First Edition: March 3, 2010

This morning's news is all about President Obama's outreach yesterday to the GOP and his speech today detailing new elements of his health reform plan. Will this step resuscitate the Dem's overhaul efforts?  

Daschle: Incremental Health Reforms Won't Work Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was nominated by President Barack Obama to be secretary of Health and Human Services and the White House's point person on health reform. Although Daschle withdrew his name after reports that he had not paid some taxes, the South Dakota Democrat remains a close adviser to the president and continues to work for a health care overhaul. He has a co-author of the 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," and is a policy adviser to DLA Piper, a law and lobbying firm in Washington. KHN editors and reporters interviewed Daschle Monday (Kaiser Health News).

As Democrats Seek To Push Through Health Bill, Obama Reaches Out To Republicans As Democrats on Capitol Hill prepared a risky effort to muscle sweeping health-care legislation to final passage, President Obama on Tuesday made a last gambit to split Republicans on the issue, proposing to incorporate a handful of GOP ideas into his signature domestic initiative (The Washington Post).

Obama Offers To Use Some GOP Health Proposals President Obama offered Tuesday to address some of the concerns expressed by Republicans in the health care debate as the two parties maneuvered for advantage heading into the legislative end game (The New York Times).

Obama Open To Four Republican Healthcare Ideas President Obama has informed congressional leaders that he's open to several Republican ideas on healthcare reform from last week's bipartisan summit (The Christian Science Monitor).

President Obama Won't Have Piecemeal Approach President Barack Obama on Wednesday will seek to end the confusion that has enveloped the Democrats' effort to reform the nation's healthcare system (The Hill).

Obama Looking For Up-Or-Down Vote Republicans rebuffed President Barack Obama's eleventh-hour bid for bipartisan support on health reform Tuesday, guaranteeing that the White House must resort to a fast-track maneuver to finish the bill (Politico).

Top Dems Looking To Obama For Health Care Momentum
Democratic congressional leaders hope President Barack Obama's unveiling of his final health care package Wednesday will help resuscitate an effort that seemed all but dead until recently (The Associated Press).

Democrats Chase Health Votes At least a half-dozen House Democrats who voted against the health-care bill say they are now undecided, and President Barack Obama says he is willing to embrace several Republican ideas to collect more votes (The Wall Street Journal).

Who Blinks First? Dems Can't Agree Democrats' final push on healthcare reform has become a game of chicken between the House and Senate (The Hill).

Abortion Still Threatens Health Overhaul Effort Of the remaining issues with the potential to bring down the entire health overhaul effort, the one that lawmakers fear most is abortion (NPR).

Latest Bill Disappoints 'Everyday' Backers Of Health Overhaul Travis Ulerick could see it coming a year ago. After introducing President Obama at a White House summit on health care last March 5, the young firefighter from Dublin, Ind., sat behind Obama in the East Room and heard the first rumblings of dissent. … Fast forward to now: As Obama and Republicans in Congress remain at loggerheads over how to fix the nation's health care system, Ulerick and the six other "everyday Americans" invited by the White House to that forum are disillusioned by the impasse (USA Today).

Days Later, As A Deal Emerges, Bunning Backs Down For five days, retiring Sen. Jim Bunning held his fellow Republicans hostage. He stood his ground, angry and alone, a one-man blockade against unemployment benefits, Medicare payments to doctors, satellite TV to rural Americans and paychecks to highway workers (The Washington Post).

Senator Relents, And Jobless Bill Passes The Senate ended a politically charged impasse over unemployment pay on Tuesday night, voting to allow jobless Americans in danger of exhausting their benefits another month of aid (The New York Times).

Senate Ends Impasse, Approves Jobless Aid Extension The deal overcame the continued objections of a single senator, Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky, who for days had held up short-term extensions of unemployment and COBRA benefits over concerns that the bill would increase the federal deficit. … The 30-day extension then passed on a 78-19 vote. For at least the next month, hundreds of thousands of people can continue to receive jobless benefits and the federal government can continue to assume a greater share of their COBRA health insurance costs. The bill also delays a threatened 20% cut in fees for doctors who treat Medicare patients (Los Angeles Times).

Lawmakers Expand Investigation Into Health Insurance Rate Hikes The scope of a congressional investigation into health insurance rate hikes in California expanded Tuesday as lawmakers summoned the chief executives of four of the nation's largest for-profit health insurers to testify about medical claims denied for individuals with preexisting conditions (Los Angeles Times).

Why Pay For Health Insurance When You Can Steal It? These days, most people know the drill for dealing with a stolen credit card number — call the card company and have the account canceled (NPR).

Coverage Switch Urged For Localities Cities and towns would save tens of millions of dollars in health care costs for employees, retirees, and elected officials by joining the state's much larger, more flexible health care system, according to a new report by the Boston Foundation (The Boston Globe).

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