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Lieberman's Stand: No Public Option

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - Nov. 24 (News Analysis) - The Connecticut senator says any public option will compel him to block a final vote on the health bill. His objection, he says, is based on fiscal risk.

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The Cost of Dying

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

CBS News - By Steve Kroft - Nov. 23 (Special Report) - Every medical study ever conducted has concluded that 100 percent of all Americans will eventually die. This comes as no great surprise, but the amount of money being spent at the very end of people's lives probably will. Last year, Medicare paid $50 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients' lives - that's more than the budget of the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Education. And it has been estimated that 20 to 30 percent of these medical expenditures may have had no meaningful impact. Most of the bills are paid for by the federal government with few or no questions asked. You might think this would be an obvious thing for Congress and the president to address as they try to reform health care. But what used to be a bipartisan issue has become a politically explosive one - a perfect example of the costs that threaten to bankrupt the country and how hard it's going to be to rein them in

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Single Payer Activists to Congress: Defeat Democratic Health Bill

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

Common Dreams - By Russell Mokhiber - Nov. 23 (News Report) - The Democratic health care bill is a massive bailout of the private health insurance industry. It is convoluted and complicated. And it should be defeated.That's the take of a number of leading single payer activists.They will hold a press conference the day before Thanksgiving. And call on Congress to defeat the more than 2,000 page bill. Start from scratch. And pass single payer, Medicare for all, national health insurance.

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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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