First Edition: January 8, 2010

Today's headlines reflect the continuing developments as congressional Democrats discuss policy specifics and take steps toward finalizing their health overhaul.

'Cadillac' Insurance Plan Explained As House and Senate negotiators work to reconcile the differences in their health bills, a tax on high-cost insurance policies could be included in the final legislation. Here is a brief guide to these types of insurance plans (Kaiser Health News).

House Democrats Confer On Health-Care Reform Worried House Democrats held a caucus-wide conference call Thursday to strategize about health-care reform before lawmakers return to Washington next week (The Washington Post).

Pelosi Vows To Defend House Healthcare Bill Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday told her caucus she would not let the House be forced into signing off on the Senate's healthcare bill (The Hill).

Battle Over 'Exchanges' Regulator Health insurers are girding for a fight over who should regulate the new marketplaces that would sell policies to 30 million Americans under the health-care bills pending in Congress (The Wall Street Journal).

Govs. Enlisted In Health Care Cause One day after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, delivered a stinging attack on federal health care reform, Obama administration officials huddled with his Democratic counterparts to address their complaints about the legislation — and enlist them in the public campaign to support it (Politico).

Nelson Says He Wants Medicaid Deal For All States Sen. Ben Nelson said Thursday he has asked Democratic leadership to extend to all states the extra Medicaid funding promised to Nebraska in the health care reform bill (The Associated Press).

Health-Care Views Hurt Dorgan's Bid Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan, long a popular figure in this state, faced political peril in his re-election bid because he was closely associated with Washington and policies being crafted there, in particular the health-care overhaul, according to polls and interviews with his constituents (The Wall Street Journal).

FDA Works To Put Old Struggles Behind It NPR's Joanne Silberner reports that after a tumultuous decade, the Food and Drug Administration has new hope. New leadership plans to put an end to accusations that the agency has become too politicized, affecting drug and device approvals and safety monitoring (NPR).

Hospital Cuts Dialysis Care For The Poor In Miami To chip away at an overwhelming budget deficit, Miami's public hospital system stopped paying for kidney dialysis for the indigent this week, officials said, leaving some patients to rely on emergency rooms for their life-sustaining treatments (The New York Times).

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