NEWS

Obama's Health Care Agenda Arrives In Washington - Forbes

President George W. Bush spent his first year focused on education, culminating with the passage of the No Child Left Behind bill. Barack Obama appears poised to do the same with health care.

The Public's Health Care Agenda for the New President and Congress - Kaiser Family Foundation

This survey captures the public's attitudes regarding the health care agenda for President-elect Obama and the new Congress in 2009. It assesses the relative priority placed on health care by the American public as part of addressing the economic recession and as a large scale reform issue. The public's priorities for health care reform and their views on a range of other health policy issues are presented.

Children's health insurance bill advances - Boston Globe

A key Senate committee voted yesterday to expand a children's health insurance program to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children. The vote came one day after the House overwhelmingly supported a similar measure.

Public wary of health reform trade-offs - Kansas City Star

Prospects for health reform drop significantly when Americans hear potential financial trade-offs associated with expanding health insurance coverage, a poll indicates.

PhRMA CEO Tauzin Expresses Opposition to Government Negotiating Medicare Drug Prices - Kaiser Family Foundation

Allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices on behalf of beneficiaries could reduce the number of drugs the program offers and result in higher costs for beneficiaries, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America President and CEO Billy Tauzin said Wednesday, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to Tauzin, Medicare now offers access to thousands of drugs because the program relies on private-sector competition. Tauzin, speaking at a media roundtable, said, "When you put the government in the process you freeze out the private sector." He added that lower-than-expected monthly Medicare prescription drug benefit premiums and lower-than-estimated costs to the federal government show that Congress should not change the program.

OPINION

Beware of the Big-Government Tipping Point - Wall Street Journal

Socialized health care fundamentally changes the relationship between citizens and state.

SCHIP Reauthorization Moving Ahead, Good Signs for Larger Health Reform - Left in the West

Max Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee reported out a very good version of the SCHIP Reauthorization bill today — meaning that we're close to getting a bill on President-Elect Obama's desk very, very soon.

Prospects for health reform - the economy both drives and splits consensus - Health Populi

The economy, the economy, and the economy — and a dash of Iraq and health care — are on American citizens' minds when it comes to what they want President Obama to address when he takes office.

IS HEALTH CARE YEAR ONE? - Ezra Klein

Speaking at a Politico panel, Peter Baker of The New York Times said that “you’re not going to see universal health care, I don’t think, this year." And he may be right. But if you're not going to see comprehensive health reform this year, you're probably not going to see it next year. Or the year after that. Or even, really, the year after that. There's a very good chance that health care happens in 2009. But if it doesn't, there's a very good chance that health care doesn't happen at all.

AHIP's "Plan" Doesn't Pass the Sniff Test - Change.org

When the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the trade association for the private insurance industry, released their own plan for health care reform under the name “Now Is the Time for Health Care Reform,” the Senator who has made health care for all the cause of his career, greeted the “plan” warmly and graciously. “There’s a spirit of optimism about our work to ensure quality, affordable health care for all Americans - and today’s announcement adds to that optimism,” he said in a statement. “The insurance industry has advanced serious proposals that deserve serious analysis and consideration.”

OP-ED: Small Business and Health Reform - The Health Care Blog

Small businesses are among the groups hit hardest and left most vulnerable in our current health insurance system. Yet, the small business community has been almost uniformly typecast as down on reform. So goes the conventional wisdom. But is it true?