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House Democrats to open hearings amid controversy over finances, public plan

"House Democrats are pushing forward with a partisan health care bill even as a key Senate Democrat labors to achieve an elusive bipartisan compromise on President Barack Obama's top legislative priority," The Associated Press reports.

23 Jun 2009

Senators debate public plan, co-ops for health overhaul

Senators crafting health reform legislation are debating a number of issues ahead of the revelation of proposal including the inclusion of a cooperative as an alternative to a government-run public plan, Politico reports.

23 Jun 2009

Insurance industry groups lay down reform marker

America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the two largest insurance industry groups, released a letter today that "laid down a marker on health care, warning in stark terms that a proposed government insurance plan would dismantle the employer coverage Americans have relied on for a half century and overtake the system," the Associated Press reports.

23 Jun 2009

Obama 'very optimistic' about health care overhaul, public plan 'makes sense'

President Barack Obama today at a news conference said a public plan is "an important tool to discipline insurance companies," but he didn't answer a question on whether he would veto a bill that did not include a public plan option, saying it was too early in the process to "draw lines in the sand," Reuters reports.

23 Jun 2009

Lawmakers address nurse and primary care physician shortages

A pending House bill would aim to address the nursing shortage by allowing "20,000 additional nurses to enter the U.S. each year for the next three years as a temporary measure to fill the gap," Business Week reports.

22 Jun 2009

Parents struggle with costs of their children's autism care

The total cost for treating a child with autism can reach $5 million, but insurance companies rarely cover autism therapy and few states mandate it. CBS News reports that "an estimated one in every 150 children in America has autism and the number of reported cases is growing" while "parents are increasingly demanding that insurance companies cover the newest treatment."

22 Jun 2009

Adverts highlight different aspects of health reform debate

A coalition of union and liberal groups began running television ads designed to get "the attention of one particular television viewer: Sen. Kay Hagan," The Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record reports.

22 Jun 2009

As Obama wades into health debate, tough choices await

"As the legislative debate over health care intensifies on Capitol Hill, there is growing clamor for President Obama to step in," the Washington Post reports.

22 Jun 2009

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