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House Democrats push their health reform plan

House Democrats' health care bill draft released Friday is likely to survive relatively intact, "including a robust new Medicare-like public health plan that would compete with private companies in a national health insurance exchange," Roll Call reports.

22 Jun 2009

Insurers revoke plans to avoid paying for patients with high costs

A Congressional committee recently turned its attention to rescission, a practice where insurers retroactively revoke plans to avoid paying high costs. NPR reports: "According to a new report by congressional investigators, an insurance company practice of retroactively canceling health insurance is fairly common, and it saves insurers a lot of money.

22 Jun 2009

Sticker shock threatens to stall health care overhaul

"No one can figure out a politically acceptable way to pay for an overhaul of America's health care system, and until someone does, the effort is stalled. Maybe indefinitely," McClatchy reports. Michael Tanner, a "health care analyst" at the Cato Institute, says "it's quite feasible that the whole thing could crash and burn because of sticker shock."

22 Jun 2009

Can health co-ops do the job of a public plan?

"Perhaps the clearest sign yet of the unpredictable nature of… an ambitious [health care] policy overhaul is the approach that is suddenly starting to emerge on Capitol Hill as an alternative to a public plan - non-profit, consumer run health insurance cooperatives," Time reports.

22 Jun 2009

Polls show Americans struggling to pay for health care

A new study reports that about one-fourth of Americans say they've struggled in the last 12 months to pay for health care, Reuters reports.

22 Jun 2009

House Democrats release sweeping reform plan

Democrats in the House of Representatives unveiled their bill to overhaul the U.S. health care system today. Senior Correspondent Mary Agnes Carey was there and spoke with Peggy Girshman, KHN's Executive Editor for Online, about the plan.

21 Jun 2009

House reform outline includes public insurance option

"House Democrats released the outline of their health care reform bill Friday - a proposal that would create a public insurance option, expand Medicaid, and require employers to provide coverage or pay a tax," Politico reports. "The outline did not include details on how Democrats would pay for the plan."

21 Jun 2009

As reform stalls, Senators scramble to scale back or cut costs

"The high cost of securing health insurance for all Americans, the top domestic priority of President Obama, has Congressional Democrats scrambling to scale back their proposals or find ways to trim tens of billions of dollars a year from existing health programs," the New York Times reports.

21 Jun 2009

Finance Committee seeks to trim cost of bill

"A draft proposal in the Senate to overhaul the nation's health-care system would require most people to buy health insurance, authorize an expansion of Medicaid coverage and create consumer-owned cooperative plans instead of the government coverage that President Obama is seeking," the Washington Post reports.

21 Jun 2009

Frank, Dodd, Grassley speak their minds

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, remains on the fence about several provisions in a Democratic plan, The Washington Post reports: "Winning over the Senate Finance Committee's ranking Republican would represent a major coup for Democrats and a rare defection from the GOP party line for Grassley, a populist at heart but a loyal Republican according to his voting record.

21 Jun 2009

Facing Congressional squabbling, President pushes for reform

The press for health care reform hit a snag this week as Congress sputtered to resolve its differences, but President Barack Obama continues his call, almost daily, to continue to try to change the system, The New York Times reports.

21 Jun 2009

Bartering for health care is on the rise as the recession drags on

CNN reports that bartering is booming and that "business owners with an eye toward cutting costs are increasingly viewing bartering as a viable option for obtaining medical services for themselves and their employees."

21 Jun 2009

Race disparities plague treatment and outcomes in health care

CNN examines race disparities in health care during a 4-minute segment that is part of the station's week-long focus on health care issues.

21 Jun 2009

Doctors cautiously signal they'll work with Obama

The American Medical Association voted yesterday to support "health reform alternatives that are consistent with AMA principles," although the group fell short of specifically supporting a public plan, the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

Bingaman, Wyden among key health reform lawmakers in the news

Newspapers highlight a few of the key congressional players in the health care debate. Politico: "There's a little bit of Gary Cooper in Jeff Bingaman, and that's not bad for President Barack Obama if health care becomes the political High Noon this year that so many expect."

18 Jun 2009

Former Senate majority leaders outline health care compromise

Three former Senate majority leaders unveiled a health care reform plan Wednesday that would tax health benefits with value over what members of Congress are given and would mandate that both employers and individuals carry insurance, Kaiser Health News reports.

18 Jun 2009

Free clinics affected by primary care physician shortage

In the face of growing numbers of uninsured and low-income patients due to the economy, some free clinics are having difficulty meeting the increased demand, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

18 Jun 2009

Next year's rising health costs may not be slowed by reform

"Employers who offer health insurance coverage could see a 9 percent cost increase next year, and their workers may face an even bigger hit, according to a report Thursday from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers," the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

New polls find support for health reform, fear of costs

A series of new polls this week show support for major health care reform, but trepidation about certain policy proposals, and anxiety about quickly growing health care costs, the possibility of losing coverage, and the federal budget deficit in general.

18 Jun 2009

Republicans scold HELP Democrats over reform bill's price tag, government control

"It was particularly devastating on Wednesday when [Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah]" – a longtime friend of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., – "warned Democrats on the panel that they have already made some grave errors in their effort to write legislation overhauling the health care system," reports the New York Times in The Caucus Blog.

18 Jun 2009