Daily news digest

This frequently updated news digest on the subject of Health Reform highlights key articles from major journals and news publications. The digest is a free service of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. All rights reserved. Sign up to receive the digest free via e-mail.

Feb 8, 2010 Obama Asks GOP to Join Health Talks
Wall Street Journal, Sudeep Reddy and Laura Meckler, 02/08/2010
President Barack Obama, seeking to give new momentum to his languishing health-care legislation, said he would sit down with Republican and Democratic lawmakers to exchange ideas on an issue that has deeply divided the parties.
Feb 8, 2010 Five Ideas for Getting Health Care Reform Back on Track
USA Today, Editorial Board, 02/08/2010
None of the problems that made an overhaul of the health care system necessary has gone away.
Feb 7, 2010 Analysts: Stripping Health insurers' Antitrust Protection Won't Affect Consumers Much
McClatchy Newspapers, David Lightman, 02/07/2010

The House of Representatives plans this week to vote on - and probably approve - a measure to strip health insurers' antitrust protections, which will be Congress' first step this year to try to overhaul the nation's health care system.

Feb 7, 2010 Obama Calls the Next Play for Health-Care Reform
Washington Post Blog, Ezra Klein, 02/07/2010
By setting this summit, he's bought them a few weeks to figure out how to hold a vote themselves.
Feb 5, 2010 G.O.P. Senator Is Sworn In, and Democrats Regroup
New York Times, Carl Hulse and Jeff Zeleny, 02/05/2010
President Obama and Congressional Democratic leaders sought to reset their agenda as they lost their 60th vote in the Senate on Thursday, trying to push ahead with measures to spur more job creation even as they grasped for ideas to keep alive their health care legislation.

Feb 5, 2010 Obama Maps a Way Forward for a Health Overhaul
New York Times' Prescriptions Blog, David M. Herszenhorn, 02/05/2010
Speaking to enthusiastic supporters at a fund-raiser here, President Obama on Thursday evening presented his clearest plan yet to move forward with comprehensive health care legislation, saying that he wanted to meet with Democrats, Republicans and independent experts, lay out the facts for the American people and then, he said, “I think that we have got to move forward on a vote.”

Feb 4, 2010 Al Franken Lays Into David Axelrod Over Health Care Bill
Politico, Manu Raju and Andy Barr, 02/04/2010
Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.

Feb 4, 2010 Stalled Health Care Bill Leaves Drug Makers in Regulatory Limbo
New York Times, Duff Wilson, 02/04/2010
With the possible demise of health care legislation, getting back to business as usual may not be the best thing for the nation’s drug makers.

Feb 4, 2010 It's Just You, Democrats
Washington Post (Blog), Ezra Klein, 02/04/2010
There's been a lot about procedural impediments to moving forward on health-care reform: Can the Senate can pass a reconciliation bill before the House passes the Senate bill?

Feb 4, 2010 Report: Feds to Pay More than Half of Health Costs
Associated Press, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, 02/04/2010
For all the hue and cry over a government takeover of health care, it's happening anyway.
Feb 4, 2010 Reconciliation is Not Representative (Opinion-Editorial)
Politico, Sen. Judd Gregg, 02/04/2010
In a last-ditch effort to drag their bloated and unpopular $2.3 trillion health care reform package across the finish line, congressional Democrats, reeling from the loss of their 60th Senate seat, are reviewing their options to achieve this goal.
Feb 4, 2010 Sometimes, Health Reform Isn't About Health Reform
The New Republic's The Treatment, Jonathon Cohn, 02/04/2010
The first problem for people who care about policy outcomes--regardless of which direction they care about those outcomes from--is that the Congress has developed an overwhelming bias toward inaction and the status quo.
Feb 4, 2010 TVA Holds Lessons for Obama (Opinion-Editorial)
USA Today, Diane McWhorter, 02/04/2010
As President Obama ponders the fate of health care reform, he would do well to review the mother-of-all-strife between government and private enterprise, the New Deal.
Feb 4, 2010 Ditching Health Reform will Only Dig Us into a Deeper Deficit (Opinion-Editorial)
Washington Post, David S. Broder, 02/04/2010
The economic collapse of 2008 and 2009 did so much damage to the United States that only now can we begin to measure the devastation.
Feb 4, 2010 What Happens If Nothing Happens to Health Care?
Wall Street Journal, David Wessel, 02/04/2010
A month ago, President Barack Obama was on the verge of a victory that eluded all his predecessors, as Congress neared approval of legislation to expand health-insurance coverage to nearly all Americans.
Feb 4, 2010 Obama suggests Republicans Could Have a Role in Health-Care Bill
Washington Post,, Lori Montgomery, Perry Bacon Jr. and Michael A. Fletcher, 02/04/2010
President Obama urged congressional Democrats on Wednesday "to finish the job on health care," but amid tentative signs of bipartisan outreach on Capitol Hill, he suggested that Republicans could be enlisted to play at least some role in negotiating a final bill.
Feb 3, 2010 Health Official Can't Guarantee Openness in Talks
New York Times, Robert Pear, 02/03/2010
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, told Congress on Wednesday that she could not guarantee greater openness in negotiations over legislation to remake the nation's health care system.
Feb 3, 2010 Democrats Change Health-Care Tack
Wall Street Journal, Janet Adamy and Patrick Yoest, 02/03/2010
With their sweeping health-care bill on hold, House Democrats plan to revive a sliver of the legislation as soon as next week that would repeal an antitrust exemption for insurance companies.
Feb 3, 2010 Nancy Pelosi Heads for a Two-Track Plan for Health Care Reform
Politico, Patrick O'Connor and Carrie Budoff Brown, 02/03/2010
With the broader health care bill still perilously close to collapse, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to take a shot at the health insurance industry next week by scheduling a vote on a smaller bill to revoke its half-century-old exemption from antitrust laws.
Feb 3, 2010 A Good Message Not Nearly As Important as a Fast Process
Washington Post blog, Ezra Klein, 02/03/2010
No president, under any circumstances, can control the narrative around a piece of legislation when it's on the front pages every day for a year
Feb 3, 2010 The Debate Over Selling Insurance Across State Lines
Kaiser Health News, Phil Galewitz, 02/03/2010
With health care legislation stalled, Republicans are touting their own remedies, including allowing Americans to buy health coverage across state lines. Currently, consumers can buy policies only from insurers licensed by the states in which they live.
Feb 2, 2010 Health Lobbyists Remain on Alert as Focus Shifts
The Hill, Jeffrey Young, 02/02/2010
Lobbyists in the healthcare industry say they must remain vigilant even as their focus narrows and their profiles diminish with healthcare reform on the back burner.
Feb 2, 2010 States Restart Health-Care Push
The Wall Street Journal, Anna Wilde Mathews, 02/02/2010
With the fate of a national health care overhaul unclear, state legislators are pushing their own bills aimed at expanding coverage, though tight budgets are likely to hinder many of these efforts.
Feb 2, 2010 Virginia Senate Bills Say No to Requiring Health Insurance
The Washington Post, Rosalind S. Helderman, 02/02/2010
Virginia's Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party's efforts in Washington to reform health care.
Feb 2, 2010 Obama's Struggle with Health-Care Reform Echoes Clintons' Failure in 1994
The Washington Post, Abigail Trafford, 02/02/2010
Obamacare in trouble? I've seen this story before. It may not end in the way the Clinton effort imploded in 1994.
Feb 2, 2010 States Cutting Back Special Programs For Uninsured
Kaiser Health News, Julie Appleby, 02/02/2010
Sherie Brace fears the coming of summer. That’s when a special health insurance program for low-income adults in Washington state is set to close, ending coverage for her and about 65,000 others.

Feb 1, 2010 A Bipartisan Prescription for National Health Care Reform
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Newt Gingrich and Andrew Von Eschenbach, 02/01/2010
Americans are sick and tired of being sick and tired of America’s failing health care system.
Feb 1, 2010 White House Budget Offers Backup Plans for Health Overhaul
The Wall Street Journal, Janet Adamy, 02/01/2010
President Barack Obama’s federal budget proposal assumes that the embattled health bill will pass – but contains some back-up plans if it doesn’t.
Feb 1, 2010 Obama's $3.8 Trillion Budget Calls for Jobs Assistance, Tax Changes
The Washington Post, Lori Montgomery, 02/01/2010
The $3.8 trillion budget blueprint President Obama plans to submit to Congress on Monday calls for billions of dollars in new spending to combat persistently high unemployment and bolster a battered middle class.
Feb 1, 2010 Analysis: Dems' Missteps Led to Health Breakdown
The Associated Press, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, 02/01/2010
Democrats say they never saw it coming, but the breakdown of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul was abetted by their own mistakes.

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