NEWS

Administration Is Open to Taxing Health Benefits - New York Times

The Obama administration is signaling to Congress that the president could support taxing some employee health benefits, as several influential lawmakers and many economists favor, to help pay for overhauling the health care system.

Health insurers try for a major image makeover - Associated Press

The health insurance industry is working on a transformation that could come right out of "Extreme Makeover."

Long cast as villains for denying coverage or refusing to pay for treatment, insurers now are representing themselves as indispensable partners in health care overhaul.

Blue Dogs not demanding paygo for health reform - The Hill

Leaders of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition are asking House and Senate budget lawmakers to abide by the Obama administration’s request that healthcare reform legislation be deficit neutral.

Health Care Solutions Working Group Launches Website - The American Chronicle

The House Republican Health Care Solutions Working Group launched a website in an effort to seek input from American families and small businesses as it works to craft solutions to increase Americans´ access to quality, affordable health care. The website´s address is blunt.house.gov/healthcare.

Massachusetts Faces Costs of Big Health Care Plan - New York Times

Three years ago, Massachusetts enacted perhaps the boldest state health care experiment in American history, bringing near-universal coverage to the commonwealth with Paul Revere speed.

Vermont to follow Michigan as host of health care forum - Associated Press

Vermont will host the second of five White House health reform forums on Tuesday.

Health care hinges on Senate insiders - Politco

If you want to know whether President Barack Obama can get a health care overhaul done by year’s end, keep an eye on the Board of Directors.

New debate on how to decide best health treatments - Associated Press

People's lives and plenty of money are at stake when it comes to determining which medical treatments work best.

OPINION

Commentary: Obama should offer public health insurance to all - McClatchy

President Obama should provide all Americans the choice of a public health insurance plan like Medicare. He shouldn't just leave us a choice of private insurance companies, none of which could offer decent coverage.

Alternate Route: Bypassing the G.O.P. - New York Times

There is an easier way.

An easier way, that is, for President Obama to achieve his huge health care and energy goals than begging, pleading and negotiating for help from Republicans. The absence of bipartisan consensus, after all, has prevented strong action on either front for decades.

Eugene Robinson: I Don’t Know If We Need To Invest In Health Care, ‘I’m Not An Expert In Health Care’ - Think Progress

Yesterday, Sens. Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) questioned Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about why the administration wanted invest new money into an already bloated health care care system. This morning, when Joe Scarborough asked Washington Post columnist Eugene “not an expert in health care” Robinson how President Obama’s proposed $634 billion investment would reduce health care costs, Robinson admitted that he didn’t know.

On Health Care, For It Before They Were Against It - David Sirota

The idea of Republicans bashing anyone for flip-flopping is pretty ridiculous. This is the party that oversaw an explosion in federal spending and earmarking, and is now calling itself the party of fiscal austerity. It is the party that said it was against nation-building, and then led the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. It is the party that says it believes in individual freedom and privacy, and then trampled our civil liberties. Now, as I note in my newest weekly newspaper column, the GOP simultaneously says it is the party of competition — while trying to thwart competition in the health care industry.