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Poll: Most want health reform but fear its side effects

"A majority of Americans see government action as critical to controlling runaway health-care costs, but there is broad public anxiety about the potential impact of reform legislation and conflicting views about the types of fixes being proposed on Capitol Hill, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll," The Washington Post reports.

25 Jun 2009

House approves bill to end delay in veteran care

The House approved a bill Tuesday that seeks to end waits for federal financing of veterans' health care programs, The New York Times reports.

25 Jun 2009

Baucus takes center stage as health reform deal maker

"As President Obama's effort to overhaul the health care system seems to hit one roadblock after another in Congress, he is counting on Senator Max Baucus [D-Mont.], a political shape-shifter and crafty deal maker who is not fully trusted by either party, to help him clinch his top domestic priority," the New York Times reports in a profile of the Senate Finance Committee leader.

25 Jun 2009

HHS Secretary presses lawmakers on health care

"Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a U.S. House panel Wednesday that the Obama administration is willing to negotiate how health overhaul legislation is paid for, but not whether it is paid for," according to the Dow Jones Newswires.

25 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

Obama team ready to start health reform rally

The White House launches a media blitz this week to coincide with the shrinking timeline for getting a health reform package passed in the Senate, Roll Call reports.

23 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

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

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

NY Times interview with Sebelius: "I'm very encouraged"

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, spoke to The New York Times about the state of health care reform on Capitol Hill during a 15-minute interview.

21 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

Senate Health Committee begins amending reform bill

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee began amending their version of sweeping health overhaul legislation Thursday, days after a Congressional Budget Office report found the bill would cost $1 trillion over ten years, leaving 37 million people uninsured and Senate Republicans skeptical, the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

Health reform: The reality show

The health care reform discussion is beginning-at last!-to get real. On June 9, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee released a draft bill, and the Congressional Budget Office published an estimate that the bill would cost $1 trillion over 10 years and leave 35 million uninsured.

18 Jun 2009

Finance Committee 'slows down' its health legislation schedule

According to The Hill, "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Wednesday the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of his healthcare bill has prompted him to rein in costs and admitted that could delay action on the legislation. His goal is to bring the cost of his panel's sprawling healthcare reform bill down from $1.6 trillion to $1 trillion, and to pay for it entirely with tax increases, spending cuts and other offsets."

18 Jun 2009

A rocky start for Senate panel's health reform debate

The Wall Street Journal reports that "the first meeting of a Senate panel to formally consider health-care legislation got off to a rocky start Wednesday as Republicans launched an attack on the bill's hefty costs and lack of detail on contentious provisions."

18 Jun 2009

A long ‘to-do’ list for FDA Chief Hamburg

The Washington Post details Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s to-do list, noting that during her brief tenure the agency has announced nearly-daily warnings about various consumer products and created an internal task force to recommend ways to release more information about FDA decisions and policies.

18 Jun 2009

Lobbyists strike at wellness programs

Wellness programs are not faring well as a campaign is mounting to strike a provision for them from reform legislation. Roll Call reports that "innocuous sounding 'wellness programs' that many employers would like to see included as part of health care reform legislation have sparked a lobbying campaign by disease groups, consumer organizations and unions.

18 Jun 2009

Moderates wooed in House as they cross party lines to shape health legislation

As attempts to gain support for health reform across party lines and from stoic interest groups like the American Medical Association continue, House leaders are seeking to rally centrist members of their own caucus, CQ Politics reports.

18 Jun 2009

House bill may target drugmakers' advertising tax breaks

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., says the House Ways and Means Committee may seek to raise money for health reform by imposing a $37 billion tax on drugmaker's advertisements, Bloomberg reports: "As lawmakers seek ways to pay for a health-care overhaul, 'one thing that's not off the table is you can pick up $37 billion knocking out the deduction for advertising' for prescription drugs,'" Rangel said. The idea is among several proposals by Democratic legislators to raise reform money (Donmoyer, 6/16).

18 Jun 2009

Finance Committee delays release of reform proposal

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said today that he would not release a draft of health reform bill taking shape in the Senate Finance Committee, which he chairs, on Wednesday, as previously planned, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

17 Jun 2009