First Edition: December 3, 2009

Today's headlines indicate that Senate leaders may have broken their stalemate regarding the pending, Democratic-backed health reform legislation -- clearing the way today for votes on amendments. 

New Survey: 'Cadillac Tax' Would Force Employers To Trim Health Insurance Costs KHN staff writer Julie Appleby examines the potential reach of the Cadillac tax. She writes that "two-thirds of employers would raise deductibles, change insurers or scale back coverage to avoid the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost benefits proposed in the Senate Democrats' health care bill, a survey to be released Thursday by consulting firm Mercer says" (Kaiser Health News).

Analysis Of Medical Costs Knocks McAllen, Texas, Off Its Expensive Perch KHN's Kate Steadman writes about the findings of a highly anticipated independent agency report. "Move over McAllen, Texas. When it comes to Medicare spending, you've been ousted by Lubbock" (Kaiser Health News).

Senate Breaks Health Stalemate; First Votes Today At the end of a third day of Senate debate over sweeping health care legislation, Democrats and Republicans said Wednesday night that they had broken an impasse over the seemingly simple question of how and when to vote on the first amendments (The New York Times).

Senators Cast Words, Not Votes, In Debate On Healthcare Reform The Senate debate on healthcare reform has so far consisted of a war of words between Democrats and Republicans — and nothing else (The Hill).

AARP Backs Democrats In Senate Health Care Fight With a Senate showdown looming, the politically potent AARP rode to the rescue of Democrats on Wednesday, supporting $460 billion in Medicare cuts to help pay for landmark health care legislation (The Associated Press).

Abortion Showdown Looms In Senate Senators debating health care legislation are headed for a clash over abortion, the issue that threatened to derail the bill in the House (The Associated Press).

U.S. Set To Fund More Stem Cell Study The Obama administration has begun approving new lines of human embryonic stem cells that are eligible for federally funded experiments, opening the way for millions of taxpayer dollars to be used to conduct research that was put off-limits by President George W. Bush (The Washington Post).

Mammogram Panel Says Guidelines 'Poorly Worded' Women in their 40s should begin getting mammograms whenever they want, members of a U.S. advisory group told a House hearing Wednesday, saying their "poorly worded" recommendations last month had confused people (Bloomberg News/Los Angeles Times).