health care

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Obama's Strategy: Play Nice With Congress
 Obama's Strategy: Play Nice 
 With Congress 
Analysis
Jun 6, 2009 12:03 PM CDT

Obama's Strategy: Play Nice With Congress

(Newser) - Barack Obama believes he has a big advantage when it comes to passing health care reform. Though he ran as an outsider, he’s “quietly but methodically assembled the most Congress-centric administration in modern history,” writes Matt Bai in the New York Times Magazine. Unlike Clinton, who rode...

Kennedy Floats Health Bill to Make Employers Pay

(Newser) - Employers would be required to offer health care to employees or pay a penalty, and all Americans would be guaranteed health insurance, under a draft bill being circulated today by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's health committee. The bill would provide subsidies to help poor people afford care, and give patients...

Dems Proceed on Health Care Without Ailing Kennedy

Dodd takes senator's place in meetings

(Newser) - Ted Kennedy's absence is being keenly felt as Senate Democrats and the White House prepare to move ahead on health care legislation without him, the Los Angeles Times reports. The senator, whom lawmakers from both sides had hoped could craft a bipartisan compromise, is being treated for a brain tumor...

Medical Bills Linked to 62% of Bankruptcies

Many bankrupt despite having health insurance, researchers find

(Newser) - Medical bills were a factor in 62% of American personal bankruptcies in 2007, marking a 50% rise over 6 years, a study found. Some three-quarters of these families couldn’t stay afloat despite having health insurance, Reuters reports. “Most medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations,...

In a Shift, Obama Willing to Require Insurance for All

(Newser) - President Obama has begun wading into the murky details of health care reform. In a letter to Democratic leaders, the president said he could accept a law that requires all Americans to buy insurance—provided it has a "hardship waiver" for those who can't afford it, reports the New ...

Universal Health Care Plan Looks Likely

Compromise bill may include an 'Orbitz for insurance'

(Newser) - Barack Obama's overhaul of the American health care system is quietly taking shape, and Democrats and Republicans both say a consensus plan looks likely. Politico reports on what the health reform bill, which must be passed by August, might look like: Guaranteed insurance for all Americans, who will probably be...

Why Our Health Care System Is a Mess

(Newser) - For a clear example of our warped health care system, look no further than McAllen, Texas. The border town is second only to Miami in how much it spends on health care per person—$15,000 per Medicare enrollee, twice the national average. The problem? Atul Gawande of the New ...

Kennedy: An Outline for Health-Care Reform

Sen. offers 5 key elements of coming legislation

(Newser) - The US health-care system that “shortchanges millions of Americans” is “about to change,” writes Ted Kennedy in the Boston Globe. The senator lays out five key elements of legislation he’s working on with “colleagues on both sides of the aisle”:
  1. Americans will have “better
...

Insured Foot Bill for Uninsured Patients' Care

Companies pass along 'hidden health tax' of $1K+ per family

(Newser) - If you have health insurance, you’re paying a “hidden tax” to care for the uninsured, says a nonprofit advocating government-backed health care. The group says insurance companies pass on the cost of treating the uninsured to their subscribers, to the tune of $1,017 per family last year,...

Policymakers Float Federal Sales Tax Idea

American VAT long rejected as politically impossible policy

(Newser) - A federal sales tax has long been seen as politically off-limits, but the massive deficit has some in Washington pushing for it. “It's common to the rest of the world, and we don't have it,” a tax analyst tells the Washington Post. In dire times, “fundamental tax...

Did Our Health Care System Kill Jay Bennett?
Did Our Health Care System Kill Jay Bennett?
OPINION
May 26, 2009 12:06 PM CDT

Did Our Health Care System Kill Jay Bennett?

Musician's death has scary implications for the rest of us

(Newser) - The death of 45-year-old musician Jay Bennett, former member of the band Wilco, is “intolerably sad”—but its implications about our current health care system are also “downright scary,” writes the Cajun Boy on Gawker. Bennett, fired from Wilco in 2001, sued the band’s frontman...

Social Security, Medicare Going Broke? Terrific!

(Newser) - Social Security and Medicare are headed toward disaster, and that’s a good thing, Robert J. Samuelson writes in Newsweek. The programs are expected to run out of money by 2017 and 2037, respectively, and when they do, politicians will have to make painful, necessary reforms. “The counterintuitive lesson:...

Obama Courts GOP Moderates, but Quietly

President seeks support on health care

(Newser) - President Obama would love to have a few Republicans in his corner on health care, but he’s keeping courting efforts low-key, Politico reports. Last week, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel invited a dozen moderate House Republicans to a casual White House meeting, and the president stopped by to chat....

Iraqi Hospitals Crumble as Drugs Vanish

(Newser) - Filthy, bug-infested Iraqi hospitals still lack basic equipment and supplies that could save thousands of lives, McClatchy reports. With sectarian violence down, doctors and aid groups are blaming government corruption for the nation's health woes. "The government has money," said a fourth-year resident at a Baghdad hospital....

Cut Down on C-Sections, Experts Tell US Women

Hospitals profit from unnecessary cesareans

(Newser) - American women are risking their health and driving up medical costs by having too many cesarean sections, the Los Angeles Times reports. The most common operation in the US, the C-section is used in 31% of births and accounts for 45% of rising birth costs. It can also lead to...

Pfizer Offers Free Lipitor, Viagra to Jobless

70 drugs available to those who lost jobs since Jan. 1

(Newser) - Pfizer is unveiling a new program that will let people who have lost their jobs and health insurance keep taking some of its medications—including Lipitor and Viagra—for free for up to a year. The world’s biggest drugmaker will provide more than 70 of its prescription drugs free...

Ex-CEO, Swift-Boaters Lead Attack on Health Reform

Rick Scott ties Democrats' plans to Canadian, British systems

(Newser) - As leading Democrats prepare for a health care overhaul, the loudest opposition isn’t coming from GOP leaders—it’s coming from investor and former hospital CEO Rick Scott, with the help of the team that “Swift-boated” John Kerry, the Washington Post reports. Scott is spending $5 million of...

6 Steps to Reform Health Care Now: Kennedy

Senator lists needed steps for system overhaul

(Newser) - This is the year to end an “American tragedy” and overhaul health care, Sen. Ted Kennedy writes in Politico. The Census Bureau said last year that 46 million Americans had no health insurance--and the economic crisis has added another 4 million to the ranks of the uninsured. It’s...

3 Million US Job Openings Isn't a Good Thing
3 Million US Job Openings Isn't
a Good Thing
ANALYSIS
May 1, 2009 2:26 PM CDT

3 Million US Job Openings Isn't a Good Thing

Figure shows troubling disconnect between employers, workers

(Newser) - Even with the unemployment rate shattering records, 3 million jobs nationwide remain unfilled. But the growing mismatch between employers and workers tarnishes that silver lining, Peter Coy argues in BusinessWeek. Untrained job-seekers often don’t have necessary skills to work in growing sectors like health care and accounting, and employers...

Doctor Shortage Could Hurt Obama Health Care Plans

More primary care physicians are needed to serve aging population, uninsured

(Newser) - President Obama's ambitious plants to expand health care for millions of currently uninsured Americans while simultaneously meeting the needs of aging boomers, may be stymied not only by politics-as-usual but a shortage of primary care physicians, the New York Times reports. Officials are weighing several options, including increasing Medicare payments...

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