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Should We Laugh? Cry? Both?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Nov. 23 (News Analysis) - The ritual is becoming familiar. Health care reform passes a major political hurdle. And progressives don?t know whether to laugh or cry. Last time, the occasion was a vote in the House of Representatives. Health care reform passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats had extracted a major concession on abortion rights. This time, it was a vote in the Senate--not on whether to pass a bill, but whether to begin debating one. This measure, too, passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats and one notorious independent made clear they were prepared to shut things down later if legislation includes a public insurance option. It?s no fun to watch this unfold. And yet this is the exactly the sort of drama you should expect for the next few weeks, as the Senate deliberations play out. The bill Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced last week is not everything it could be--not by a long shot. And progressives will try their ...

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Advocacy Groups May Reshape Message During Holidays

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Katharine Q. Seeleye - Nov. 22 (News Analysis) - The Senate debate on health care, set to begin the week after Thanksgiving, is now on course to collide with the holiday season. One question for advocacy groups on all sides will be whether to keep up their barrage of pointed commercials, even as chestnuts roast and stockings are hung.

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Republicans Hope For Just One Defection

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

National Public Radio - Nov. 21 (News Analysis) - No Republicans will vote Saturday night to advance the Senate's health care bill to open debate, Republican Whip Sen. John Kyl says. That leaves the fate of the vote in the hands of a few moderate Democrats, all of whom are needed to reach the 60 votes needed to push the bill forward. Host Scott Simon speaks with Kyl on his party's chances of defeating the bill.

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What to watch for in today's debate

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Chris Frates - Nov. 21 (News Analysis) - Nancy Pelosi did it. Can Harry Reid? Two Saturdays ago, Pelosi passed health reform on a squeaker of a House vote. Today, Reid can’t spare a single Democrat as the Senate decides whether to start debate. If not, President Barack Obama’s reform hopes suffer immeasurable harm.

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Is It Time for Malpractice Reform?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Joanne Kenen - Nov. 20 (News Analysis) - Year after year, Republicans try to pass legislation that would limit medical malpractice awards. Fix the tort system, they argue, and we fix rising health-care costs. And year after year, Democrats resist placing arbitrary caps on awards to people who may have suffered from an egregious medical error. The fight plays out like a predictable old Western -- good guys versus bad guys. Depending on your politics, the villain is either the greedy doctor or the greedy trial lawyer.

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The $100 Million Health Care Vote?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ABC News - By Jonathan Karl - Nov. 20 (News Report) - The health care bill includes a $100 million section for increasing medicaid subsidies to the state of Louisiana. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, Republicans, and all latest political campaigning for the 2012 presidential race. Washington's first and most influential tipsheet, The

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Senate girds for Saturday vote and long battle on health care

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By David Lightman - Nov. 20 (News Report) - The Senate Thursday began what promises to be a bitter, lengthy battle over the future of health care in America, and taxes, abortion, affordability and federal deficits emerged as key flashpoints.

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Reid uncertain of tally as healthcare bill heads for rare Saturday vote

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Hill - By Jeffrey Young - Nov. 20 (News Report) - The majority leader also put to rest any notion that the Senate would try to use budget reconciliation rules. Read more...

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Reid announces a Saturday vote on beginning debate on health bill

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Lori Montgomery, Shailagh Murray - Nov. 19 (News Report) - That procedural vote will decide whether to bring that bill to the Senate floor and begin debate, and its approval relies on the votes of three wavering moderate Democrats. Republicans are expected to rally all 40 of their senators to block the

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Docudrama

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Nov. 18 (Special Report) - Sometime in August, McKinsey & Company created a PowerPoint document called “Health Care Reform and Implications for Key Stakeholders: What this Could Mean for Client X.” Over the course of 44 slides full of charts and graphs, the firm examines the potential impact of reform on insurers, doctors, hospitals, and the drug industry. McKinsey tells Client X that the presentation’s purpose is to “help inform your understanding of the broader healthcare system impact and what this might mean for your key customers and Client X going forward.” After a source supplied me with the document--which is marked “confidential”--I contacted McKinsey. A spokesperson told me that “Client X” is not a particular company. Instead, he explained, the document is a broad overview of how McKinsey expects health care reform to play out. (It also appears to be a presentation that McKinsey consultants could adapt based on a client’s particular situation.)

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Seniors skeptical of health overhaul

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Kyung M. Song - Nov. 17 (Special Report) - For seniors opposed to an overhaul, much of the fear stems from well-publicized news reports of massive Medicare cuts over a decade. The House bill calls for nearly $500 billion in spending cuts that are designed to keep Medicare solvent longer by reducing fraud, waste and excessive spending. Half the cuts would be to what experts call excessive payments to home-health, skilled-nursing and other institutional health providers.

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Tell Congress to Go To Hell With their Current Health Reform

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Boston Phoenix - By Rob Kall - Nov. 17 (News Analysis) - For OpEdNews: Rob Kall - Writer "I know some of my words are not nice-- crude, vulgar-- but if you're not thinking something like them, you don't get it. And if you have been thinking them, but don't want to say them, send your legislator my article."

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Foes seek funds for critical study

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Michael D. Shear - Nov. 16 (News Report) - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and an assortment of national business groups opposed to President Obama's health-care reform effort are collecting money to finance an economic study that could be used to portray the legislation as a job killer and threat

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China questions costs of U.S. healthcare reform

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Reuters - By James Pethokoukis - Nov. 16 (News Analysis) - A new study from the U.S. government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finds that the healthcare reform bill recently passed in the House of Representatives would increase healthcare spending to 21.3 percent of GDP by 2019 compared with 20.8 percent under current law. That’s bending the curve the wrong way.

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Health bill reduces senior benefits, according to report

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Lori Montgomery - Nov. 15 (News Report) - A plan to slash more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending — one of the biggest sources of funding for President Obama's proposed overhaul of the nation's health-care system — would sharply reduce benefits for some senior citizens and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others, according to a government evaluation released Saturday.

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In House Record, Many Spoke With One Voice: The Lobbyists’

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Robert Pear - Nov. 15 (News Report) - In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

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I’d Like the Same Plan Better If It Was Bill Clinton’s

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Tom Jacobs - Nov. 13 (Special Report) - Even among the most extreme opponents of President Obama's push for health care reform — those who equate his proposals to Nazi death camps or Soviet gulags — there's little overtly expressed racism. Aside from the occasional slip by Republican officials in South Carolina,...But implicit racism — prejudice unacknowledged in public and, in many cases, hidden from conscious awareness — is a factor in opposition to Obama's health policies

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Doctor and Patient: Primary Care’s Image Problem

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Pauline W. Chen, M.D. - Nov. 13 (News Report) - But even with current legislative efforts to address educational debt, payment discrepancies and lifestyle differences, many medical educators worry that the results will not be enough. Despite the fact that primary care physicians remain this nation’s frontline doctors — diagnosing new illnesses, managing chronic ones, advocating preventive care and protecting wellness — medical students may continue to turn away from the practice of primary care.

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Endless Obstacles Delay Veteran Benefits

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Aaron Glantz - Nov. 12 (Special Report) - The Department of Veterans Affairs routinely delays disability claims by wounded soldiers for months and years, often shunting them into homelessness. But there’s a simple way for the government to get disabled veterans the help they deserve. It can trust them.

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The Price of Health Reform: Abortion Rights?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Rachel Morris - Nov. 10 (News Report) - Will health care reform come at the cost of abortion rights? The Democrats? historic health care bill squeaked through the House on Saturday only after pro-life forces scored a major victory. Despite months of wrangling over the public option and the price tag, in the end the legislation's fate turned on an eleventh-hour push by conservative Democrats to broaden the bill's existing limits on government funding of abortion, in the form of an amendment authored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). Here?s what happened and what it means:

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Pelosi tours Seattle's Swedish after health-care vote

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Kyung M. Song - Nov. 10 (News) - Just two days after shepherding a landmark health-care bill through the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Seattle today to see how one hospital is already delivering care in much the same way as the bill proposes.

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Six Smart Progressive Complaints About House Health Bill

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Nation - By John Nichols - Nov. 09 (News Report) - Many sincere progressives in the House, and outside of it, chose to back the bill as the best that could be gotten. Others supported it on the theory that flaws could be fixed in the Senate and in the reconciliation of the House and Senate bills. But those repairs will only be made if activists are conscious of what ails this bill.

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Making Health Care Better

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By David Leonhardt - Nov. 08 (Special Report) - The American health care system is more expensive than any other, without providing better results. The cure, says Brent James, is measurement.

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Tears, tempers fly in Nancy Pelosi's campaign

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Patrick O'Connor, John Bresnahan - Nov. 08 (News) - By Thursday, Ellsworth, who was working closely with Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) realized the church wouldn’t accept anything less than a version of Hyde, so he and his staff started working on a version the bishops could accept, aides said.

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House Democrats Who Voted Against the Health Care Bill - Interactive Graphic

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - Nov. 08 (News Analysis) - Detailed table profiling the 39 Democrats who voted against a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system. Lawmakers in the House voted 220 to 215 on Saturday night to approve a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system. Only one Republican voted for the bill, and 39 Democrats opposed it, including 24 members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. An overwhelming majority of the Democratic lawmakers who opposed the bill — 31 of the 39 — represent districts that were won by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, in the 2008 presidential election, and a third of them were freshmen. Nearly all of the fourteen freshmen Democrats who voted “no” represent districts that were previously Republican and are considered vulnerable in 2010. Geographically, 22 lawmakers from southern states formed the largest opposition bloc. Below are details on the Democrats that opposed the health care legislation in the House.

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