NEWS

North Carolina's Blue Cross Blue Shield Trying to Kill Key Plank of Obama Plan - Washington Post

One week after the nation's health insurance lobby pledged to President Obama to do what it can to constrain rising health costs, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is putting the finishing touches on a public message campaign aimed at killing a key plank in Obama's reform platform.

Labor Groups Blast Senator on Health Benefits Tax - New York Times

They may not star Harry and Louise, the fictional couple who helped doom health care initiatives in the 1990s, but new health care advertisements from both ends of the spectrum signal the increasing attention focused on proposals under consideration on Capitol Hill.

U.S. workers paying more for healthcare: report - Reuters

Healthcare costs for Americans who get medical coverage through an employer hit a record $16,771 per family this year, and they are having to pay more themselves, a report released on Monday showed.

Wyden is winning over the GOP on healthcare - The Hill

Some of the biggest names in the Democratic Party have lined up to take the lead on healthcare reform, but the key to a bipartisan compromise may be the lesser-known Sen. Ron Wyden.

U.S. Says Wyeth Cheated Medicaid - Associated Press

The Justice Department on Monday accused Wyeth, the drug maker, of cheating Medicaid programs out of hundreds of millions of dollars by overcharging for a stomach acid drug.

OPINION

McKinsey weighs in on healthcare reform - The Health Care Blog

Back in December, 2008, the folks at McKinsey - one of the world’s most well known consulting firms - wrote an interesting article on health care reform in the U.S. What’s striking about it now as we all watch the debate unfold in Washington, DC is how different McKinsey’s approach is to the one being taken in our nation’s capital. McKinsey focused on three things - personal behavior, cost and quality transparency, and administrative simplification. The Washington debate is focused mostly on whether or not to create a government run health insurance plan, individual and small group health insurance market reforms, Medicaid and/or Medicare expansions, how much deficit spending is too much, and administrative simplification.

The Health-Care Time Warp - The American Prospect

For all the partisan back-and-forth over the measures Barack Obama has taken to address the economic crisis, the biggest battle of his first term — and the one that could determine whether he gets a second — is just now ramping up. If Obama can reform this disaster of a health-care system and do what Bill Clinton couldn't, then his place in history will be assured. It already appears that the administration has studied the failures of 1993. But what will really determine health care's outcome is what reform opponents do, and the contours of their campaign are starting to take shape.

Commentary: Big risk in health care reform plan - CNN

We know what the president wants when it comes to health care reform. We know what Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. Henry Waxman want. And we know what interest groups really want from any health care reform effort.