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Finance Committee negotiators near accord on bill

The Washington Post: "Three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are expected to wrap up their arduous multi-week talks in the coming days, and Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he expects a panel vote before the Senate recess, which will begin Aug. 7.

30 Jul 2009

No Blue Dog deal in House as compromise proves elusive

House leaders and the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats group could not agree on a compromise late Tuesday after more than six hours of discussion, complicating efforts to have legislation on the House floor before the August recess.

30 Jul 2009

Massachusetts to restore immigrant health care, Colorado Medicaid list grows, Obama in North Carolina

Massachusetts lawmakers will vote today to provide $40 million to restore health care coverage for legal immigrants. In Colorado, a 14 percent spike in Medicaid capped a record year for enrollment.

30 Jul 2009

Long-term care proposal draws opposition

The insurance industry opposes a long-term care proposal called the CLASS Act, currently included in two major health care reform measures.

30 Jul 2009

IMPROVE Bill seeks to fight Medicare fraud

Minnesota Public Radio reports: "Sen. Amy Klobuchar, [D-Minn.] says she hopes to include legislation to prevent Medicare fraud in the health reform bill being debated in Washington.

30 Jul 2009

AMA backs health reform plan, but not all doctors are on board

Even as Democratic leaders in Congress and President Obama tout the American Medical Association's support for the House health care overhaul proposal, eleven other medical societies are vocally rejecting the plan, American Medical News reports.

28 Jul 2009

Subsidies to cover uninsured critical to health overhaul

Covering the uninsured - a leading principle of health care reform - depends on the critical issue of who gets subsidies to pay for health insurance coverage and when.

28 Jul 2009

House members continue bickering over reform

Hope is fading in the House on voting on reform before the August recess as Democrats bicker over details, Roll Call reports: "Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Friday that Democratic leaders may push off the health care bill until September if they can't get it finished within the next two weeks."

28 Jul 2009

Senate Dems seek compromise on contentious health reform issues

A leading Democratic senator, Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said Sunday Democrats would need Republican support to make ambitious proposals to overhaul the health system a reality, the Associated Press reports.

28 Jul 2009

Health care legislation's hurdles and potential impacts

Politico reports on key issues that could derail a final bill: "Even if House and Senate leaders manage to get the health care bills through their chambers, they will still face a contentious conference committee. Those negotiations will aim to produce one final bill that must be passed anew in each chamber.

28 Jul 2009

Health lobbying means cash infusion for candidates, TV stations

"Health care groups working feverishly to shape -- or kill -- an industry-wide reform bill are lavishing campaign cash on the politicians at the center of the debate," The Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune reports.

28 Jul 2009

Health care overhaul could include changes to doctor payments

The Wall Street Journal reports that "Democratic centrists said they won a tentative commitment from the White House to back a proposal to curb the growth of Medicare costs. ... One proposal pushed both by President Barack Obama and some centrists is to give the executive branch the authority to implement cuts to Medicare spending that would be recommended by independent experts. Congress could stop the cuts, but only if it acted swiftly. Fiscal conservatives say that under the current system, which gives Congress more power, lawmakers shy away from politically tough votes to restrain Medicare costs."

22 Jul 2009

Six finance Senators strive for bipartisan compromise

As the public face of health reform devolves into a partisan fight - with one GOP Senator [Jim DeMint, S.C.] saying the reform push is President Obama's "Waterloo," and Democrats retorting that Republicans would derail the overhaul for political gain - a group of legislators in the Senate Finance Committee has continued to strive for a compromise behind closed doors, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

22 Jul 2009

Blue Dogs: We have agreement with House Dems on health bill

Work on the House health care reform bill is slowing as Rep. Henry Waxman of California and fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats have come to an agreement on Medicare payments, The New York Times reports.

22 Jul 2009

Young adults face tough time getting health insurance

Young adults are facing tough times with limited job prospects and no health insurance. The Associated Press reports on recent college graduate Emily Weinstein as being representative of the many young uninsured Americans: "Like millions of other uninsured adults in their 20s, Weinstein is watching Congress as it advances legislation to overhaul health care.

22 Jul 2009

Obama continues pressing health reform, but softens on the deadline

President Barack Obama in remarks on Monday called out critics of his push for health reform and softened his timeline talk, The Associated Press reports.

20 Jul 2009

Key Senate panel struggles to reach consensus

"The Senate Finance Committee, which is seeking a bipartisan compromise, has failed to reach an agreement" on health care reform, Bloomberg reports, "even as two House committees and a Senate panel cleared their versions of the legislation with only Democratic approval."

20 Jul 2009

Health overhaul issues fill the Sunday talk shows

The Associated Press reports: "President Barack Obama's advisers are urging critics of their health care overhaul to wait for Congress to finish writing legislation before issuing verdicts. They also signaled they are willing to wait longer than their White House-imposed August deadline for action if it means they can sway wary lawmakers.

20 Jul 2009

House Committees prepare for votes on health reform bill

Votes are planned Thursday in the House Education and Labor and Ways and Means committees on a $1.5 trillion plan to overhaul the nation's health care system, The Associated Press reports.

16 Jul 2009

Obama presses lawmakers on health reform

In President Obama's push for health reform, "new fault lines are opening up everywhere you look. Liberals are worried that Obama is going squishy on including a strong, government-run 'public option' among the health-care choices available to Americans.

16 Jul 2009