third quarters of 2011, respectively," the Rockefeller Institute, a think tank that closely watches states' revenues, said in the report.

21 Mar 2012

Six state Attorneys General to hear Supreme Court health law arguments, other state health law news

Attorneys general from six states will sit in the Supreme Court to hear the oral arguments over the health reform law. In the meantime, Pennsylvania lawmakers may offer a constitutional amendment to ban laws mandating people have health insurance.

21 Mar 2012

WESTMED collaborates with UnitedHealthcare to launch ACO

WESTMED Medical Group announced it is collaborating with the UnitedHealthcare and Optum businesses of UnitedHealth Group to launch an accountable care organization (ACO) for its more than 220 physicians in Westchester County, N.Y.

21 Mar 2012

On campaign trail, Santorum bashes Romney on health care

Mitt Romney's Medicare plan is dissected by the Boston Globe and neither he nor the president are talking up their health reform plans.

21 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Rep. Ryan on his budget plan; Obama's contraceptive mandate could hurt McCaskill in tight Missouri race

On the critical issues of health security and tax reform, our budget draws a clear distinction between serious reformers and those who stand in the way of the growing bipartisan consensus for principled solutions. Our budget's Medicare reforms make no changes for those in or near retirement. For those who will retire a decade from now, our plan provides guaranteed coverage options financed by a premium-support payment. And this year, our budget adds even more choices for seniors, including a traditional fee-for-service Medicare option.

21 Mar 2012

Indian patent court licenses generic copy of Bayer’s blockbuster anticancer drug

Last week an Indian patent court shocked the $600 billion global pharmaceutical business by ordering Bayer, the German health care giant, to allow a tiny Indian generic drug company to sell cheap copies of the blockbuster cancer drug Nexavar – even though everyone agrees that the drug is protected by a patent. Instead, the court decided that Bayer had an obligation to make Nexavar available to people in India who needed it.

20 Mar 2012