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Progressive group launches ad urging Sen. Reid to include public option in reform legislation

"The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) launched an ad urging Sen. Harry Reid to muscle through a public option as part of healthcare reform," The Hill's Blog Briefing Room reports (Zimmerman, 10/19).

20 Oct 2009

Lawmakers struggle to balance interests as sweeping health legislation negotiations proceed

Lawmakers continue to try to shape health bills as they move closer to floor votes.

20 Oct 2009

Baucus: Public insurance option 'alive' in Senate negotiations

USA Today: During a conference call with reporters today, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said the public option is "alive." Baucus, "one of a handful of senators engaged in behind-the-scenes health care negotiations, said Democratic lawmakers are continuing to debate whether to include a government-run health insurance program -- also known as the public option -- and what shape that program might take."

19 Oct 2009

White House hedging bets on public option in health bills

The Associated Press "The White House is waiting for Congress to settle on a final health care bill, even though President Barack Obama has a clear preference in favor of at least one specific — the much-debated public option, advisers said. Obama, however, will not demand that legislation include a government-run insurance plan intended to drive down costs through competition with private insurers, they said."

19 Oct 2009

Young adults struggle finding health care coverage

Young adults represent the largest group of uninsured people while they also increasingly report mental health issues in college.

19 Oct 2009

Medicaid expansion could hit struggling state budgets

"The government programs that provide health care to the poor would expand to cover nearly one in five Americans under health insurance legislation pending in Congress, putting pressure on federal and state budgets," USA Today reports.

19 Oct 2009

Health reform bills may not protect consumers from treatment denials

"Despite growing frustration with the way health insurers deny medical treatments, major healthcare bills pending in Congress would give patients little new power to challenge those sometimes life-and-death decisions," The Los Angeles Times reports.

19 Oct 2009

Insurers, other health businesses examine effect of reform bills

Health care industry CEOs are analyzing their wins and losses in the bills being considered in Congress.

19 Oct 2009

eHealth launches new website to help consumers learn about Medicare health plan options

Today, eHealth, Inc., parent company of eHealthInsurance, the leading online source of health insurance for individuals, families, and small businesses, announced the launch of a new online service to help consumers learn about, and get access to, quality Medicare health plan options.

19 Oct 2009

First Edition: October 19, 2009

Five Rivers Medical Center in Pocahontas, Ark., needs help to get a highly coveted "critical access" hospital designation - and the extra Medicare funding that comes with it. Sen. Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat, intends to provide it.

19 Oct 2009

Pelosi has tough words for insurers as she pushes public plan

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is joining liberal Democrats in the House on warning insurers that health care reform could mean lower profit, more fees and new competition from government.

19 Oct 2009

Minnesota Governor proposes to let residents buy out-of-state insurance and other state headlines

News outlets report on a variety of state health stories including insurance in Minnesota, premiums and out-of-pocket costs in Massachusetts and high premiums for Blue Sheild in California.

19 Oct 2009

Insurers vs. Dems: Battle over AHIP report leads to 'grudge match'

An industry-sponsored report forecasting soaring health insurance prices as a result of reform plans ignited a fight between insurers and Democrats, and doused a fragile truce between top insurance lobbyist Karen Ignagni and White House health adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle, TIME reports. After a years-long relationship and more-than-weekly phone calls despite tensions over reform plans, the recent episode "shattered the thin trust between the Administration and the insurance lobby."

19 Oct 2009

Pelosi raises banner of public plan in response to insurers' attacks

The health insurance industry's recent attacks on health-overhaul legislation only strengthens the case for the federal government to offer a competing health plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday, the Associated Press reports.

19 Oct 2009

Senate Democratic leaders say party will unite on health reform vote

Sens. Max Baucus and Harry Reid are predicting that a health care overhaul in the Senate will attract the votes of all Democrats in the Senate — and maybe even more than one Republican.

19 Oct 2009

Lawmakers wrestle with health reform details - publicly and behind closed doors

Reporters examine which provisions - such as the public option or cost control provisions - may be included as House and Senate negotiators try to meld various Democratic health reform bills.

19 Oct 2009

Poll questions lead to varying answers on health reform

News outlets continue to analyze how polls and public opinion intersect.

19 Oct 2009

Public option re-emerges in Senate discussions; continues to play role in House

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's efforts to merge the two Senate health care reform bills is being complicated by question of whether to include a public plan and how it might fit with vote counting, the president's agenda and the more liberal version sure to come out of the House.

19 Oct 2009

Hearings focus on gender discrimination in health coverage and the underinsured

During a hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, several women shared stories of gender discrimination in health care coverage.

19 Oct 2009

Obama administration appears open to public plan 'trigger'

"The Obama administration signaled a willingness to compromise on a proposed government-run health- insurance company by praising Senator Olympia Snowe's plan to start the entity only if private insurers don't meet targets," Bloomberg reports.

19 Oct 2009