First Edition: February 8, 2010

Today's headlines highlight news regarding President Obama's planned summit on health care -- Republicans will be invited.

The Antitrust Exemption For Health Insurers: Meaningful Or Not Kaiser Health News staff writer Jenny Gold writes about legislation to repeal this exemption. "With comprehensive health care legislation foundering in Congress, the House is turning to a narrower piece of legislation that lawmakers hope has widespread, populist appeal: repealing the antitrust exemption for health and medical liability insurers. … But many antitrust experts say that ending the exemption -- by repealing the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act -- wouldn't significantly increase competition or reduce premiums" (Kaiser Health News).

Obama Plans Bipartisan Summit On Health Care
President Obama said Sunday that he would convene a half-day bipartisan health care session at the White House to be televised live this month, a high-profile gambit that will allow Americans to watch as Democrats and Republicans try to break their political impasse (The New York Times).

Obama Invites Republicans To Summit On Health Care President Obama moved to jump-start the stalled health-care debate Sunday, inviting Republicans in Congress to participate in a bipartisan, half-day televised summit on the subject this month (The Washington Post).

Obama Calls For Health-Care Summit President Barack Obama, seeking to give new momentum to his languishing health-care legislation, said he would sit down with Republican and Democratic lawmakers this month to exchange ideas on an issue that has deeply divided the parties (The Wall Street Journal).

White House Announces Televised Health Meeting The Feb. 25 meeting is an attempt to reach across the aisle but not a signal that the president plans to start over, as Republicans have demanded, a White House official said (Politico).

Healthcare Lobby Looks To Jobs Bill As Vehicle For Medicare Fixes Lobbyists for healthcare interests are eyeing the Senate jobs bill as a vehicle for several key priorities left behind when healthcare reform stalled (The Hill).

Clinton-Era Health Aides Push To Save Obama's Plan Shock and awe. That's what survivors of the Clinton-era health care collapse are feeling as President Barack Obama's overhaul legislation wobbles in Congress (The Associated Press).

Letter From Washington: Heads In Sand Over Long-Term U.S. Budget Fixes The numbers are stunning. Over the next 10 years, under President Barack Obama's budget, the total deficit would be $8.5 trillion; by 2020, the interest payments on the debt would be almost as much as projected spending on all discretionary domestic programs and as much as Medicare outlays that year. The national debt would be approaching $20 trillion in 2020; nice symmetry, horrifying economics (The New York Times).

OSHA Dispute Magnifies Differences As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the White House are trying to minimize their differences, a brewing battle at OSHA over a workplace-injury reporting rule illustrates how tough that could become, given the administration's pro-labor leanings (Politco/Propublica).

California Cracks Down On Discount Health Plans At a time when nearly 7 million Californians are uninsured, state regulators are trying to rein in discount health and dental plans that officials say frequently overstate benefits, offer little if any savings and promise access to doctors who aren't part of the system (Los Angeles Times).

Kaiser Health News provides highlights of the weekend's headlines and highlights of health policy news, including  President Obama's speech to the Democratic National Committee and Sunday's week-ahead reports.