Obama faces a crush of demands from interest groups - USA Today

Al Gore wants quick action on climate change. Sen. Edward Kennedy says health care reform can't wait. Labor unions want a bill making it easier to organize.

Insurers Seek Presence at Health Care Sessions - NYTimes

When supporters of President-elect Barack Obama hold house parties to discuss ways of fixing the health care system over the next two weeks, they may find some unexpected guests.

Cancer Doctors Fear Chemo Drug Shortage - Forbes.com

The inability of two drug makers to produce a generic cancer medicine endangers both patients and research.

Alarming Numbers For Black Men And Colorectal Cancer - NPR

Dr. Ottis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, sponsored the research and discusses the findings disparity.

GAO Report Finds That Medicare Advantage Plans Can Cost Beneficiaries More Than Traditional Medicare - Kaiser Daily Reports

Medicare Advantage private fee-for-service plans can cost beneficiaries more out-of-pocket than the traditional fee-for-service program, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report, CQ HealthBeat reports.

Geography Has Role in Medicare Cancer Coverage - NYTimes

The medical tool’s catchy name, CyberKnife, evokes digital accuracy. But the way the federal Medicare system treats CyberKnife seems anything but precise.

Here is a little sampling of all the great work that is going on in the field with the HCAN campaign.

First, Representative-elect Himes in Connecticut made a public commitment to the principles for health care reform from the HCAN Statement of Common Purpose. You can watch his moving statement on video here from Connecticut Citizen Action Group:

Then, I got these photos from Progress Ohio where they are gathering forces from the around the state to fight for health care in 2009.

Progress Ohio Meeting

And finally, from Denver, Colorado our partners at SEIU are organizing health care workers from around the country to participate in health care community discussions with the transition team. Watch the video from Dr. L. Toni Lewis, President CIR/SIEU:

Keep up the great work guys! This is how will achieve change that works.

Tom Daschle has his own health plan: Learning from Clinton's mistakes, the nominee for Health and Human Services secretary favors going on the political offensive to bring about reform. - LA Times

Noam N. Levey - By choosing former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to head his healthcare reform effort, President-elect Barack Obama got more than an old congressional hand with a policy book on his resume.

Primary Care's Primary Advocate - Forbes.com

David Whelan - Forbes talks with Dr. Kevin Pho of KevinMD.com about health policy matters as President Obama takes office.Kevin Pho, an internal medicine doctor in Nashua, N.H., has a busy medical practice. But he's also become an influential voice as the country embarks on another round of health reform under President Obama and "health czar" Thomas Daschle. Pho runs KevinMD.com, the most popular doctor blog.

Pushing more docs to ditch prescription pad: Medicare to offer e-prescription bonus incentives to help cut medical errors - MSNBC

The push for paperless prescriptions is about to get a boost: Starting in January, doctors who e-prescribe can get bonus pay from Medicare.

Necessary Medicine? – The New York Times

President-elect Barack Obama placed a heavy bet last week that the recession-wracked country he is about to inherit has finally reached its tipping point on health care.

Drug Maker Said to Pay Ghostwriters for Journal Articles – The New York Times

Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its female hormone replacement therapy Prempro, according to Congressional letters seeking more information about the company’s involvement in medical ghostwriting. At least one article was published even after a federal study found the drug raised the risk of breast cancer.

Healthcare IT spending is not dead in Hospitals (yet) – The Health Care IT Guy

The nice folks at NAHIT sent out a note about their new survey of about 144 CIOs that captured technology executive’s views on healthcare IT spending. The report’s key findings include (these are direct quotes from the report):

Many doctors use bare-bones records system : Survey indicates many physicians rely on outdated paper records - MSNBC

Just under 40 percent of U.S. doctors use electronic medical records and many say the system they use is only minimally functional, according to federal survey results released on Thursday.

Many of you signed up to be hosts at the community health care discussions sponsored by the Obama transition team and Sen. Daschle on Change.gov. Thanks for that. We are happy that the transition team is making this a priority and going to great lengths to get input from people like you who are most affected by the health care crisis in America.

I have been getting a lot of emails and phone calls asking for more information on these discussions. If you would like to know more, or if you want to host a discussion, please sign up at Change. gov. They will send you a Discussion Moderator Guide and let you know how to send your notes back to the transition team.

Here is a link we set up to get you on your way.

Thanks for participating!

NEWS

Health Care Policy Is in Hands of an Ex-Senator - New York Times

In selecting Tom Daschle to be his health and human services secretary, President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that he wanted Mr. Daschle, a former South Dakota senator, to pursue something that had eluded federal officials for decades: securing “affordable, accessible health care for every single American.”

Medicare insurers' profits exceed expectations - Associated Press

Health insurance companies that serve the elderly and disabled in Medicare are realizing significantly higher profits than they anticipated, resulting in the companies getting $1.3 billion more than projected, congressional auditors say.

Baucus, Harkin Outline Plans for Health Care Overhaul - Kaiser Family Foundation

Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Wednesday said when the next Congress begins he will have a health care overhaul bill ready to bring to the floor, CQ Today reports. He said, "I'm guessing the first of the year, near the first of the year, we'll have a bill" (Armstrong, CQ Today, 12/10). Baucus added, "I want to get started, and there are going to be certain upfront costs related to health care reform, no question about that" (Cohn, CongressDaily, 12/10).

Obama won't delay push on healthcare - Boston Globe

President-elect Barack Obama said yesterday his administration would press ahead quickly on national healthcare reform despite the deep recession and soaring federal budget deficit.

Economist: Health Care Key To Stimulus - NPR

Uwe Reinhardt, professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, calls the health care sector the "strongest economic locomotive working for us." He estimates that by 2015, health care will be one-fifth the size of the U.S. economy and says this is a good time to expand health insurance coverage for the uninsured.

Boston Globe: President-elect Barack Obama said yesterday his administration would press ahead quickly on national healthcare reform despite the deep recession and soaring federal budget deficit.

Read more…

TPM: Advocates had been awaiting a clear statement that Obama views health care reform as key to fixing the economy, a key talking point of reformers, and now they got one.

Read more…

This is an exact quote of what President-elect Barack Obama said in today's press conference when announcing the appointments of Senator Tom Daschle and Dr. Jeanne Lambrew:

The time has come – this year, in this new Administration – to modernize our health care system for the twenty-first century; to reduce costs for families and businesses; and to finally provide affordable, accessible health care for every American.

Not later. Not in 2013. Now. This is the year health care reform will finally be passed in America.

It goes without saying that this is exactly what Health Care for America Now hoped to hear from Obama. Why? Because we're ready for it, ready to get the job done this year. We've got grassroots support in 45 states. We've got a powerful coalition of over 500 groups working to build support for the Obama/Health Care for America Now principles of health care reform. We've got 160 Members of Congress who support our efforts. And we've got a President-elect who understands the urgency.

Obama also said:

The runaway cost of health care is punishing families and businesses across the country. It’s not something that we can put off because we are in an emergency. This is part of the emergency.

Underscoring this point is a report released by Families USA on health care and the recession. As Angela Shubert explains:

Forty-three states expect to see budget shortfalls in the coming year. And, while the federal government can run a deficit, most state governments are required to keep a balanced budget. As a result, 18 states and DC have already cut or are proposing cuts to their Medicaid and CHIP programs. Cuts in state Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and services pose a real threat to the very families and individuals who most need the help.

The report details how additional health care spending will help state economies.

The connection between the recession and health care isn't hard to see. DemFromCT has been gathering the news stories on this very subject for weeks. It's incredibly heartening to have a leader who understands this connection, and who makes it clear that the fix - real health care reform we can all count on - will come sooner rather than later.

So thank you for your commitment, President-elect Obama. We're looking forward to making it a reality.

NEWS

Daschle also to oversee new health reform office - Associated Press

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will pull double duty in the Obama administration, where he will serve not only as the Health and Human Services secretary but also oversee a new White House Office of Health Reform.

A new momentum for health care reform - San Francisco Chronicle

The prospects for comprehensive health reform seemed dim for the foreseeable future when the California legislature failed last year to pass the universal coverage plan sponsored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez.

Baucus wants SCHIP, health IT in stimulus - The Hill

Tacking two costly healthcare items onto the economic stimulus package can help clear the path for comprehensive healthcare reform, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Wednesday.