NewsTrust - Health Care - Most Trusted Stories

More is Less

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

This American Life - By Ira Glass - Oct. 11 (Investigative Report) - An hour explaining the American health care system, specifically, why it is that costs keep rising. One story looks at the doctors, one at the patients and one at the insurance industry.

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In Netherlands, Insurers Compete Over Quality of Care

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

NewsHour - By Ray Suarez - Oct. 07 (Special Report) - By world standards, the Dutch are wealthy and healthy, but the country's changing. With each year, it's home to more Dutch elderly and more young immigrants from the developing world. The queen opened a parliament once again wrestling over health care, still trying to contain costs after a massive overhaul designed four years ago.

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A Texas-Sized Health Care Failure

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Cappy McGarr - Oct. 06 (Opinion) - THE Senate Finance Committee has for the moment rejected the idea of creating a public health insurance plan. It’s difficult to see how Americans will be able to find good, affordable health insurance without one. But if we are to go forward without a public option, it is more important than ever to make sure that we get another part of health reform right: the exchanges, where it is envisioned that small businesses and people without employer-sponsored insurance could shop for policies of their own.

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The Lie Machine

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Tim Dickinson - Oct. 10 (Special Report) - Far from representing a spontaneous upwelling of populist rage, the protests were tightly orchestrated from the top down by corporate-funded front groups as well as top lobbyists for the health care industry.

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'Daily Show' Destroys CNN For Fact-Checking 'SNL' But Not Their Guests

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Show - By Jon Stewart - Oct. 13 (Comedy News) - Jon Stewart began his show last night by skewering CNN for fact-checking a "Saturday Night Live" skit in which Fred Armisen (playing Barack Obama) claimed to have done "nothing" since taking office. In this hard-hitting report, CNN found that while many of the president's initiatives have not moved forward, he has in fact done "something" since taking office. Take that, comedy show.

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"Don't Get Sick": The Truth About GOP Health Plans?

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Art Levine - Oct. 06 (News Analysis) - Republicans reacted wtih outrage last week after Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) offered a blistering attack on the nearly-invisible Republican healthcare proposals: "The Republican health care plan is this: Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly." A close look at the GOP's so-called "principles" shows that they would break-up employer-based coverage, endanger the coverage of Americans with pre-existing conditions, and drive-up health care spending.

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Going Out of Business?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - Oct. 08 (News Analysis) - A new health care ad from a conservative group claims that "Medicare will be bankrupt in eight years." That gives a false impression. The program does have huge financial problems, but there's no reason to think it's going out of business as the word "bankrupt" implies.

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Let Congress Go Without Insurance

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Oct. 08 (Opinion) - What better way to attune our leaders to the needs of their constituents without health insurance than to put them in the same position?

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The Insurance Industry's Deceptive Report

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ezra Klein - Oct. 12 (Opinion) - In the hallowed tradition of the tobacco and energy industries, the health insurance industry has commissioned a report (pdf) projecting doom and despair for those who seek to reform its business practices. The report was farmed out to the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has something of a history with this sort of thing: In the early-'90s, the tobacco industry commissioned PWC to estimate the economic devastation that would result from a tax on tobacco. The report was later analyzed by the Arthur Andersen Economic Consulting group, which concluded that "the cumulative effect of PW’s methods … is to produce patently unreliable results." It's perhaps no surprise that the patently unreliable results were all in the tobacco industry's favor. He who pays the piper names the tune, and all that.

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Finance passes healthcare bill; Snowe the lone GOP supporter

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Jeffrey Young - Oct. 13 (News Report) - Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) joined all of the panel’s Democrats in voting for the legislation. Every other Republican voted against the bill. The vote means the healthcare debate has officially moved to its final stages, as Finance was the last of five congressional committees to take action on President Barack Obama’s foremost domestic priority.

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Stocked Exchange

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Oct. 06 (Opinion) - Ten years from now, if health care reform is a boondoggle, you might be able to trace that failure back to a decision in the wee hours of last week's Senate Finance Committee hearings. It happened on Thursday night, just before midnight, when John Kerry put forward an amendment. It was amendment C-8: "Empowering State Exchanges to be Prudent Purchasers." The title may sound innocuous, if a bit arcane. But if you've followed the health care reform debate, then you know (or should know) that anything involving the insurance exchanges is important.

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Eight States Still Allow Insurance Companies To Use Domestic Violence As Pre-Existing Condition

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

McClatchy - By Les Blumenthal - Oct. 04 (News) - Eight states and the District of Columbia don't have laws that specifically bar insurance companies from using domestic violence as a pre-existing condition to deny health coverage, according to a study from the National Women's Law Center.

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Lobbyists Fight Efforts to Save on Health Care

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK - Oct. 11 (News Analysis) - Most of the serious proposals to fulfill President Obama’s vow to curb health care costs have fallen victim to organized interests and parochial politics.

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Senate Finance Committee approves healthcare overhaul bill

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By James Oliphant - Oct. 13 (Breaking News) - Legislation that would transform the nation's healthcare system cleared a significant hurdle today as the Senate Finance Committee voted (14-9) for a sweeping overhaul.

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Health-Care Bill Wouldn't Raise Deficit, Report Says

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Lori Montgomery - Oct. 08 (News Report) - Congressional budget analysts gave an important political boost Wednesday to a Senate panel's health-care overhaul, projecting that the $829 billion measure would dramatically shrink the ranks of the uninsured and keep President Obama's pledge that doing so would not add "one dime" to federal budget deficits.

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All eyes are on Olympia Snowe on healthcare debate

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Mark Z. Barabak - Oct. 09 (Special Report) - Olympia J. Snowe may be, for the moment, the most powerful woman in Washington. As the lone congressional Republican working to support President Obama's healthcare overhaul, no one will be more closely watched when the Senate Finance Committee votes next week on a bill aimed at curbing costs, improving coverage and making insurance more attainable for those without.

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Health Care and the 'Predator State'

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Thomas Frank - Oct. 07 (Opinion) - In June 2008, I used this space to call on then-Sen. Barack Obama to add economist James K. Galbraith's book, "The Predator State," to his reading list. As an account of the capture of government by private interests, I thought it would make a far more useful guide to contemporary political economy than the market-glorifying texts that were still in fashion in those days.

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The Empire Strikes Back

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Kevin Drum - Oct. 12 (Opinion) - AHIP, the insurance industry trade group, has apparently decided to hop off the healthcare reform bandwagon. After months of claiming that they were on board, they released a report on Monday claiming that current proposals would raise insurance costs for middle class families by about $4,000 more than otherwise projected over the next decade.

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Rejecting reform again would be folly, Dole says

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Kansas City Star - By Barbara Shelly - Oct. 09 (Opinion) - Fifteen years ago, Bob Dole decided it was better to kill health care reform than to hand a Democratic president a historic victory. Since then, praise be, he’s reformed his thinking. In Kansas City this week, the former Republican Senate majority leader and presidential candidate added his voice — still strong at age 86 — to the push to help all Americans afford good health care. “This is one of the most important measures members of Congress will vote on in their lifetimes,” Dole told an audience at the Liberty Memorial auditorium.

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The Politics of Spite

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Oct. 05 (Opinion) - If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America.

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Truth-O-Meter: Statements on Health Care

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - Oct. 08 (Special Report) - PolitiFact fact-checks statements about health care by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups -- and rates them on their Truth-O-Meter.

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Obama quietly tries to shore up Senate support for public option

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Noam N. Levey, Janet Hook - Oct. 05 (Special Report) - The president has backed off from vocally supporting the idea of government-run healthcare, but he's quietly building a coalition of supporters. The challenge: Find a version that can pass.

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Reid, Baucus ready to split on public option as vote nears

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By J. Taylor Rushing - Oct. 05 (News Report) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), once in polite disagreement over the idea of a public option component in healthcare legislation, are approaching a breaking point over the issue. Reid and Baucus have staked out opposing positions on the central question of a government role in health reform — Reid has consistently stood in favor, but Baucus has consistently said the idea doesn’t have enough Senate support.

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Speed-reading the health care reform bill?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Oct. 08 (News Analysis) - With the massive health care bill about to come to the House and Senate, members of Congress are arguing about a reading assignment: How long should they have to read a bill that could be 1,000 pages long? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised 72 hours -- three days -- for a final bill to be available online before a vote. Centrist Democratic Senators have asked Majority leader Harry Reid for guarantees of 72 hours for bills in the Senate.

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Senate panel clears health bill with one Republican vote

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David M. Herszenhorn, Robert Pear - Oct. 13 (Breaking News) - The Senate Finance Committee voted on Tuesday to approve legislation that would reshape the American health care system and provide subsidies to help millions of people buy insurance, as Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, joined all 13 Democrats on the panel in support of the landmark bill.

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