NEWS

Administration Rejects Health Insurer’s Defense of Huge Rate Increases - New York Times

Anthem Blue Cross, the California health insurance company that was criticized by the Obama administration for raising its premiums, said Thursday that the increases of up to 39 percent were driven by rising health care costs.

Report: Top five insurers made $12 billion in profits last year, dropped 2.7 million people - Politico

With health reform floundering, Democrats have renewed their attacks on the insurance industry and a new report out today hopes to bolster their case that insurance company practices need to be reigned in. The report finds that the top five largest for-profit insurance companies increased their profits by $12.2 billion last year while dropping coverage for 2.7 million Americans.

Democrats skeptical health care summit is answer - AP

First he called congressional Democrats' yearlong march toward health care overhaul an ugly process. Now President Barack Obama wants to talk directly with Republicans, the very people his Capitol Hill allies call obstinate and uncooperative.

New jolt for healthcare reform? Insurer hikes rates 39 percent. - CSM

Democrats are using the decision of WellPoint to raise rates for some customers by as much as 39 percent – despite a $4.75 billion profit – to rally supporters.

Family feud: Nancy Pelosi at odds with President Obama - Politico

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s increasingly public disagreements with President Barack Obama are a reflection of something deeper: the seething resentment some Democrats feel over what they see as cavalier treatment from a wounded White House.

Sen. Conrad: Media focusing on 'side issues' in health debate - The Hill

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) on Thursday implored reporters to improve their coverage of the healthcare debate, which he described so far as incomplete.

Billy Tauzin to step down from PhRMA - Politico

Billy Tauzin, the backslapping former Louisiana congressman who went on to earn $2 million a year as head of the drug industry's powerful Washington trade group, is stepping down from his post in June.

OPINION

Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose - Nate Silver

I don't know that I'd make too much of this, but tracking the Congressional Democrats' approval ratings in Quinnipiac polling over the past six months — they're now down to just 28 percent overall, including 19 percent (!) among independents — is interesting in this respect. Both times that the Congress approved a health care bill — the House on November 7th, the Senate on December 24th — the Democrats got a bounce from among their own voters without suffering any further harm from Republicans and independents. Meanwhile, the Democrats' approval rating has sunken to a new low among all three groups in Quinnipac's latest poll after three weeks of inaction on health care reform, which most voters no longer expect to pass.

Forging Ahead — Embracing the “Reconciliation” Option for Reform - New England Journal of Medicine

The course of health care reform in 2009 resembled the silent movie series “The Perils of Pauline,” in which each episode began with a threat to the heroine’s life but ended with her salvation.

Republicans and Medicare - Paul Krugman

“Don’t cut Medicare. The reform bills passed by the House and Senate cut Medicare by approximately $500 billion. This is wrong.” So declared Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, in a recent op-ed article written with John Goodman, the president of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Judd Gregg Can Help Save Health Reform Because His Ideas Are Already In It - Think Progress

Politico reports that retiring Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) could help the White House “save” the health care bill and broker a deal with Democrats. “It’s clear already that Gregg’s restless energy is drawing him back into the fray, and the New Hampshire conservative brings both a proven ability to swing Republican votes and a background in health care and deficit issues,” the paper writes, noting that Gregg is “promoting his own lower-cost approach focused on preventive care and guaranteed catastrophic coverage for all families.”

Heart-broken: President Clinton has access to great heart care, but the average heart patients can't afford what they need - Health Populi

With President Clinton's stent operation of February 11, Americans are reminded of the epidemic of heart disease which will cost the nation $503 billion in 2010. Heart disease and stroke kill 1 in 3 Americans.