health care reform

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Kennedy Floats Health Bill to Make Employers Pay

(Newser) - Employers would be required to offer health care to employees or pay a penalty, and all Americans would be guaranteed health insurance, under a draft bill being circulated today by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's health committee. The bill would provide subsidies to help poor people afford care, and give patients...

Dems Proceed on Health Care Without Ailing Kennedy

Dodd takes senator's place in meetings

(Newser) - Ted Kennedy's absence is being keenly felt as Senate Democrats and the White House prepare to move ahead on health care legislation without him, the Los Angeles Times reports. The senator, whom lawmakers from both sides had hoped could craft a bipartisan compromise, is being treated for a brain tumor...

In a Shift, Obama Willing to Require Insurance for All

(Newser) - President Obama has begun wading into the murky details of health care reform. In a letter to Democratic leaders, the president said he could accept a law that requires all Americans to buy insurance—provided it has a "hardship waiver" for those who can't afford it, reports the New ...

Universal Health Care Plan Looks Likely

Compromise bill may include an 'Orbitz for insurance'

(Newser) - Barack Obama's overhaul of the American health care system is quietly taking shape, and Democrats and Republicans both say a consensus plan looks likely. Politico reports on what the health reform bill, which must be passed by August, might look like: Guaranteed insurance for all Americans, who will probably be...

Kennedy Raising Voice Again on Health Care

(Newser) - Ted Kennedy is back, and ready to make the more liberal argument for health care, Politico reports. The ailing senator had been working on the issue behind the scenes as he battled brain cancer, but yesterday his committee began circulating a 12-page “policy overview” on a potential bill. The...

Why Our Health Care System Is a Mess

(Newser) - For a clear example of our warped health care system, look no further than McAllen, Texas. The border town is second only to Miami in how much it spends on health care per person—$15,000 per Medicare enrollee, twice the national average. The problem? Atul Gawande of the New ...

Kennedy: An Outline for Health-Care Reform

Sen. offers 5 key elements of coming legislation

(Newser) - The US health-care system that “shortchanges millions of Americans” is “about to change,” writes Ted Kennedy in the Boston Globe. The senator lays out five key elements of legislation he’s working on with “colleagues on both sides of the aisle”:
  1. Americans will have “better
...

Insured Foot Bill for Uninsured Patients' Care

Companies pass along 'hidden health tax' of $1K+ per family

(Newser) - If you have health insurance, you’re paying a “hidden tax” to care for the uninsured, says a nonprofit advocating government-backed health care. The group says insurance companies pass on the cost of treating the uninsured to their subscribers, to the tune of $1,017 per family last year,...

Obama Must Tax Employer Health Insurance
Obama Must Tax Employer Health Insurance
OPINION
May 26, 2009 12:25 PM CDT

Obama Must Tax Employer Health Insurance

To pay for new system, he must tax old 'crazy' one: Reich

(Newser) - During the campaign, Barack Obama was scathing about John McCain’s plan to tax employer-provided health benefits. But Obama’s going to have to bite the bullet and tax them himself if he wants to pay for his own health care initiative, writes Robert Reich in Salon. Now that Congress...

Did Our Health Care System Kill Jay Bennett?
Did Our Health Care System Kill Jay Bennett?
OPINION
May 26, 2009 12:06 PM CDT

Did Our Health Care System Kill Jay Bennett?

Musician's death has scary implications for the rest of us

(Newser) - The death of 45-year-old musician Jay Bennett, former member of the band Wilco, is “intolerably sad”—but its implications about our current health care system are also “downright scary,” writes the Cajun Boy on Gawker. Bennett, fired from Wilco in 2001, sued the band’s frontman...

Cancer in Remission, Kennedy Set for June Return

(Newser) - Sen. Ted Kennedy should be back at work after the body’s Memorial Day recess, Majority Leader Harry Reid said today after hearing from Kennedy’s wife that the 77-year-old’s brain cancer is in remission. Kennedy has spent much time at home in Massachusetts since the diagnosis last May,...

Baucus Makes Dems Queasy on Health Care

Some think the Montana Dem is too bipartisan for comfort

(Newser) - The Democrats’ plan to reform health care rests largely in the hands of Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, and that’s making some Democrats more than a little queasy, Politico reports. Baucus’ zeal for bipartisanship has frustrated his party more than once. He’s been enthusiastic about health care—“...

Lefties: Obama's Becoming Dubya
 Lefties: Obama's 
 Becoming Dubya 
ANALYSIS
May 17, 2009 9:53 AM CDT

Lefties: Obama's Becoming Dubya

Left feeling spurned by new president's policies

(Newser) - Sorry, ladies: Hell has no fury like a political base scorned, and tensions are simmering among liberals, who feel spurned by President Obama, Josh Gerstein writes for Politico. With his reversals on military tribunals and releasing photos of abused detainees, and reluctance to tackle gay rights and immigration reform, some...

Social Security Easily Fixed; Medicare Is Another 'Monster'

Worry about that, not easy-to-fix social security: Reich

(Newser) - After yesterday’s news that Social Security and Medicare funds will run out of money earlier than previously predicted, it’s the latter that should really scare us, former Labor secretary Robert Reich writes for Salon. A slight tax tweak fixes Social Security, but “Medicare is entirely different. It’...

Health Care Reform: What We Can Agree On
 Health Care Reform: 
 What We Can Agree On 
analysis
May 13, 2009 1:54 PM CDT

Health Care Reform: What We Can Agree On

High costs hurt all of us—here's how we can cut them

(Newser) - The issue of health care reform crops up regularly, then disappears—but now it may have a foothold, writes Karen Tumulty in Time. That’s because the focus of the issue is on the current system’s huge cost to everyone. Much of the spending may be unnecessary, and a...

Obama Wants Health Care Bill by Year's End

(Newser) - President Obama today called on lawmakers to send him a health care reform bill before the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We've got to get it done this year,” the president said in a meeting with House Democrats. “We don't have any excuses,...

Bully for Health Care Players Joining in Cost Cutting

But is the gift on offer a Trojan horse?

(Newser) - The last time Democrats tried to reform health care, the insurance industry crushed them, spooking the public with its infamous "Harry and Louise" campaign. This time, it’s offering to help, along with doctors, hospitals, unions, and medical-device makers. “On the face of it, this is tremendously good...

Ex-CEO, Swift-Boaters Lead Attack on Health Reform

Rick Scott ties Democrats' plans to Canadian, British systems

(Newser) - As leading Democrats prepare for a health care overhaul, the loudest opposition isn’t coming from GOP leaders—it’s coming from investor and former hospital CEO Rick Scott, with the help of the team that “Swift-boated” John Kerry, the Washington Post reports. Scott is spending $5 million of...

Health Care Groups to Offer Obama $2T in Savings

(Newser) - Top health care industry reps meeting with President Obama today plan to say they can reduce costs by $2 trillion over the next 10 years to help him overhaul the health care system, Bloomberg reports. Committed to reforming health care this year, the coalition, which brings together insurance, hospitals, pharma,...

6 Steps to Reform Health Care Now: Kennedy

Senator lists needed steps for system overhaul

(Newser) - This is the year to end an “American tragedy” and overhaul health care, Sen. Ted Kennedy writes in Politico. The Census Bureau said last year that 46 million Americans had no health insurance--and the economic crisis has added another 4 million to the ranks of the uninsured. It’s...

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