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News Clips

The health-related information below is intended to be objective, timely and non-partisan.

03-09-2010

New York Times: State insurance experts see flaw in Obama’s plan to curb health premiums

At the heart of President Obama’s drive to rein in health costs is a proposal for federal review and regulation of health insurance premiums, with a new agency empowered to block excessive rate increases.
[ Read More ]

03-09-2010

Washington Post: Obama launches attack on health insurance companies

The White House is mounting a stinging, sustained broadside against health insurance rate increases as President Obama and his aides enter what they hope will be the final stretch of a year-long political war over health care reform.
[ Read More ]

03-09-2010

NPR: Anyone remember what’s in the health care bill?

Since the Senate passed its version of a health overhaul on Christmas Eve, most of the debate has focused on the politics of the effort. By now, many people have forgotten — if they ever knew — what the bill would actually do. So here’s a short refresher.

[ Read More ]

03-08-2010

Philadelphia Inquirer: Health overhaul would help the childless poor

While Medicaid is the main government health insurance plan for the poor, the joint state-federal program has excluded Matthews and millions of other adults with no dependent children since the 1960s.
[ Read More ]

03-08-2010

USA Today: How would health care overhaul help young people?

Like most Americans, Dominic Ouellette, an uninsured 23-year-old waiter in Washington, likely would be required to have health coverage under the legislation being debated in Congress. Because he’s younger than 30, though, he could buy a low-cost plan under the Senate bill and the new White House proposal.
[ Read More ]

03-07-2010

New York Times: Obama wields analysis of insurers in health battle

To bolster the case for a far-reaching overhaul of the health care system, the Obama administration is seizing on a new analysis by Goldman Sachs, the New York investment bank, recommending that investors buy shares in two big insurance companies, the UnitedHealth Group and Cigna, because insurance rates are up sharply and competition is down.
[ Read More ]

03-06-2010

Sedalia Democrat: Social service agencies fear impact of state budget cuts

As legislators attempt to plug what could be a $300 million shortfall in revenues, social service providers across the region are scrambling to deal with $60 million in cuts proposed in February by the Missouri House Appropriations Committee for Health, Mental Health and Social Services.
[ Read More ]

03-05-2010

St. Louis Beacon: Missouri budget panel targets community health centers for funding cuts

A budget appropriations committee in the Missouri House of Representatives has voted to eliminate funding for community health centers at a time when more Missourians are finding themselves unemployed, uninsured and in need of health-care providers.
[ Read More ]

03-03-2010

New York Times: Obama offers to use some G.O.P. health proposals

President Obama offered Tuesday to address some of the concerns expressed by Republicans in the health care debate as the two parties maneuvered for advantage heading into the legislative end game.
[ Read More ]

03-03-2010

Wall Street Journal: Democrats chase health votes

At least a half-dozen House Democrats who voted against the health care bill say they are now undecided, and President Barack Obama says he is willing to embrace several Republican ideas to collect more votes.
[ Read More ]

03-03-2010

Los Angeles Times: Lawmakers expand investigation into health insurance rate hikes

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has summoned the chiefs of WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna to testify about denying claims for policyholders with preexisting conditions.
[ Read More ]

03-02-2010

Washington Post: Parity law requires mental health benefits comparable to physical care benefits

Denise Camp was resigned to the double standard that had long applied to her medical bills, forcing her to skimp on other expenses so she could pay for mental health treatment.
[ Read More ]

03-02-2010

New York Times: Obama to highlight cost in new health bill push

President Obama this week will begin a climactic push to rally restive Congressional Democrats to pass major health care legislation by hammering the argument that the costs of failure will be higher insurance premiums and lost coverage for individuals and businesses.
[ Read More ]

03-01-2010

USA Today: Stalemate holding up jobless benefits

Hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans will begin losing unemployment and health benefits this week as a one-man filibuster in the Senate continued to block a measure to extend those and other programs for one month.
[ Read More ]

03-01-2010

Wall Street Journal: Battle brews over tactic to win passage of health bill

The White House said Monday the leading tactic to win passage of the health care bill was nothing extraordinary, rehearsing a key argument in the final public-relations battle over the bill.
[ Read More ]

02-28-2010

NPR: A health care issue both parties can agree on

If you listened carefully to the White House summit on health care last week, you could hear, among all the disagreements, a few points of agreement.
[ Read More ]

02-28-2010

New York Times: The cost of doing nothing on health care

Suppose Congress and President Obama fail to overhaul the system now, or just tinker around the edges, or start over, as the Republicans propose — despite the Democrats’ latest and possibly last big push that began last week at a marathon televised forum in Washington. Then “my health care” stays the same, right?

[ Read More ]

02-26-2010

St. Louis Beacon: Local business and medical leaders react to health care summit

Obama said that two parties might be able to reach agreement on 95 percent of the issues, but he says expanded coverage and pre-existing conditions may turn out to be gaps that cannot be closed.
[ Read More ]

02-26-2010

Washington Post: At health care summit, Obama tells Republicans he’s eager to move ahead

President Obama declared Thursday that the time for debate over health care reform has come to an end, closing an unusual seven-hour summit with congressional leaders by sending a clear message that Democrats will move forward to pass major legislation with or without Republican support.
[ Read More ]

02-26-2010

Wall Street Journal: More talk, no deal at health summit

The nationally televised session stretched over more than seven hours and, to no one’s surprise, yielded no new agreement, although lawmakers strove to maintain an atmosphere of decorum and cooperation—even as they aired their warring views.
[ Read More ]

02-25-2010

NPR: Bipartisanship runs aground at health care summit

President Obama’s face-to-face effort to forge a bipartisan agreement on health care overhaul appeared to fall short Thursday, as differences that have plagued the process for months re-emerged during a meeting at Washington’s historic Blair House.
[ Read More ]

02-25-2010

Daily Dunklin Democrat: Changes in coverage: Autism legislation passes Missouri House

A bill that would mandate insurance coverage for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is now one step closer to becoming a reality after being passed by the Missouri House of Representatives.
[ Read More ]

02-24-2010

Wall Street Journal: Obama readies a fallback health care proposal

President Barack Obama will use a bipartisan summit Thursday to push for sweeping health care legislation, but if that fails to generate enough support the White House has prepared the outlines of a more modest plan.
[ Read More ]

02-24-2010

Washington Post: House votes to strip health insurance companies of antitrust exemption

The House voted Wednesday to strip health insurance companies of their exemption from federal antitrust laws, a Democratic measure that could resonate with public concerns about insurers but that has an uncertain future in the Senate.
[ Read More ]

02-24-2010

NPR: Health care no stranger to reconciliation process

To reconcile or not to reconcile — when it comes to a health overhaul bill, that seems to be the biggest argument of the moment.
[ Read More ]

02-24-2010

New York Times: G.O.P. expects little from health forum

Republican Congressional leaders on Tuesday rejected President Obama’s challenge to come up with a single comprehensive proposal to achieve his goal of guaranteeing health insurance for nearly all Americans.
[ Read More ]

02-23-2010

Los Angeles Times: Obama’s proposal designed to stir debate

His plan isn’t a blueprint for a new approach to revamping the system and will likely be used as a guide to modifying existing legislation.
[ Read More ]

02-23-2010

Kaiser Health News: The antitrust exemption for health insurers: Meaningful or not?

With comprehensive health care legislation foundering in Congress, the House is turning to a narrower piece of legislation that lawmakers hope has widespread, populist appeal: repealing the antitrust exemption for health insurers.
[ Read More ]

02-23-2010

New York Times: Obama’s health bill plan largely follows Senate version

President Obama on Monday issued his own blueprint for a health care overhaul, challenged Republicans to come forward with their ideas and laid the groundwork for an aggressive parliamentary maneuver to pass the legislation using only Democratic votes if this week brings no progress toward a bipartisan solution.
[ Read More ]

02-23-2010

Wall Street Journal: Small businesses seek more action to curb health care costs

Some small-business advocates criticized President Barack Obama’s proposed health care overhaul as imposing stiffer requirements on employers to provide insurance for workers while not doing enough to lower costs.
[ Read More ]

02-23-2010

NPR: Obama plan would monitor insurance premiums

For the first time in the year-long debate over health care, President Obama has released his own vision of what a comprehensive overhaul should look like.
[ Read More ]

02-23-2010

Los Angeles Times: Comparing health care proposals

Here’s how President Obama’s plan for the health care overhaul compares with the Senate and House versions.
[ Read More ]

02-22-2010

Missoulian: News analysis: Latest health care proposal includes some new, some old ideas

Obama definitely throws in a new twist or two, such as proposals for federal oversight of health insurance rates and making it illegal for brand-name drug manufacturers to delay release of generic competitors.But the fundamental approach to expanding health coverage is the same.
[ Read More ]

02-22-2010

Washington Post: Obama embraces Senate approach in new health care plan

President Obama made it clear Monday morning that he intends to make a final push for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s health care and insurance system, offering a new health care plan that largely embraces the approach already taken by the U.S. Senate.
[ Read More ]

02-22-2010

Wall Street Journal: States look beyond Washington on health

Some governors, frustrated by halted federal efforts to overhaul the U.S. health care system, are introducing their own changes at the state level.
[ Read More ]

02-22-2010

Los Angeles Times: Obama plan would curb health insurers on rate hikes

President Obama’s new health care overhaul plan would give the federal government greater authority to stop rate increases imposed by health insurers, an administration official said late Sunday.
[ Read More ]

02-19-2010

Wall Street Journal: Fight over health care premiums heats up

A firestorm between the Obama administration and health insurers escalated Thursday, as the Department of Health and Human Services pointed to double-digit price increases or attempted increases in six states to make the case for overhauling the health care system.
[ Read More ]

02-19-2010

New York Times: States consider Medicaid cuts as use grows

Facing relentless fiscal pressure and exploding demand for government health care, virtually every state is making or considering substantial cuts in Medicaid, even as Democrats push to add 15 million people to the rolls.
[ Read More ]

02-19-2010

Washington Post: Medicaid enrollment rises nationwide, analysis finds

The recession has fueled the greatest influx of Americans onto Medicaid since the earliest days of the public insurance program for the poor, according to new findings that show caseloads have surged in every state.
[ Read More ]

02-19-2010

New York Times: Obama to offer health bill to ease impasse as bipartisan meeting approaches

President Obama will put forward comprehensive health care legislation intended to bridge differences between Senate and House Democrats ahead of a summit meeting with Republicans next week, senior administration officials and Congressional aides said Thursday.
[ Read More ]

02-18-2010

Washington Post: Excise tax on high-cost health plans would have nonunion impact, study shows

A proposed tax on high-cost health insurance plans, an element of Democratic health care legislation that has been strongly opposed by organized labor, would actually fall equally on nonunion plans, according to a new analysis.
[ Read More ]

02-18-2010

Missourinet: House passes autism measure, sends it to Senate

Health insurers regulated by the state would have to cover treatment for autism under a bill that has passed the House and moved to the Senate.
[ Read More ]

02-18-2010

Southeast Missourian: Report: Some Southeast Missouri counties among unhealthiest in state

Southeast Missouri did not fare well in a snapshot of well-being by counties across the United States.
[ Read More ]

02-17-2010

Kaiser Health News: Community health centers providing return on investment

A hefty infusion of cash for community health centers in last year’s federal stimulus package may be paying off.
[ Read More ]

02-17-2010

USA Today: Report compares health county-by-county

For the first time, a new report reveals how counties across America stack up when it comes to health.
[ Read More ]

02-17-2010

Springfield News-Leader: Autism bill completes first step

The Missouri House on Tuesday took the first step toward mandating that insurance companies cover certain treatments for children with autism.
[ Read More ]

02-16-2010

Reuters: Many U.S. kids have chronic health problems: study

More than a quarter of American children have a chronic health condition such as obesity or asthma, but many children overcome these problems with time, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
[ Read More ]

02-16-2010

St. Louis Beacon: How healthy is your county?

St. Charles County ranks second in healthy residents in Missouri, behind Platte County, according to a first-of-a-kind study rating the overall health of counties in all 50 states.
[ Read More ]

02-16-2010

Kansas City Star: Tentative cuts made in Missouri’s social services budget

A Missouri House committee slashed nearly $60 million from social-service programs in next year’s budget, including funding for health clinics, child care subsidies and assistance to victims of domestic violence.
[ Read More ]

02-16-2010

New York Times: In California, Exhibit A in debate on insurance

With health care negotiations stalled in Washington, the Obama administration is seizing on the seething fury felt by Mr. Punzet and nearly 700,000 other Anthem customers in California who have received notices of increases that average 25 percent.
[ Read More ]

02-15-2010

Los Angeles Times: Individual mandate: A sticking point in the health care debate

Is forcing people to have insurance a useful strategy to spread the costs, or an ill-conceived notion that would only exacerbate the problem?
[ Read More ]

02-15-2010

Suburan Journals: Therapy drains family’s savings

The latest estimates place the number of U.S. children with autism spectrum disorders at 1 in 110.
[ Read More ]

02-14-2010

St. Louis Beacon: Many Missouri dentists favor single-payer system as more efficient for needy patients

The Missouri Dental Association argues that putting all Medicaid dollars for dental services in one pot and setting up a single-payer system to run it would produce a more efficient and less costly system.
[ Read More ]

02-14-2010

AP: Failure of health care overhaul will add more woes

What could be worse than health care overhaul? No health care overhaul.

[ Read More ]

02-14-2010

Washington Post: With health care reform stalled, debate heats up regarding state approaches

Proponents of leaving health-care reform to the states have gained momentum as national legislation stalls in Congress, setting off a new debate over who is best able to tackle one of the nation’s thorniest social issues.
[ Read More ]

02-12-2010

KOMU: Possible insurance coverage for autism treatment

Missouri lawmakers, from both the House and Senate are proposing legislation that would require insurance companies to cover treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder.
[ Read More ]

02-12-2010

New York Times: Administration rejects health insurer’s defense of huge rate increases

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.
[ Read More ]

02-12-2010

Wall Street Journal: WellPoint takes heat over rates

The Obama administration is seizing on a big health-insurance rate increase by WellPoint Inc. in California as fresh evidence of the need for action as it tries to resuscitate its health-care legislation.
[ Read More ]

02-11-2010

Reuters: Heart patients worry about health costs

The monthly mortgage payment is the heaviest expense facing the average U.S. family but for heart patient Frank Amend, an engineer from North Carolina, the biggest cost is health care.
[ Read More ]

02-11-2010

San Diego Union Tribune: Individual insurance polices vulnerable

Many parts of the economy are slowly recovering, but when it comes to health insurance costs, the worst appears far from over.
[ Read More ]

02-10-2010

USA Today: Obama’s aim on health care: Mesh ’best ideas’

President Obama said Tuesday that he will consider any Republican health care ideas, as long as the ideas address the goals contained in the Democratic plans already passed by the House and Senate.
[ Read More ]

02-10-2010

Kaiser Health News: How health overhaul would affect the uninsured

As Democrats have pushed for a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s health system, much of their plans have focused on providing coverage for America’s uninsured.
[ Read More ]

02-10-2010

AP: Obama would ok health bill minus items he persued

Signaling he’d meet critics part way on health care, President Barack Obama said Tuesday he’s willing to sign a bill even if it doesn’t deliver everything he pursued through a year of grinding effort at risk of going down as a dismal failure.
[ Read More ]

02-09-2010

NPR: As focus shifts to jobs, the uninsured seek solutions

The national debate over health care appears to be taking a back seat to jobs creation — but the problem persists for people who have jobs but no health insurance.
[ Read More ]

02-09-2010

New York Times: Bills stalled, hospitals fear rising unpaid care

President Obama says he aims to keep trying. But what happens if the health care legislation cannot be revived, and tens of millions of uninsured Americans continue without coverage?
[ Read More ]

02-09-2010

New York Times: On health bill, G.O.P.’s road is a new map

When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month, they will carry with them a fairly well-developed set of ideas intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable, by emphasizing tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net.
[ Read More ]

02-08-2010

Columbia Missourian: Missouri Senate discusses possible resolutions if health care reform passes

The Missouri Senate spent nearly all of its session time Monday on resolutions that would urge the state’s attorney general to sue the federal government for legislation that may never see the light of day in the U.S. Congress.
[ Read More ]

02-08-2010

Washington Post: Calif. insurer’s rate increases draw attention of federal government

President Obama’s secretary of health and human services fired off a sharply worded letter to a California insurer Monday, demanding to know why it is raising rates for individual policyholders by as much as 39 percent.
[ Read More ]

02-08-2010

Washington Post: Obama invites Republicans to summit on health care

President Obama moved to jump-start the stalled health care debate Sunday, inviting Republicans in Congress to participate in a bipartisan, half-day televised summit on the subject this month.
[ Read More ]

02-07-2010

St. Louis Beacon: Overmedication? Missouri may restrict the use of antipsychotic drugs on children

As a practicing psychiatrist and a state mental health administrator, Dr. Joseph Parks sees both sides of the debate over the use of antipsychotic medication to treat high-energy children who hallucinate, can’t sit still or keep their thoughts together.
[ Read More ]

02-07-2010

St. Joseph News-Press: Autism insurance bill moves forward in Senate

One in 110 children born in the United States is diagnosed with autism, but health insurance companies in Missouri do not routinely provide coverage for the disorder.
[ Read More ]

02-07-2010

Wall Street Journal: Mental health benefits

Millions of Americans are now eligible for improved employer-provided mental-health and substance-abuse insurance coverage.
[ Read More ]

02-04-2010

Wall Street Journal: Public health tab to hit milestone

For the first time, government programs next year will account for more than half of all U.S. health-care spending, federal actuaries predict, as the weak economy sends more people into Medicaid and slows growth of private insurance.
[ Read More ]

02-03-2010

Kaiser Health News: The debate over selling insurance across state lines

With health care legislation stalled, Republicans are touting their own remedies, including allowing Americans to buy health coverage across state lines. Currently, consumers can buy policies only from insurers licensed by the states in which they live.
[ Read More ]

01-24-2010

Los Angeles Times: Can the health care overhaul drive recover?

Democratic leaders working to craft a health care bill were dealt a setback last week when Republican Scott Brown’s Senate victory in Massachusetts cost them the supermajority needed to block filibusters. Now the fate of the overhaul is in doubt.
[ Read More ]

01-24-2010

Wall Street Journal: Narrorer targets set for health coverhaul

The White House, with its health care initiative in doubt, on Sunday zeroed in on several elements it hoped would survive, including measures to extend the life of Medicare, lower prescription drug costs for seniors and cap consumers’ out-of-pocket medical expenses.
[ Read More ]

01-24-2010

Missourinet: Governor’s Medicaid cuts detailed

Governor Nixon recommends a 120-million dollar funding cut for the Medicaid program. But the administration thinks the cuts will be mostly painless.
[ Read More ]

01-22-2010

Washington Post: Analysis: Paring back health care not so easy

Trimming back the 2,000-page, trillion-dollar Democratic health care bills to the parts that average folks understand and like may not be as simple as it sounds.
[ Read More ]

01-22-2010

New York Times: A new search for consensus on health care bill

Even as Speaker Nancy Pelosi affirmed her commitment to pass far-reaching health care legislation this year, members of Congress and health policy experts began Thursday to deal with the reality that a smaller bill would have a better chance.
[ Read More ]

01-19-2010

NPR: Confronting the affordability gap in health care bills

As congressional Democrats work feverishly to bridge the gaps between the House and Senate health care overhaul bills, one issue is becoming a subject of considerable debate: affordability.
[ Read More ]

01-19-2010

Columbia Missourian: Autism diagnoses prompt bills on insurance coverage

Missouri legislators were warned of an impending "autism tsunami" Tuesday as committees in both chambers heard bills mandating insurance coverage for the disorder.
[ Read More ]

01-18-2010

Washington Post: Health care overhaul leaves gap for disabled workers

Although disabled workers can expect improvements, the legislation moving toward final passage in Congress doesn’t deliver the clean fix that advocates for people with serious medical conditions hoped for. Some of the neediest could find themselves still in limbo.
[ Read More ]

01-18-2010

Springfield News-Leader: Analysis: Missouri’s predicted costs for health care reform vary

Missouri Republicans are raising concerns about federal health care legislation, claiming its mandatory Medicaid expansion would have a "drastic" and "devastating" effect on the state’s finances.
But some of their rhetoric may exceed reality.

[ Read More ]

01-16-2010

Washington Post: Democrats seek quick deal on health care bill

President Obama and congressional leaders raced Friday to strike a compromise on far-reaching health legislation, hoping to settle lingering disputes before Tuesday, when a special election in Massachusetts could hand Republicans their 41st vote in the Senate and the power to defeat Obama’s top domestic initiative.
[ Read More ]

01-15-2010

Washington Post: White House nears deal on health care

Gripped by a building sense that its window of opportunity could be closing, the White House on Thursday broke the last major logjam blocking enactment of far-reaching health care legislation, cutting a deal with organized labor on how to tax high-cost insurance policies.
[ Read More ]

01-15-2010

St. Louis Beacon: Bills to mandate insurance coverage for autism are back in legislature

Until age 4, Charles Quigless, an angelic-looking child with a wide, gapped-tooth smile, had only his hands, feet and a variety of noises with which to communicate. When Charles was diagnosed with autism at age 3, his parents hit the ground running, knowing they had only a small window of time in which he could learn language.
[ Read More ]

01-14-2010

New York Times: Proposals clash on states’ role in health plans

Should someone in Idaho or Nevada have significantly different health care coverage from someone in Massachusetts? That, essentially, is one of the biggest questions Congress will be wrestling with as it tries to meld House and Senate bills into a single law to revamp the nation’s health care system.

[ Read More ]

01-14-2010

Los Angeles Times: Tax expansion could pay for health care overhaul

Democratic congressional leaders are considering a new strategy to help finance their ambitious health care plan - applying the Medicare payroll tax not just to wages but to capital gains, dividends and other forms of unearned income.
[ Read More ]

01-14-2010

New York Times: Obama and lawmakers seek accord on health care

With a growing sense of urgency, President Obama and top Congressional Democrats held a marathon negotiating session on Wednesday in an effort to thrash out agreements on sweeping health care legislation that could provide insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans.
[ Read More ]

01-13-2010

Washington Times: Hill divided over state, national health plans

Democrats on Capitol Hill are divided over whether health insurance would be sold at the state or national level under their health care reform legislation, one of a series of differences between House and Senate plans that need to be ironed out before it can pass.
[ Read More ]

01-13-2010

St. Louis Beacon: State legislators debate the costs - and benefits - of expanding Medicaid

As Congress seeks to reach consensus on a bill to provide health insurance for everyone, state lawmakers are turning their attention to the price tag.
[ Read More ]

01-13-2010

Wall Street Journal: Support grows for U.S. health exchange

The White House wants to include a national health insurance exchange in the health bill, which would give House Democrats one of their top remaining demands, according to an official involved in the discussions.
[ Read More ]

01-12-2010

Washington Post: AP sources: Employer health mandate may be dropped

House and Senate negotiators working on President Barack Obama’s health overhaul bill appear likely to drop a proposed income tax increase on high-wage earners and possibly jettison a requirement for large businesses to offer coverage to their employees, Democratic officials said Tuesday.
[ Read More ]

01-12-2010

Missourinet: Senators don’t get all the answers they want on health care

State senators get a thorough briefing on national health care, but don’t get the answer they crave most: how much will an overhaul cost Missouri.
[ Read More ]

01-12-2010

NPR: House, Senate view health exchanges differently

Getting a final health overhaul bill to President Obama’s desk by the end of the month or early February remains the goal of lawmakers who are returning to Washington this week. But the task remains a tricky one.
[ Read More ]

01-12-2010

New York Times: President signals flexibility on health plan tax

President Obama told union leaders at a private White House meeting on Monday that he remained committed to taxing high-cost insurance policies as a way to drive down health costs. But he also signaled that he was willing to amend the proposal to “make this work for working families,” a senior administration official said.
[ Read More ]

01-11-2010

St. Louis Beacon: Business, leading Democrats, labor united against ’Cadillac’ tax on some health insurance plans

It isn’t often that the Missouri Chamber of Commerce sees eye to eye with some Democratic members of the Missouri congressional delegation on health care reform.
[ Read More ]

01-11-2010

Missourinet: State Senators discuss impact of health care reform

It might be another week or so before Capitol Hill lawmakers in Washington get down to determining the look of the final health care reform bill. But state lawmakers in Jefferson City are already talking about it.
[ Read More ]

01-11-2010

Los Angeles Times: How would a new health insurance pool work?

Details on who would be eligible under House and Senate proposals; plus questions about shopping the ’exchange,’ understanding bronze and platinum plans, and more.
[ Read More ]

01-10-2010

Washington Post: Report: Health costs up slightly under Senate bill

Americans would see only a modest rise in health care costs under the Senate’s plan to extend coverage to 34 million people who currently go without health insurance, government economic experts say in a new report.
[ Read More ]

01-10-2010

Detroit Free Press: Breast cancer diagnosis raises health care reform questions

The Petersons’ story helps explain the daunting task facing many uninsured people who need surgery or specialty care as well as the frustration of the increasingly fewer doctors who accept uninsured and Medicaid patients. It also raises the question of whether pending federal health reforms would help families like these.
[ Read More ]

01-08-2010

Los Angeles Times: Health care overhaul could save money and boost jobs, researchers say

National health care legislation in Congress could slow the growth of medical costs, allowing employers to create 250,000 to 400,000 new jobs a year over the next decade, economists from Harvard University and USC are predicting.
[ Read More ]

01-07-2010

Washington Post: Advocacy groups raise concerns on health bill

Advocacy groups lobbied President Barack Obama and Congress on Thursday, trying to eliminate what they called a "loophole" in Senate health care legislation they said could allow insurers to raise rates on customers based on their weight or blood sugar levels.
[ Read More ]

01-07-2010

AP: Nelson says he wants Medicaid deal for all states

Sen. Ben Nelson said Thursday he has asked Democratic leadership to extend to all states the extra Medicaid funding promised to Nebraska in the health care reform bill.
[ Read More ]

01-07-2010

Washington Post: Health care reform bill’s proposed tax on high-cost plans raises questions

With Congress on the verge of imposing a new tax on high-cost health insurance plans, skeptics continue to raise questions about who would be hit hardest and whether health care spending would be limited as much as proponents say.
[ Read More ]

01-07-2010

Wall Street Journal: More health aid gets backing

The White House supports an effort to tweak the health bill so it makes insurance more affordable for the lowest earners.
[ Read More ]

01-07-2010

New York Times: Obama urges excise tax on high-cost insurance

President Obama told House Democratic leaders at a meeting on Wednesday that they should include a tax on high-priced insurance policies favored by the Senate in the final version of far-reaching health care legislation, aides said.
[ Read More ]

01-06-2010

New York Times: House Democrats to pursue health bill changes

House Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they would insist on changes to the Senate health care legislation to make coverage more affordable for middle-class Americans and to tighten control over the insurance industry.
[ Read More ]

01-05-2010

St. Louis Beacon: Law equalizes treatment for patients with mental illness, substance abuse problems

A federal law that took effect Jan. 1 requires that patients get the same level of medical treatment for mental problems that they now get for other health conditions.
[ Read More ]

01-05-2010

Columbia Missourian: Physicians in short supply in rural Missouri areas

Eighty percent of Missouri’s counties don’t have enough physicians. Many of those counties are rural, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
[ Read More ]

01-04-2010

USA Today: Another COBRA extension helps with health insurance

Thanks to some last-minute maneuvering by Congress, thousands of jobless workers will continue to receive affordable health insurance in 2010.
[ Read More ]

01-04-2010

Philadelphia Inquirer: Health care have-nots

Michael Rhoads seems just the sort of person who would benefit from health care reform. He and his wife, working parents of two children in Southwest Philadelphia, lack health insurance. They earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little, they say, to afford private coverage.

[ Read More ]

01-04-2010

NPR: Congress proposes new physician payment system

The health care overhaul bills on Capitol Hill do not upend traditional "fee for service" payment for doctors, but they do include financial incentives for doctors to cut medical costs and improve patient care.
[ Read More ]

01-03-2010

Los Angeles Times: More health care votes ahead for Congress

The Senate passed its version of the health care overhaul on Christmas Eve. Here are some questions about what’s next as the legislation continues to work its way through Congress.
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01-03-2010

Missourinet: Health insurance generates most complaints to DOI in ’09

On an average working day last year the Missouri Department of Insurance took a complaint about health insurance every hour and 18 minutes, almost 11-hundred complaints about group health and more than 650 complaints about individual health insurance in all.
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01-02-2010

Washington Post: Senate health care bill would still leave millions uninsured

Even as Democrats seek the biggest expansion of health coverage in decades, as many as 23 million people could still be without insurance by 2018, illustrating the complexity of achieving the long-held Democratic goal of universal health care.
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12-29-2009

Wall Street Journal: Despite subsidy, COBRA’s bite still stings for many

The government is expanding a massive safety net to help the unemployed buy health insurance, but millions of people can’t access the aid because of the way the program was designed.
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12-25-2009

Washington Post: Senate passes health care bill, now must reconcile it with House

Senate Democrats approved landmark legislation just after sunrise Christmas Eve that would transform the nation’s health care system by requiring people without insurance to obtain coverage and protecting those who have it from the most unpopular private insurance practices.
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12-25-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senate passes sweeping health care bill

The Senate approved sweeping health overhaul legislation on Thursday, a landmark moment for White House-led efforts to expand insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans.
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12-25-2009

Springfield News-Leader: Missouri senators split on bill

Missouri’s senators split over legislation overhauling the nation’s health insurance system — as have the state’s two leading Senate candidates.
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12-24-2009

NPR: A consumer’s guide to health reform

Now that the Senate has passed a hotly debated health care bill, Congress is headed to the next step: House of Representatives-Senate negotiations in January to hammer out a final version.
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12-24-2009

Wall Street Journal: When the changes could take effect

For consumers, the most confusing part of the health care bill may be when — and if — they will see its benefits.
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12-24-2009

Washington Post: Health care reform: How the bills stack up

The Senate passed its health care bill Dec. 24 but key differences need to be resolved with the House before a final measure is ready for President Obama’s signature.
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12-24-2009

Washington Post: Senate and House in search of health care compromise

Now that the Senate has passed landmark health-care legislation with a rare Christmas Eve vote, the hardest work of all will begin: reckoning with long-standing differences between the House and Senate versions of reform and uniting behind a single bill that can be sent to the president.
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12-24-2009

Wall Street Journal: Mayo Clinic supports bill but seeks more action on how care is paid for

The Mayo Clinic, often cited by the Obama administration as a model for high-quality, cost-effective health care, generally supports key provisions of the legislation approved by the Senate, an official said Thursday, but he called for more aggressive steps to change how care in the U.S. is paid for.
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12-24-2009

NPR: Charting the future of the health overhaul bill

The Senate approved the landmark health bill early Christmas Eve, a key step for President Obama and the Democrats in moving forward with health overhaul.
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12-24-2009

NPR: Senate says yes to landmark health bill

After more than three weeks of rancorous debate and a series of hard-fought procedural victories, Senate Democrats passed a bill that provides a blueprint for a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
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12-23-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senate provision riles the construction industry

A last-minute addition to the Senate health care bill that requires small construction companies to offer health coverage or pay a fine touched off a battle Tuesday with some industry groups demanding its removal.
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12-22-2009

Wall Street Journal: COBRA benefits expanded

President Barack Obama on Monday signed a measure to extend a federal subsidy for continued health insurance coverage for involuntarily terminated workers under employer group plans.
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12-22-2009

NPR: When Senate’s done, health bill work continues

As the Senate lurches towards a final vote on its health overhaul bill, some people are daring to look ahead to the last step in the painstaking process: marrying the Senate and House bills.
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12-22-2009

Ap: Health care bill clears 2nd Senate hurdle Tues.

Democrats remained united as they started voting at sunrise Tuesday, pushing toward their goal of passing President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul by Christmas.
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12-21-2009

Los Angeles Times: Why require people to buy health insurance?

The ’individual mandate’ expected in any final health care bill is meant to spread the cost and risk and to make sure that people don’t wait until they’re ill to buy coverage.
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12-21-2009

Washington Post: Health care bill clears crucial vote in Senate, 60 to 40

Senate Democrats won a milestone victory early Monday in the health care debate, approving a procedural motion to move the reform legislation to final passage later this week, and without a single vote to spare.
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12-20-2009

USA Today: Coverage mandate doesn’t guarantee compliance

Despite legislation’s requirement, some Americans say they’ll go without insurance
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12-20-2009

Wall Street Journal: Historic health vote looms

The Democratic-controlled Senate, voting 60-40, swept aside Republican objections and moved to close off debate on health overhaul legislation, marking a milestone moment for President Barack Obama’s most pressing domestic initiative.
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12-19-2009

Washington Post: Health care reform: How the bills stack up

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled a revised health care bill Dec. 19 that includes concessions on abortion and other issues needed to secure a 60-vote Democratic majority to overcome a Republican filibuster. The Senate is expected to vote Christmas eve.
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12-18-2009

Los Angeles Times: Senate health care bill now relies on regulation

When Senate Democratic leaders agreed this week to remove a public insurance plan from their massive health care bill, they did more than quash a liberal dream of expanding the government safety net. They effectively pinned their hopes of guaranteeing coverage to all Americans on a far more conventional prescription: government regulation.
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12-18-2009

Columbia Missourian: Bill would allow small businesses into Missouri Consolidated

With federal health care legislation lingering in Washington, there have been multiple bills pre-filed for the 2010 Missouri legislative session dealing with health care.
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12-17-2009

AP: Health care bill in balance without Nelson’s vote

A year in the making, sweeping health care legislation backed by President Barack Obama hung in the balance Thursday as conservative Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson withheld his vote in pursuit of stricter abortion limits and liberals grew restive on the left.
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12-17-2009

KRCG: Nixon keeps an eye on health care reform

Congress is getting down to the wire.
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12-17-2009

Washington Post: Senate plan is called too empowering to health insurers

The Senate health care bill could enable insurers to avoid some of the strongest consumer protections and benefit requirements adopted by state governments, Democratic lawmakers from Maine and California say.
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12-17-2009

New York Times: Strains felt in health coverage for jobless

While lawmakers in Washington continue to debate how to make health care affordable for more Americans, thousands of unemployed New Yorkers like Rhonda R. Baumser are suddenly struggling to hang onto their health coverage.
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12-17-2009

Los Angeles Times: Health bill held up by single Democrat and GOP tactics

New obstacles slowed Senate action on the healthcare bill Wednesday, as the hunt for supporters narrowed to a lone Democrat -- Ben Nelson of Nebraska -- and Republican delaying tactics brought debate to a temporary standstill.
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12-16-2009

NPR: Senate inches toward final vote on health bill

The Senate keeps pushing aside hurdles blocking the huge health overhaul bill. But there are plenty more between the bill and a final vote, which backers still hope to take before Christmas.
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12-16-2009

Columbia Missourian: State health insurance pool premiums too high for neediest uninsured

More than 16,000 of the sickest and most uninsurable Missourians could be covered under the state health care pool if it weren’t for high insurance premiums, according to the pool’s director.
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12-15-2009

Wall Street Journal: Democrats drop plan to expand Medicare

Senate Democrats on Monday evening dropped a plan to expand Medicare, winning the support of moderates and the reluctant acquiescence of liberals, in another major step toward building enough support to pass a health care overhaul.
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12-14-2009

Philadelphia Inquirer: The five biggest myths about health reform

The health care system is complex, yet Americans’ experiences with it are deeply personal, making it a prime candidate for distortions and emotional manipulation. While people hold different views about what the nation should do about its coverage, cost and quality problems, facts and nuance often get lost in the political rhetoric of the debate.
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12-14-2009

Missourinet: Social services looks ahead to legislative session, budget concerns

More people than ever are relying on public programs amid rising unemployment, but the departments that administer them are facing budget cuts as well.
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12-14-2009

Baltimore Sun: For many, benefits from health care legislation are years away

Health care reform legislation winding through the House and Senate gives her new hope because it would prevent insurers from refusing to cover such pre-existing conditions. But there’s a catch - that important provision would not take effect for years.
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12-14-2009

Los Angeles Times: A look at the Senate’s health care compromise

Senate Democrats, as an alternative to creating a government-run insurance plan, proposed creating a nationwide plan that would be operated by a nonprofit. Here’s a closer look at the idea.
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12-14-2009

Washington Post: Disputes threaten ’09 passage of health bill

The next 48 hours will be critical to the fate of health care reform in the Senate, as Democratic leaders struggle to settle disputes that stand in the way of holding a final vote this year on the massive package.
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12-13-2009

Columbia Daily Tribune: Coverage hard to find after COBRA

Add the names of Ed and Ruth Sessa of Keytesville to the growing rolls of people going without health insurance.

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12-12-2009

New York Times: Senate hits new roadblocks on health care bill

Democratic leaders hit a rough patch Friday in their push for sweeping health care legislation, as they tried to fend off criticism of their proposals from a top Medicare official, Republicans and even members of their own party.
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12-11-2009

AP: Health care loophole would allow coverage limits

A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.
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12-11-2009

New York Times: High premiums in Senate Democrats’ health plan

Senate Democrats have provided few details about their latest health care proposal, but this much seems clear: Anyone who wants to buy the same health benefits as members of Congress, or to buy coverage through Medicare, should be prepared to fork over a large chunk of cash.
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12-11-2009

Wall Street Journal: Pelosi indicates support for Senate’s Medicare deal

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed support Thursday for a Senate Democratic proposal to expand Medicare, raising prospects that the two chambers of Congress can work out differences on health care legislation.
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12-11-2009

St. Joseph News-Press: Senators stake out positions on health reform measure

Senators from the two states have solidified their positions as the health care debate takes shape in that chamber.
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12-10-2009

Philadelphia Inquirer: Medicare buy-in could benefit involuntary retirees

About the same time that snippets of a deal on health care legislation worked by Senate Democrats were leaking out Tuesday night, more than 150 unemployed people and their families gathered for a holiday party at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Downingtown.
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12-10-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Dental health is lagging in Missouri, St. Louis area

Missourians have some of the nation’s worst dental health. The state ranks 47th in percentage of adults who have visited the dentist in the last year (63 percent).
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12-10-2009

Kansas City Star: Free health clinic draws hundreds to Bartle Hall

For eight hours Wednesday, as many as 1,000 people streamed through an enormous free clinic at Bartle Hall to get health care some had been putting off for years.
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12-10-2009

Washington Post: If ’public option’ is no longer an option in Senate bill, then what?

While confusion reigned on Capitol Hill on Wednesday over the prospects and details of a Senate deal to replace a government-run insurance plan with other measures, it is not too soon to ask what the proposal would mean for regular people.
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12-10-2009

Los Angeles Times: Medicare expansion idea raises health care reform hopes

The deal, which emerged late Tuesday night after days of negotiations among a group of 10 Democratic senators, dropped the idea of a government-run insurance program.
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12-10-2009

Wall Street Journal: For some ages 55 to 64, Medicare will cost too much

Millions more Americans could get access to Medicare under the latest health proposal by Senate Democrats. But the program may not be cheap enough to entice some of them to sign up.
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12-10-2009

Washington Post: Senate Democrats largely support health care deal that drops public option

Senate Democrats on Wednesday largely embraced a compromise that dropped a "public option" from health care legislation, setting aside their concerns about aspects of the consensus plan in the hopes that the deal hatched by negotiators would serve as a rallying point in their push for the passage of reforms.
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12-10-2009

KWMU: Missouri Republicans try to exempt state from health care overhaul

A group of Republican state legislators has pre-filed legislation attempting to exempt Missouri from any federal health care overhaul bill passed in Washington.
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12-09-2009

Kansas City Star: Massive free health clinic starts at Bartle Hall

Several hundred people were lined up – inside, not out in the cold – when a two-day free health clinic started at noon today at Bartle Hall.
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12-09-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senators strike health deal

Senior Senate Democrats reached tentative agreement Tuesday night to abandon the government-run insurance plan in their health overhaul bill and to expand Medicare coverage to some people ages 55 to 64, clearing the most significant hurdle so far in getting a bill that can pass Congress.
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12-09-2009

Washington Post: Senate may drop public option

Democratic Senate negotiators struck a tentative agreement Tuesday night to drop the controversial government-run insurance plan from their overhaul of the health care system, hoping to remove a last major roadblock preventing the bill from moving to a final vote in the chamber.
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12-08-2009

Miami Herald: Despite recession, 26 states grew health coverage this year

Despite the economic downturn that’s busting state budgets from Sacramento to Tallahassee, 26 states this year made it easier for low-income children, parents or pregnant women to get health coverage, according to a report released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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12-08-2009

Washington Post: Watered-down ’public plan’ emerges in Senate

They may still call it a "public plan," but private insurers — not the government — would offer coverage under a compromise Democrats are considering to win Senate passage of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
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12-08-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senate turns to Medicare, Medicaid

Senate Democrats are considering a significant expansion of Medicare and Medicaid, the health programs for the elderly and the poor, as part of a package of potential changes to health overhaul legislation that would also sharply scale back a proposed new government-run insurance plan.
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12-08-2009

Los Angeles Times: Senate Democrats may compromise on public option

Racing to complete work on health care legislation before Christmas, Senate Democrats worked on a compromise Monday that could leave their bill without a new government insurance plan.
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12-07-2009

PBS NewsHour: Profiles: How could health care reform affect you?

PBS NewsHour talked to six individuals -- a small business owner, a young uninsured woman, and others -- and discussed with health policy analysts how each person might fare under the House and Senate reform bills.
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12-07-2009

Southeast Missourian: Plans for fast track children’s health care on hold in Missouri

It’s known as "Express Lane Eligibility" -- an effort to put children on the fast track for government-run health care coverage.
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12-07-2009

Wall Street Journal: New government-run health proposal eyed

Democrats wrestled with a new proposal on a government health insurance plan that would give private entities a central role in running the program, in a bid for compromise on one of the health bill’s most divisive issues.
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12-07-2009

Los Angeles Times: Senate health care talks pick up pace

President Obama traveled to Capitol Hill on Sunday to rally Democrats on his signature health care initiative as the Senate moved closer to addressing two of the biggest land mines in the bill’s path: the terms of a new public insurance option and limits on federal abortion funding.
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12-06-2009

Los Angeles Times: What the health insurance mandate means

Some of readers’ most frequently asked questions since the health care debate began in earnest this summer.
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12-06-2009

Boston Globe: Worries grow that health overhaul could price out many

President Obama has promised that the nation’s health care overhaul will make medical insurance available - and affordable - for everyone.
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12-04-2009

New York Times: Senate backs preventive health care for women

The Senate voted Thursday to require health insurance companies to provide free mammograms and other preventive services to women, and it turned back a Republican challenge to Medicare savings that constitute the single largest source of financing for the bill.
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12-04-2009

Springfield News-Leader: Autism therapy needs coverage, Gov. Nixon says

During an announcement at the Burrell Autism Center, the governor and lawmakers said they will sponsor bills to make sure insurance companies cover "evidence-based" treatment for people with autism.
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12-03-2009

Hartford Courant: End of COBRA subsidy adds to debate about need for a public health option

Verzi is among the millions of unemployed workers nationwide who choose to keep their previous employer’s health plan under a federal act known as COBRA.
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12-03-2009

New York Times: Senate breaks health stalemate; first votes today

At the end of a third day of Senate debate over sweeping health care legislation, Democrats and Republicans said Wednesday night that they had broken an impasse over the seemingly simple question of how and when to vote on the first amendments.
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12-03-2009

Missourinet: Bill to reform insurance coverage for autism reemerges

A bill that would mandate insurance companies pay for behavioral treatment for autism failed to pass the legislature last session. A renewed attempt for the upcoming session is in the works.
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12-02-2009

Washington Post: Senators express hope for a health reform bill

Senators prepared to cast their first votes Wednesday on health care reform, but even as partisan divisions hardened and contentious amendments stacked up, Democrats increasingly expressed optimism that they would succeed in passing a bill before Christmas.
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12-02-2009

Wall Street Journal: Health-bill amendments court women, seniors

Democrats appealed to women and Republicans made a pitch to seniors Tuesday in amendments to the Senate health bill that showed how each party is trying to frame the health care debate.
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12-01-2009

Kansas City Star: Family health insurance to rise sharply without COBRA subsidy

A new study estimates that the end of a hefty government subsidy could force millions of laid-off workers to pay more than 80 percent of their monthly unemployment checks to keep their job-based family health insurance coverage intact.
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12-01-2009

New York Times: No big cost rise in U.S. premiums is seen in study

The Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the Senate health bill could significantly reduce costs for many people who buy health insurance on their own, and that it would not substantially change premiums for the vast numbers of Americans who receive coverage from large employers.

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12-01-2009

Denver Post: Up for debate: How to cure rising health care costs

As the Senate plunged Monday into a colossal debate on health care reform, a key question is blaring louder than ever: whether national proposals would do much to control health care costs.


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11-30-2009

San Francisco Chronicle: Cost control big question in Senate health bill

As the Senate takes up health care legislation this week, the question of whether it will "bend the curve" of soaring costs has emerged as a central dispute among experts and the subject of an all-out push by the White House.
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11-30-2009

Los Angeles Times: COBRA subsidies begin expiring for the unemployed

Millions of unemployed Americans face the prospect of a huge increase in health insurance costs, thanks to the looming expiration of a government subsidy.

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11-30-2009

Kaiser Health News: Seven things you didn’t know were in the Senate health bill

Pay attention: The "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" - better known as the Senate health care overhaul bill – is chock full of interesting but little publicized provisions affecting consumers.
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11-30-2009

Washington Post: Even if health bill passes soon, wait for reforms could be long

The White House has a message for Americans suffering under today’s health insurance system: "Help is on the way." But not as fast as you might think.

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11-29-2009

AP: Understanding the pros and cons of health overhaul

Some questions and answers on the House-passed bill and the version the Senate will begin debating in the week ahead.
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11-29-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senate debate on health bill set to begin Monday

The Senate is set to begin debate on its health overhaul bill Monday, with Democrats and Republicans planning to offer amendments on divisive subjects such as abortion and taxes that could hamper passage of the bill.
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11-28-2009

Los Angeles Times: Breaking down the bills’ projected costs

Readers also ask about the penalties for not buying health insurance; changes that veterans would see; interstate insurance plans; and whether the ’public option’ would cover mammograms.
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11-27-2009

Kansas City Star: Enormous free health clinic planned at Bartle Hall

Hundreds of doctors, nurses and other volunteers will be stationed at Bartle Hall next month for a massive two-day free clinic that, if experience holds true, could attract thousands of patients.
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11-25-2009

New York Times: From hospital to bankruptcy court

Some of the debtors sitting forlornly in this city’s old stone bankruptcy court have lost a job or gotten divorced. Others have been summoned to face their creditors because they spent mindlessly beyond their means. But all too often these days, they are there merely because they, or their children, got sick.
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11-25-2009

New York Times: Budget hawks have a buffet of options with health bill

If the Senate were going to write a new rule for Medicare payments meant to slow the growth of medical costs, you might think that the rule would apply to hospitals and doctors. A fair amount of medical care is, after all, provided by hospitals and doctors.
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11-25-2009

Kaiser Health News: Health reform’s impact on premiums: Winners, losers, and, for many, a question mark

As the health care battle rages on, one central question keeps popping up: How would legislation affect premiums paid by individuals and small businesses, two groups that currently face wildly unpredictable rate increases year to year?
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11-25-2009

Southeast Missourian: Missouri gov. resists plan to expand health coverage

Gov. Jay Nixon is resisting a plan that could provide health insurance to thousands of Missouri children despite running for office on a pledge to expand health care access.
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11-24-2009

NPR: For public, affordability a key issue in health bill

Lawmakers debating health care on Capitol Hill have spent months worrying about the potential cost. But mostly it’s been the total cost of the bill, not how much individual families who could soon be required to buy insurance for the first time might have to pay.
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11-24-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Nixon pledge to insure every child loses punch

Gov. Jay Nixon ran for office last year on a platform of insuring every child. But as governor, he has resisted a proposal that could immediately cover thousands of Missouri’s 108,000 uninsured children.
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11-23-2009

Wall Street Journal: Health haggling heats up

Democratic leaders finally moved their sweeping health bill to the Senate floor, where wheeling and dealing over major unresolved and divisive issues likely will shape the legislation before its next big test.
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11-23-2009

AP: Gaps for consumers in Democrat health care bills

For consumers, the health care bills taking final shape in Congress don’t rate close to a perfect 10.
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11-23-2009

Washington Post: Public option at center of debate

Democrats had little time to savor their weekend Senate health care victory, as two of the lawmakers who voted to move the debate forward Saturday night indicated Sunday that they will not vote to pass the package if it includes a government-run insurance program.
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11-22-2009

Los Angeles Times: Explaining cost savings in the Senate bill

Readers ask about the details of Medicare savings, plus a cosmetic-surgery tax and limits on abortion coverage.
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11-22-2009

New York Times: Senate votes to open health care debate

The Senate voted on Saturday to begin full debate on major health care legislation, propelling President Obama’s top domestic initiative over a crucial, preliminary hurdle in a formidable display of muscle-flexing by the Democratic majority.
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11-21-2009

Missourinet: McCaskill anxious to get health care debate started

A proposed overhaul of health care narrowly passed the House. Now, the focus is on the Senate.
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11-21-2009

KTVI: Health care reform

On the Jaco Report, why there may be less to health reform than meets the eye. The American health care system is the world’s most expensive and is a long way from being the world’s most effective.
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11-20-2009

New York Times: Senate health care bill faces crucial first vote

The Senate version of sweeping health legislation would cover five million fewer people than a companion bill passed by the House, but it would cost less, in part because Senate Democratic leaders felt they had to win support from fiscally conservative members of their party.
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11-19-2009

AP: Health care changes: Five examples

Bills moving through Congress have the potential to change how millions of Americans pay for and get health care.
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11-19-2009

Kaiser Health News: A consumers’ guide to the health reform bills

The health care overhaul debate in Congress now centers on two bills: the House measure and the Senate Democrats’ version unveiled Wednesday. They differ in important ways. Here are answers to questions you may have about the bills.
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11-19-2009

New York Times: Comparing the House and the Senate health care proposals

Senate Democrats unveiled sweeping legislation Wednesday to overhaul the nation’s health care system. Earlier this month the House passed its own version.
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11-19-2009

New York Times: Senate health plan seeks to add coverage to 31 million

Democratic leaders in the Senate on Wednesday unveiled their proposal for overhauling the health care system, outlining legislation that they said would cover most of the uninsured while reducing the federal budget deficit.
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11-19-2009

Wall Street Journal: Showdown set for health bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid set the stage for a climactic debate in the Senate over health care by unveiling a 10-year, $848 billion bill that would extend insurance to 31 million Americans without coverage.
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11-18-2009

NPR: Charting the future of the health overhaul bill

The House has passed an optimistic bill reflecting many liberal aspirations for health overhaul. The Senate’s final bill — expected to be introduced mid-November — is likely to lean more toward the Finance Committee’s proposal.
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11-18-2009

AP: Small firms scrapping, scaling back health plans

Faced with high health insurance costs, a North Carolina brokerage passed the buck on to its employees, a Texas public relations firm switched from group insurance to stipends, and a Missouri travel agency let its workers walk away instead paying for insurance.
[ Read More ]

11-18-2009

Washington Post: Reid ’optimistic’ about getting 60 votes on health bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid scrambled Tuesday to lock down votes behind a health care bill that he may present as early as Wednesday.
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11-17-2009

Kaiser Health News: Health overhaul sparks debate on future of children’s health program

One of the staunchest backers of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Sen. Jay Rockefeller isn’t ready to see it swallowed up by a new health insurance marketplace designed by Congress.
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11-17-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Poison pill or just what the doctor ordered? Small businesses react to House health care proposal

Ask small business owners about the U.S. House’s health reform legislation, and some will say it will take them a while to wade through the proposal.
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11-17-2009

Los Angeles Times: Reid considers raising Medicare tax for high earners

To pay for health care reform, the Senate leader considers raising payroll taxes for upper-income workers. Centrist Democrats prefer to tax costly ’Cadillac’ insurance as a way to lower health costs.
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11-17-2009

Wall Street Journal: Time crunch looms for health bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pressing to advance his version of health care legislation past a key juncture this week in a bid to avoid a timing crunch that could otherwise kick the proposed revamp into next year.
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11-16-2009

Salt Lake Tribune: How long before the uninsured get insurance?

While most of the major provisions won’t kick in for a few years, all the health reform proposals include some immediate reforms, such as the creation of a new high-risk insurance pool.
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11-16-2009

Miami Herald: Senate bill may not require employers to offer health insurance

Requiring employers to offer most workers health insurance has long been seen as a crucial piece of Democratic efforts to overhaul the nation’s health care system, but legislation that the Senate’s expected to consider soon is unlikely to include any such mandate.
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11-16-2009

Denver Post: Study: Injured uninsured more likely to die in ER

Uninsured patients with traumatic injuries, such as car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds, were almost twice as likely to die in the hospital as similarly injured patients with health insurance, according to a troubling new study.
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11-16-2009

Los Angeles Times: Abortion, wellness, and other health care bill questions

Some reader questions about the proposed health care legislation in Congress.
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11-16-2009

Washington Post: House health bill includes Medicaid relief for states

Wedged in the House health care bill is $23.5 billion that looks a lot more like new federal stimulus spending than anything to do with national health-care reform.
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11-15-2009

Kansas City Star: Would pasasge of health reform require quick changes in insurance plans?

Millions of Americans are now engaged in a familiar ritual: signing up for next year’s health insurance coverage. Pick a plan. Pick a premium. Make sure choices are submitted and approved on time.

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11-15-2009

Missourinet: Missouri Congressman expects different health care bill from Senate

A Missouri Congressman who voted against the health care measure which squeezed its way to passage in the United States House doesn’t believe the bill is going anywhere despite its passage.
[ Read More ]

11-15-2009

Springfield News-Leader: Lawmakers: overhaul a threat to freedom

The debate in Congress over health care and insurance reform legislation may soon spill over into the Missouri legislature.
[ Read More ]

11-14-2009

Springfield News-Leader: Blunt: Ban on health ratings ill-advised

U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt said Friday that he opposes efforts to end the insurance industry practice of charging higher rates to unhealthier groups of people.
[ Read More ]

11-13-2009

Columbia Missourian: Sen. Bond talks health care with Chamber of Commerce

A group primarily made up of insurance and health care providers asked Missouri’s senior senator Friday morning about the proposed changes to health care and the effect reform would have on Missourians.
[ Read More ]

11-13-2009

Boston Globe: Powerful health care groups offer optimism on overhaul

The Business Roundtable, an association of top US business executives, issued an analysis saying the right combination of changes Congress is considering could slow health care cost growth by 15 percent to 20 percent over the next decade.
[ Read More ]

11-13-2009

Wall Street Journal: Number of insured varies by bill

When the Senate unveils its health care bill, all eyes will be on the price tag. But an equally significant number may be how many people get health insurance under the legislation.
[ Read More ]

11-13-2009

New York Times: Reid mulls Medicare tax increase for high earners

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is considering a proposal to increase the Medicare payroll tax on high-income workers to help offset the costs of providing health insurance to millions of Americans, Senate aides said Thursday.
[ Read More ]

11-12-2009

Columbia Missourian: As state makes cuts, federal bills propose Medicaid expansion

Some Missouri officials say proposed health care legislation could create an unfunded mandate and even has some calling to abandon the state’s participation in Medicaid.
[ Read More ]

11-11-2009

New York Times: ’Opt-out’ proposal puts state leaders to the test

In the two weeks since the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, embraced a proposal that would allow states to opt out of a new government health insurance plan, state leaders have begun debating whether to take part, and the question has emerged as a litmus test in some campaigns for governor.
[ Read More ]

11-11-2009

Washington Post: AP sources: Reid eyes payroll tax hike on wealthy

Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering a plan for higher payroll taxes on the upper-income earners to help finance health care legislation he intends to introduce in the Senate in the next several days, numerous Democratic officials said Wednesday.
[ Read More ]

11-11-2009

New York Times: Reid says health bill will be done by Christmas

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said Tuesday that he expected to bring major health care legislation to the floor next week and to complete work on the bill before Christmas. But other Democratic leaders said it was unlikely that a bill could reach President Obama’s desk by year’s end.
[ Read More ]

11-10-2009

KCUR: Mental health cuts hit uninsured

Missouri recently announced it’s cutting $3 million from the Department of Mental Health and will no longer fund services for new patients that don’t have Medicaid.
[ Read More ]

11-10-2009

Reuters: Health care reform will cost U.S. states millions

As the U.S. government comes closer to reforming the country’s health care system, states are staring at spending millions of dollars they do not have to provide insurance to more people, officials said on Tuesday.
[ Read More ]

11-10-2009

Wall Street Journal: Effort to assist older voters may raise costs for the young

The bill would limit how much insurers can vary premiums based on the age of the person buying the policy. The narrower the range, the lower the premiums for older people, a help to those who currently pay some of the highest rates for insurance and often need coverage the most.
[ Read More ]

11-10-2009

New York Times: Democrats raise alarms over health bill costs

Mr. Obama has made cost containment a centerpiece of his health reform agenda, and in May he stood up at the White House with industry groups who pledged voluntary efforts to trim the growth of health care spending by 1.5 percent, or $2 trillion, over the next decade.
[ Read More ]

11-09-2009

NPR: Breaking down abortion language in health bill

The health care overhaul passed by the House of Representatives over the weekend was almost scuttled by one issue: abortion.
[ Read More ]

11-09-2009

Washington Post: Medical association backs health reform

The American Medical Association on Monday rebuffed dissident members and voted to stick with support for ongoing health reform efforts, while reiterating wariness over proposals that threaten doctors’ pocketbooks and independence.
[ Read More ]

11-09-2009

Los Angeles Times: Health care reform bill wouldn’t end higher premiums based on age

The question is what the so-called age-rating ratio will be. Older adults would be charged at least double, which critics call discrimination. Insurance firms say it’s necessary for a solvent system.
[ Read More ]

11-08-2009

New York Times: Sweeping health care plan passes House

After a daylong clash with Republicans over what has been a Democratic goal for decades, lawmakers voted 220 to 215 to approve a plan that would cost $1.1 trillion over 10 years.
[ Read More ]

11-08-2009

Kaiser Health News: The debate over selling insurance across state lines

A core feature of the health overhaul proposal unveiled by House Republicans - and of GOP plans for years - would allow individual health insurance policies to be sold across state lines. Currently, consumers can buy policies only from insurers licensed by the states where they live.
[ Read More ]

11-08-2009

Wall Street Journal: Parsing the House health bill

With the House health bill passed, Congress moves a step closer to making the biggest changes to the health system in more than four decades. Here’s a look at what the bill would mean for various groups.
[ Read More ]

11-08-2009

Los Angeles Times: New system would be in place in 2013

The House bill would provide interim temporary coverage. Also: questions about yearly out-of-pocket limits for subsidies, the federal COBRA subsidy, and more.
[ Read More ]

11-07-2009

Kansas City Star: Democrats’ health care bill has mandates and penalties

The House Democrats’ bill is called the Affordable Health Care for America Act, HR 3962. The information below was gathered from the bill’s text, an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, an analysis by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, and reporting by The Associated Press.
[ Read More ]

11-07-2009

Kansas City Star: House approves historic health care legislation

The vote was razor close — 220-215. Thirty-nine Democrats, including Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, voted against the measure, while only one Republican, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao of New Orleans, voted for it.
[ Read More ]

11-06-2009

Columbia Missourian: Where your legislators stand on the health care debate

Here’s a breakdown of some of the key issues and where Missouri senators and representatives stand on pieces of health care reform.
[ Read More ]

11-06-2009

Los Angeles Times: Seniors, doctors groups throw their support behind House health care bill

As House Democrats prepare to vote Saturday on a sweeping bill to overhaul the nation’s health care system, they have picked up an important endorsement today from the 40-million-member AARP, the nation’s largest senior citizens group.
[ Read More ]

11-05-2009

Joplin Globe: Area lawmakers oppose health care bill

Four area lawmakers on Thursday outlined their opposition to the House Democrats’ health care legislation that is expected to come to a vote over the weekend.
[ Read More ]

11-05-2009

Wall Street Journal: House Democrats push for Saturday health vote

House Democratic leaders are pushing for a Saturday vote on their sweeping health care bill, but they are struggling to win over shaky rank-and-file members who could hold up its passage.
[ Read More ]

11-04-2009

Washington Post: Senate moderates flex muscle on health care bill

Moderate lawmakers are exerting their outsize influence in the divided Senate to secure changes to health care reform legislation, potentially adding more delays to a bill that has already missed several announced deadlines.
[ Read More ]

11-04-2009

Los Angeles Times: Insurance discounts for health habits spur debate in Washington

Safeway says it’s a smart incentive: charging lower premiums for people who lose weight, quit smoking or start exercising. Some medical groups say it’s a new way to exclude pre-existing conditions.
[ Read More ]

11-04-2009

New York Times: G.O.P. counters with a health plan of their own

House Republicans have come up with an answer to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drafting an alternative health care bill that would reward states for reducing the number of uninsured, limit damages in medical malpractice lawsuits and allow small businesses to band together and buy insurance exempt from most state regulation.
[ Read More ]

11-04-2009

Washington Post: Health bills too timid on cutting costs, experts say

Instead of revolutionizing how care is delivered and paid for, experts say, the legislation being shaped takes a cautious approach to reining in costs.
[ Read More ]

11-03-2009

New York Times: Senate pressing insurers on the amount of premiums they spend on care

The health insurance industry likes to cite figures showing that 87 cents of every dollar in premiums is spent on medical claims.
[ Read More ]

11-03-2009

New York Times: Democrats say House bill cuts premiums for many

As the House moved toward climactic votes on legislation to remake the health care system, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday that middle-income families might be required to pay 15 percent to 18 percent of their income on insurance premiums and co-payments under the proposal.
[ Read More ]

11-02-2009

NPR: Public option role in health care may be minor

For all the controversy over a government-run insurance option, the program outlined in health overhaul legislation likely would play a minuscule role in efforts to expand health care coverage, according to many health care experts and lawmakers.
[ Read More ]

11-01-2009

Washington Post: States likely to shape health reform

The debate over whether to let states opt out of any government-run health insurance plan overlooks a key facet of the health care measures being assembled in Congress: When Washington is done, the shape of any new health care system is likely to be finalized in Lansing and Boise and Baton Rouge.
[ Read More ]

10-31-2009

Wall Street Journal: CBO rebuts pros, cons of public option

A report issued by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office highlights faults with both sides of the argument to create a public health insurance plan.
[ Read More ]

10-30-2009

Columbia Daily Tribune: Ex-senator addresses MU forum

Don’t throw a victory party yet. That was the message from former Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle this morning in a speech to health care professionals, students and legislators in Columbia.
[ Read More ]

10-30-2009

Wall Street Journal: House leaders unveil health bill

House leaders unveiled their sweeping health bill Thursday, ending months of negotiations to bring together fractious Democrats and setting the stage for the full House to take up the bill next week.

[ Read More ]

10-29-2009

Reuters: Factbox: Provisions of the House health care legislation

The Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday made public a sweeping health care overhaul that lawmakers could consider as early as next week. Here are the major provisions of the bill.
[ Read More ]

10-29-2009

Washington Times: Obama asks small businesses to back health reform

President Obama appealed Thursday to small businesses to support congressional legislation on health insurance reform, saying it will revive America’s entrepreneurial spirit slowed by the high costs of coverage for owners and their employees.
[ Read More ]

10-29-2009

New York Times: Pelosi backs off set rates for public option

Under pressure from moderate-to-conservative members of the House Democratic caucus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided to propose a government-run insurance plan that would negotiate rates with doctors and hospitals, rather than using prices set by the government, aides said Wednesday.

[ Read More ]

10-29-2009

Kansas City Star: Health care bills would limit out-of-pocket costs

Consumers would be spared having to pay huge medical bills under Democratic health care legislation that’s moving through Congress, as lawmakers agree on the need to put limits on how much people would pay out of their own pockets.
[ Read More ]

10-29-2009

Columbia Missourian: Cuts to Medicaid top Nixon’s withholdings

Medicaid and other health care expenditures topped Gov. Jay Nixon’s list as he announced $204 million in budget cuts Wednesday.

[ Read More ]

10-28-2009

Salt Lake Tribune: HHS Secretary pushes health care reform for rural America

The health care crisis in this country is felt nowhere more than in rural America, where a lack of providers and affordable insurance coverage leaves many without needed treatment or in a financial bind.
[ Read More ]

10-28-2009

Wall Street Journal: Reid’s push for public option creates new barriers for bill

The push by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a public health insurance option is creating fresh obstacles for health care legislation in the Senate, despite new poll data suggesting a plurality of Americans support the idea.
[ Read More ]

10-28-2009

Washington Post: Centerists unsure about Reid’s public option

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid’s risky decision to bring to the chamber’s floor a health care bill containing a government insurance plan was met with skepticism by moderate Democrats, who said they still do not know whether they could support a public option on a final vote.
[ Read More ]

10-27-2009

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Young adults get vocal over health care reform

As the health care debate winds its way through Congress, everyone can agree on at least this much: Bringing more young adults into the health care system would balance out the costs for everyone else because the young use the least amount of care.
[ Read More ]

10-27-2009

NPR: Health care pools: Let youth jump, or push them?

The rules for how health insurers use age to set premium rates vary widely from state to state.
[ Read More ]

10-27-2009

Wall Street Journal: How government insurance would work

Lawmakers are moving toward creating a new public insurance plan as part of the health overhaul. Here’s what it means.
[ Read More ]

10-27-2009

Washington Post: Reid says bill will include a public option

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid announced Monday that he will include a government-backed insurance plan in the chamber’s health care reform legislation, a key concession to liberals who have threatened to oppose a bill without such a public option.
[ Read More ]

10-26-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Analysis: MO finally produces Medicaid report

After claiming for more than a year that it could not do so, the Missouri Department of Social Services finally has obeyed a state law and published a list of employers whose workers get government-funded Medicaid health care coverage.
[ Read More ]

10-26-2009

Los Angeles Times: Who might, or might not, be covered under the health care bills

Low-income people could get federal assistance, but even a ’public option’ may leave out some individuals.
[ Read More ]

10-26-2009

AP: Clock ticking on Democrats’ health care reform

Time growing short, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate still face key decisions if they are to achieve President Barack Obama’s goal of passing legislation to remake the nation’s health care system by year’s end.
[ Read More ]

10-26-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senate on verge of health bill

Top Senate Democrats are close to finalizing their health bill and could unveil a measure as soon as early this week that would include stiffer penalties on employers who fail to provide health coverage.
[ Read More ]

10-26-2009

Los Angeles Times: Insurers poised to reap benefits from health care overhaul

As President Obama’s push for a health care overhaul moves toward its final act, the oft-vilified health insurance industry is on the verge of seeing a plan enacted that largely protects its financial interests.
[ Read More ]

10-26-2009

Washington Post: If you build a coverage mandate, will they come?

And the question of whether people will follow a government order that they carry health insurance - an issue that will help determine whether universal health care is a success or costly failure - will depend on more than the penalty they would pay for refusing, many economists say.
[ Read More ]

10-25-2009

USA Today: Congress’ health care bills leave millions uninsured

The high cost of health insurance premiums would continue to put coverage out of reach for millions even if Congress approves legislation President Obama says is intended to ensure "that every American has affordable health care."
[ Read More ]

10-25-2009

Reuters: Factbox: Lawmakers weigh options on public health plan

Congressional Democrats working on an overhaul of the U.S. health care system are discussing several different possibilities for a government-run insurance plan to compete against private insurers.
[ Read More ]

10-25-2009

Kaiser Health News: Fight erupts over health insurance rates for businesses with more women

The Pennsylvania home health care company Linda Bettinazzi runs is charged about $6,800 per worker for health insurance – $2,000 more than the national average for single coverage. One reason: nearly every one of her 175 employees is a woman.
[ Read More ]

10-25-2009

New York Times: Small business faces sharp rise in costs of health care

As Congress nears votes on legislation that would overhaul the health care system, many small businesses say they are facing the steepest rise in insurance premiums they have seen in recent years.
[ Read More ]

10-24-2009

Kansas City Star: For the employed but uninsured, going without health coverage is work

They often work 40 hours a week — sometimes 80. They talk of being embarrassed or of living in fear of a common cold or twisted ankle, of an accident or illness that in an instant could fell them or a family member and hobble their financial lives for years.

[ Read More ]

10-24-2009

Los Angeles Times: States ’opting out’ is a health care option

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Friday that states might be able to "opt out" of any nationwide government insurance plan, a compromise that she suggested could unify congressional Democrats and enable President Obama to sign a health care overhaul bill later this year.
[ Read More ]

10-24-2009

Wall Street Journal: House leaders woo centrists to back public plan

House Democratic leaders signaled flexibility Friday on how a proposed government-run health insurance plan would operate in the private market, in an overture to centrist lawmakers who want to limit the government’s impact on the market.
[ Read More ]

10-23-2009

Wall Street Journal: Mandate ignites a fight

Business groups won a big victory last week when a key Senate committee voted to place only modest penalties on employers that don’t offer health insurance coverage. But employers are almost certain to face stiffer penalties in the final Senate health care overhaul bill.
[ Read More ]

10-23-2009

Wall Street Journal: Offer to let states opt out of health plan gains support

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, stepping deeper into the health care debate, put his weight Thursday behind a proposal that would create a new government-run insurance plan while giving states the option not to participate.
[ Read More ]

10-23-2009

Washington Post: Lawmakers warm to the public option

House Democrats are coalescing around an $871 billion health care package that would create a government-run insurance plan to help millions of Americans afford coverage, raise taxes on the nation’s richest families and impose an array of new regulations on private insurers, in part by stripping the industry of its long-standing exemption from federal antitrust laws.
[ Read More ]

10-23-2009

New York Times: Senate leader takes risk pushing public insurance plan

In pushing to include a government-run health insurance plan in the health care bill, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is taking a calculated gamble that the 60 members of his caucus could support the plan if it included a way for states to opt out.
[ Read More ]

10-22-2009

Boston Globe: Deal on Medicare payments boosts House health bill

House Democrats have reached a deal on Medicare payments that will secure critical support from heartland and Pacific Coast lawmakers for President Barack Obama’s goal of revamping health care.
[ Read More ]

10-22-2009

AP: Insurers say they still want health overhaul deal

Health insurers insist they’re still committed to getting a health care overhaul bill passed this year. But all around Washington, people are wondering if — or when — the industry will change its mind and try to kill it.
[ Read More ]

10-22-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Report highlights north St. Louis’ health care ailments

A report released Thursday says health conditions of residents of north St. Louis are generally worse than those of blacks in other major cities, and, in some case, "mimic Third World indicators."
[ Read More ]

10-22-2009

Howell County News: Area legislators comment on health care reform bill

Federal legislation to reform health care is still under way, with several different versions of the bill being combined into one.
[ Read More ]

10-22-2009

NPR: Accidents of history created U.S. health system

If you want to understand how to fix today’s health insurance system, you’d be smart to look first at how it was born. How did Americans end up with a system in which employers pay for our health insurance?
[ Read More ]

10-22-2009

Reuters: Congress cranks up pressure on insurance industry

Democrats in the U.S. Congress moved on Wednesday to repeal the health insurance industry’s exemption from antitrust laws, cranking up the pressure in a growing battle over President Barack Obama’s health care reform plans.
[ Read More ]

10-21-2009

NPR: Age, gender skew group health care rates

Perplexed by the unusually high rates she was paying for her employer-provided health insurance, NPR member station reporter Sarah Varney set out to better understand the system.
[ Read More ]

10-21-2009

Washington Post: 8 questions about health care reform: Update

Last week, the Senate Finance Committee voted 14 to 9 to approve its health reform bill - the fifth legislative committee to pass reform legislation. Here’s a rundown of where things stand - and what to expect in coming weeks.
[ Read More ]

10-21-2009

San Francisco Chronicle: Insurance exchanges called key to health care puzzle

Supporters of health care reform told senators Tuesday that insurance exchanges are a critical part of proposed health care legislation for small businesses, which are cutting jobs and coverage to keep up with insurance costs.
[ Read More ]

10-21-2009

Wall Street Journal: Fight over Medicare cuts plays into larger debate

Senators battled Tuesday over legislation to forestall a cut in Medicare payments to doctors, trying to seize the advantage in the larger health debate.
[ Read More ]

10-20-2009

Kansas City Star: Health care bills would end gender difference in rates, but keep age discrepancies

The older you are, the more you usually pay for health coverage, and that’s a difference likely to persist under the sweeping health care legislation that Congress is now considering.
[ Read More ]

10-20-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Once a vocal champion of Medicaid expansion, Nixon’s now acting cautiously

When Jay Nixon stopped by a Columbia residence in November 2007, he wasn’t shy about talking about expanding the state’s Medicaid program.
[ Read More ]

10-20-2009

Columbia Daily Tribune: Health care reformers make push

Today is a national day of action on health care reform. Proponents of extending health care benefits to more people, including a system of government-run coverage, planned to take to the streets to mobilize people to call their representatives in Congress to demand action.
[ Read More ]

10-20-2009

Wall Street Journal: Public option gets new life in Senate

The idea of creating a government-run health insurance plan, once on life support in the Senate, is making a recovery among Democrats writing health care legislation.
[ Read More ]

10-20-2009

Washington Post: Public option gains support

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that support for a government-run health care plan to compete with private insurers has rebounded from its summertime lows and wins clear majority support from the public.
[ Read More ]

10-19-2009

Reuters: Republicans seek health bill change

U.S. Republicans will seek amendments to parts of the Democrat’s health care reform they oppose, rather than push for an alternative plan to overhaul the $2.5 trillion system, a key senator said on Monday.
[ Read More ]

10-19-2009

AP: Health insurance worries keep rising

The number of Americans worried about losing their current health care coverage keeps rising, even as President Barack Obama and a Democrat-led Congress strive to extend society’s safety net to cover the uninsured, a new poll has found.
[ Read More ]

10-19-2009

Los Angeles Times: Health care bills lack protections against treatment denials, experts say

Despite growing frustration with the way health insurers deny medical treatments, major health care bills pending in Congress would give patients little new power to challenge those sometimes life-and-death decisions.
[ Read More ]

10-19-2009

Springfield Business Journal: Health leaders team up to tackle access to care

About one of every eight Missourians lacked health insurance in 2007 and 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Faced with that daunting figure - which could grow amid economic pressures and high unemployment rates - local health leaders are working to expand affordable access to medical care.
[ Read More ]

10-19-2009

Los Angeles Times: How health insurers’ antitrust exemption affects consumers

Readers also ask about buying insurance across state lines, increasing competition and allowing national plans.
[ Read More ]

10-18-2009

Wall Street Journal: Workers will pay more for health care, consulting firm says

No matter what happens with health care reform this fall, employees should expect to pay more for health insurance in 2010 -- especially with co-pays and deductibles.
[ Read More ]

10-18-2009

Kansas City Star: In health care overhaul effort, millions are being spent to influence Congress

Americans may be growing sick of the debate over health care reform. Lobbyists, though, are getting well.

[ Read More ]

10-17-2009

San Jose Mercury News: Insuring young adults takes center stage in health care debate

Young adults aged 19 to 29 are less well-protected by health insurance than any other age group in America: Almost one in three have no insurance — and many more are underinsured.
[ Read More ]

10-17-2009

Los Angeles Times: Lessons from the Massachusetts health care experiment

Three years ago, Massachusetts passed the most sweeping health care bill in the country, adopting a plan that closely resembles the proposals being considered by Congress. It is a plan that now offers powerful lessons for the whole nation.
[ Read More ]

10-16-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Health check: Baucus bill may test the limits of the politically possible

For all the sound and fury about President Barack Obama’s plan to overhaul health care, one curious fact stands out: Obama has no plan of his own.
[ Read More ]

10-16-2009

Wall Street Journal: Fundinf and middle-class relief are keys to health bills

Don’t be fooled by the turmoil. This is the week the odds tipped ever so slightly in favor of a health overhaul passing Congress.
[ Read More ]

10-16-2009

Wall Street Journal: Democrats weigh wider coverage

Senate Democrats may widen insurance coverage in sweeping health legislation, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said Thursday, but they face a struggle to come up with ways to pay for the extra spending.
[ Read More ]

10-15-2009

Washington Post: Pelosi joins fellow Democrats in tough talk for health insurers

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned insurance companies on Thursday that health care reform could cost the industry dearly through new fees, fewer regulatory protections and fresh competition from the federal government.
[ Read More ]

10-15-2009

Wall Street Journal: Signs of a split emerge in insurance industry

The insurance industry’s once-unified stance in the health care debate is showing signs of fissure as legislation to overhaul the system moves forward.
[ Read More ]

10-15-2009

Columbia Daily Tribune: Criticism of option mounts

With health care reform bills advancing to the floors of Congress, organized opposition is building from Republicans, insurance companies and some physicians.
[ Read More ]

10-15-2009

Missourinet: Carnahan: Jobless rate tied to uninsured, shows need for health care reform

As Congress continues to debate health care reform in Washington, a study by Families USA says about 45,000 people in Missouri lost health insurance coverage in 2009 due to a rise in unemployment.
[ Read More ]

10-15-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senate health care push gains momentum

Republican Sen. Susan Collins Wednesday signaled a willingness to work with Democrats on health care legislation, adding momentum to President Barack Obama’s push for a bill despite a move by Republican leaders to slow down the debate.
[ Read More ]

10-15-2009

New York Times: Public option is next big hurdle in health debate

As the White House and Congressional leaders turned in earnest on Wednesday to working out big differences in the five health care bills, perhaps no issue loomed as a greater obstacle than whether to establish a government-run competitor to the insurance industry.
[ Read More ]

10-14-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Health check: All the presidents’ plans

By making the case for a health care overhaul, Barack Obama joins the ranks of seven other American presidents who grappled with the issue.
[ Read More ]

10-14-2009

Kansas City Star: In these tough times, employees will grit and bear insurance changes

National surveys and checks with local brokers indicate that 2010 plan costs will jump 10 percent to 12 percent on average, with employees footing more of the bill.
[ Read More ]

10-14-2009

NPR: What will make it into the final Senate health bill?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid began private meetings Wednesday with fellow Democrats and the White House to merge his chamber’s two health care overhaul bills into a single plan that could win a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
[ Read More ]

10-14-2009

AP: A look at health care plans in Congress

Health care legislation is taking shape in both the House and Senate. Details are still being negotiated and any final bill would have to meld proposals from both houses. A look at various proposals.
[ Read More ]

10-14-2009

Kansas City Star: Senate Finance Committee approves health care overhaul package

The push to overhaul America’s $2.6 trillion medical system entered a decisive stage Tuesday following a historic vote by the Senate’s Finance Committee.
[ Read More ]

10-14-2009

Los Angeles Times: Health care reform bill clears Senate Finance Committee

After months of wrangling over how to reshape the nation’s health care system, the last of five congressional committees on Tuesday endorsed its sweeping blueprint for expanding coverage and containing costs.
[ Read More ]

10-14-2009

Wall Street Journal: Health plan passes test

The Senate Finance Committee advanced President Barack Obama’s health care agenda Tuesday, with a lone Republican vote helping centrist Democrats set a benchmark for the final stage of congressional negotiations.
[ Read More ]

10-13-2009

BBC News: Q & A: U.S. health care reform

US President Barack Obama made reform of the American healthcare system his top priority when he entered the White House. But lawmakers in Congress are finding it difficult to agree on a bill to implement reform.

[ Read More ]

10-13-2009

NPR: Health insurance help for laid-off workers may end

If you have ever lost a job and the health benefits that went with it, you have probably heard of COBRA, the program that requires employers to extend your health coverage for a price.
[ Read More ]

10-13-2009

The Maneater: Commonwealth Fund ranks Missouri 36th on health care

Missouri’s health care system ranks in the bottom half of state systems nationwide, according to scorecards released last week by a national health care research group. The state’s rank fell slightly from its position in a similar report in 2007.
[ Read More ]

10-13-2009

Los Angeles Times: Universal health care coverage appears elusive

As a key Senate committee prepares today to pass its plan to overhaul the nation’s health care system, senior Democrats are acknowledging that it may be impossible to provide coverage to all Americans -- a central goal of President Obama and his congressional allies.
[ Read More ]

10-13-2009

New York Times: Democrats call insurance industry report flawed

Obama administration officials and Congressional Democrats fired back on Monday at a new insurance industry report that said premiums would climb sharply with the passage of comprehensive health legislation.
[ Read More ]

10-12-2009

New York Times: Insurance industry assails health care legislation

In a blistering new attack, the health insurance industry said Sunday that health care legislation drafted by Senate Democrats would drive up premiums, rather than making coverage more affordable, as the White House contends.
[ Read More ]

10-12-2009

NPR: How the modern patient drives up health costs

The doors to the clinic had been locked for over an hour, and the last light in the sky was quickly fading when two eyes appeared in Teresa Moore’s office window, followed by a sharp knock and a glass-muffled plea to be let in: It was a patient.
[ Read More ]

10-11-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Health check: How the richest industrial countries compare to the U.S. (part 3)

Among major industrialized countries, America spends the most on health care -- more than $7,000 a year for each of us, about double what the other countries lay out.
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10-11-2009

Los Angeles Times: About Tuesday’s health care vote, and what comes next

A key vote on a health care proposal is scheduled for Tuesday. Here are some questions and answers about the vote and the next legislative steps.
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10-11-2009

New York Times: Lobbyists fight last big plans to cut health care costs

As the health care debate moves to the floor of Congress, most of the serious proposals to fulfill President Obama’s original vow to curb costs have fallen victim to organized interests and parochial politics.
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10-11-2009

Los Angeles Times: Study finds disconnect between health care needs adn support for reform

A new study points to a political paradox in the long, wrenching debate over revamping the healthcare system: Some members of Congress whose constituents stand to gain the most are nonetheless opposing the bill, while others whose constituents will likely pay more for little reward are some of its most ardent supporters.
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10-11-2009

Columbia Daily Tribune: Whom do you trust?

Two bodies lay on the sidewalk with chalk marking the outlines of the “corpses.” Yellow police tape blocked off the “crime” scene and kept reporters away. A drive-by shooting? Not at the intersection of Nifong and Forum boulevards; rather a publicity stunt to make a point about the nation’s health care system.

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10-10-2009

Wall Street Journal: Insurance mandates draw flak from both sides

Proposals that would require Americans to buy health insurance -- central to legislation circulating in both houses of Congress -- are under fire from both ends of the political spectrum, with some liberals saying the penalties are too harsh for those who refuse and conservatives denouncing the whole concept.
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10-09-2009

NPR: For college students, health overhaul starts today

While Congress haggles over the details of a massive health care overhaul, at least a few people will no longer have to worry about losing their health insurance if they get sick: college students who are still covered under their parents’ health plans.
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10-09-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Small business, big decisions: Should we offer health insurance?

When it comes to health insurance for his 47 employees, Connelly would like to be just as accommodating. But after offering coverage from the company’s beginnings 30 years ago, Crown C is facing consistently rising costs, up to more than $200,000 - the second largest expense Connelly has besides payroll.
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10-09-2009

Washington Post: Health industry concerned about reform measures

The industry heavyweights President Obama neutralized through the summer are agitating that the health care bills in Congress violate agreements they made with the White House, leave 25 million Americans uninsured and have the potential to increase medical costs.
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10-09-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senate health bill gains momentum

The White House-backed drive for a health care bill picked up steam Thursday, propelled by a favorable report on its price tag and positive comments by some key players.
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10-08-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Health check: Why health care costs so much (part 2)

In an average year, inflation nibbles away a bit more than 3 percent of our buying power. But for health care, inflation takes a big bite -- about 6 percent a year, year in and year out.
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10-08-2009

Wall Street Journal: New math boosts health plan

The latest Senate health bill will cost $829 billion over a decade and slightly reduce the federal budget deficit, congressional budget crunchers said Wednesday, marking a major step forward for Democrats’ plans to overhaul American health care.
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10-08-2009

New York Times: Health care bill gets green light in cost analysis

The Senate Finance Committee legislation to revamp the health care system would provide coverage to 29 million uninsured Americans but would still pare future federal deficits by slowing the growth of spending on medical care, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
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10-07-2009

AP: Many children still don’t get Medicaid dental care

Two years after a 12-year-old Maryland boy died from an untreated tooth infection, low-income kids continue to face barriers to dental care despite state and federal efforts to improve access, government investigators said Wednesday.
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10-07-2009

New York Times: A look at health care plans in Congress

Health care legislation is taking shape in the House and Senate as President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul the system to cover millions of uninsured Americans and contain rising costs. A look at various proposals.
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10-07-2009

NPR: Domestice abuse victims struggle to find coverage

In 2006, attorney Jody Neal-Post tried to get health insurance but was rejected because of treatment — counseling and Valium — she received following a domestic-abuse incident. She says the insurer told her that her medical history made her a high risk, more likely to end up in the emergency room or require additional care.
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10-07-2009

Wall Street Journal: State-run health plans garner support

Some influential centrist Democrats in the Senate are warming to a compromise that envisions health insurance plans run by state governments, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger added his voice Tuesday to a small group of Republicans expressing support for a Democratic-led overhaul plan.
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10-07-2009

New York Times: 4 Senators’ concerns reflect health care challenge

Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine worries that the bill would require people to buy insurance they cannot afford. Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas fears that the bill would be too costly for the government.
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10-06-2009

Joplin Globe: Local woman likes government health plan, but for others, costs out of reach

Congressional efforts to provide health insurance will have to go further in order to reach some Joplin residents now going without insurance.
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10-06-2009

NPR: Democrats force changes in Baucus health bill

The health overhaul bill expected to emerge this week from the Senate Finance Committee was supposed to be the one to win at least some Republican backing.
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10-06-2009

New York Times: Health insurance exchanges: Will they work?

Despite all the disagreement in Washington, every proposal now before Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system includes creation of an insurance “exchange” — a marketplace that would operate something like a Travelocity Web site for insurance policies.
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10-06-2009

Washington Post: Vote on key health bill delayed for cost report

Senators learned Monday that a committee vote on health care reform will be pushed back to later this week, and perhaps into next week, as they await an estimate on how much the overhaul would cost.
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10-06-2009

Missourinet: Jefferson City awaits Washington health care outcome

Health care will once again be a big topic of discussion when the legislature returns to Jefferson City in January, but that discussion could be shaped in large part by how health care legislation plays out in Washington.
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10-06-2009

NPR: individual health insurance market explained

People who don’t get health coverage through their employer or the government sometimes buy coverage directly from insurers on the individual market, also called the non-group market.
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10-06-2009

NPR: A self-employed family’s quest for insurance

Like many teenage boys, Evan Fisher, 15, does some things that make his mom more than a little anxious.
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10-06-2009

Wall Street Journal: Insurers fight bid to ease penalties in health bill

Hospitals and insurance companies are pushing back against changes to the latest Senate health care bill that ease the penalties for Americans who don’t carry health insurance.
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10-06-2009

New York Times: In debate on health, it’s coverage vs. cost

As Democrats prepare to take up health care legislation on the floor of the Senate and the House, they are facing tough choices about two competing priorities.
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10-05-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Health check: How we got to where we are now (part 1)

"We simply don’t know if more is better. We do know, however, that more is terribly expensive and is pushing the nation’s medical-care system toward a major crisis." The year was 1986, almost a generation ago.
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10-05-2009

NPR: Medicaid coverage explained

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that provides health care coverage for low-income people — primarily children, pregnant women, parents, the disabled and the elderly.
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10-05-2009

KRCG: Missouri Senators deciding on health care reform

He’s worked to sell it to voters on the stump.
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10-05-2009

Washington Post: States resist Medicaid growth

The nation’s governors are emerging as a formidable lobbying force as health care reform moves through Congress and states overburdened by the recession brace for the daunting prospect of providing coverage to millions of low-income residents.
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10-05-2009

NPR: For one senior, Mediciad provides model care

Lela Petersen thinks about health care a lot these days. She’s a small business owner who pays $1,150 a month to an HMO, covering her and her husband. Petersen doesn’t have any other option, but her 94-year-old mother, Gracie Scarrow, is another story.
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10-04-2009

Washington Post: Discrimination by insurers likely even with reform, experts say

Any health care overhaul that Congress and President Obama enact is likely to have as its centerpiece a fundamental reform: Insurers would not be allowed to reject individuals or charge them higher premiums based on their medical history.
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10-04-2009

Baltimore Sun: A cry for mental health change

Mental health advocates have joined the immense lobbying effort in Washington on health care reform. If they are successful, advocates say, reform legislation could be a huge step forward for the mentally ill.
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10-04-2009

AP: Health insurance bills could be hardship for many

Many middle-class Americans would still struggle to pay for health insurance despite efforts by President Barack Obama and Democrats to make coverage more affordable.
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10-04-2009

New York Times: Health overhaul is drawing close to floor debate

With the Senate Finance Committee set to approve its health care bill this week, Democrats are tantalizingly close to bringing legislation that would make sweeping changes in the nation’s health care system to the floor of both houses of Congress.
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10-04-2009

USA Today: Health care bills tackle gender gap in coverage

Women’s health groups, legal organizations and some female senators are fighting for a host of little-known provisions in the health care legislation being debated in Congress that they say will dramatically improve health care and insurance coverage for women.
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10-04-2009

NPR: Health overhaul aims to cut voluntarily uninsured

Not all of America’s 46 million uninsured people can be considered victims of a system that excludes them financially or because of pre-existing conditions.
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10-04-2009

NPR: Voluntarily uninsured: A ’calculated risk’

Nearly 46 million people in America are without health insurance. But by some estimates, as many as one-third of them are what you might call "voluntarily uninsured." These are people who could afford coverage but don’t buy it.
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10-04-2009

Columbia Daily Tribune: Fayette doctor to pitch health care reform at White House

A Fayette family practice physician will be one of about 60 doctors appearing tomorrow at the White House to advocate for health care reform.
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10-03-2009

New York Times: Panel finishes work on health bill amendments

After a marathon session that ran well past midnight, the Senate Finance Committee on Friday passed a major milestone in its work on legislation to remake the health care system and provide coverage to millions of the uninsured.
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10-02-2009

Columbia Business Times: Insurance reforms high stakes

The health care reform bills competing for votes in Congress are attempts to counteract the swiftly rising costs and rapidly growing ranks of uninsured Americans that threaten the nation’s medical system according to the Missouri Foundation for Health.
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10-02-2009

Boston Globe: Senate leaders facing crunch on health plans

The Senate Finance Committee planned to finish work on sweeping health care legislation early this morning and is expected to take a final vote next week, as Senate leaders forged ahead to the next painstaking steps: merging that bill with an earlier version written by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s committee, then moving the combined package to the Senate floor.
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10-02-2009

Wall Street Journal: Insurance executive pay curbed in health bill

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee voted Thursday to encourage limits on the compensation of insurance executives, responding to charges that expanding health insurance coverage would enrich insurance companies.
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10-02-2009

Washington Post: House, Senate leaders prepare for floor debate

The long quest to reform the nation’s health care system entered uncharted legislative territory early Friday when a key Senate panel wrapped up work on its bill and House and Senate leaders prepared for historic floor debates.
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10-01-2009

Missourinet: State Senators rally for insurance mandate for autism coverage

Two State Senators are taking part in rallies, this weekend, to urge passage of legislation requiring health insurance companies to cover autism.
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10-01-2009

Washington Post: Health care may hit House, Senate floor mid-month

Historic health care legislation could be on the floor of both houses of Congress as early as mid-October as Democrats work to answer President Barack Obama’s call for greater protections for those who have unreliable insurance or no coverage at all.
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10-01-2009

Washington Post: Senate finance panel has votes to pass health bill, Baucus says

On the sixth day of a marathon debate in the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) declared that his panel has the votes to approve a package of reforms that would extend coverage to more than 30 million Americans who lack insurance.
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10-01-2009

New York Times: Rate of enrollment in Medicaid rose rapidly, report says

The recession is driving up enrollment in Medicaid at higher than expected rates, threatening gargantuan state budget gaps even as Congress and the White House seek to expand the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, according to a survey released Wednesday.
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09-30-2009

Reuters: U.S. Senators vote to encourage healthy behavior

A U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday adopted a measure aimed at rewarding healthy behavior in a sweeping health care overhaul sought by President Barack Obama as lawmakers pushed to complete the legislation.
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09-30-2009

Reuters: Americans willing to fund health care reform - poll

Most Americans would pay higher taxes to fund health care reforms that provide the best quality of care, but only a minority expects Washington to deliver it, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
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09-30-2009

Forbes: Without U.S. health care plan, states could pay more

If the U.S. Congress fails to reform health care, states will spend more on their programs for the poor than they currently pay out, according to a new report on Wednesday.
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09-30-2009

Wall Street Journal: Making sense of the debate on health care

Lawmakers are trying to crunch 2,079 pages of health insurance overhaul proposals into a sweeping new law. As they do, some key decisions could impact your wallet and your coverage.
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09-30-2009

New York Times: Senators reject pair of public option proposals

After an intense debate that captured the essence of the national struggle over health care, a pivotal Senate committee on Tuesday rejected two Democratic proposals to create a government insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
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09-29-2009

Los Angeles Times: Showdowns set on two key issues in health care debate

Congressional Democrats this week will push toward showdowns on two of the toughest issues in the health care debate: whether to create a government alternative to private insurance, and how to pay the approximately $1-trillion cost of the overhaul.
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09-29-2009

Wall Street Journal: Young back health proposals amid potential costs

Young adults remain some of the strongest supporters of a health care overhaul, but many acknowledge they don’t understand proposals that will likely saddle them with higher costs.
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09-28-2009

Detroit Free Press: Answers to your health care questions

Federal health reforms under discussion in Congress have spurred hundreds of questions. Starting today, a team of Free Press reporters will answer your questions.
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09-28-2009

NPR: Employer-based insurance explained

Most Americans — 162 million — get health insurance through their employers. Sixty percent of employers offer health benefits, according to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust.
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09-28-2009

NPR: Holding onto health insurance that works

Dave Koenig gets private insurance through his employer and couldn’t be happier. A conservative, he thinks private health care is the way to go, but he supports some changes to the insurance industry to protect patients from losing their coverage.
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09-28-2009

AP: People playing the odds on health care over costs

Call it a health care gamble: the decision by some people to opt out of health insurance, paying cash for routine care while playing the odds that an accident or catastrophic illness won’t plunge them into financial ruin.
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09-28-2009

Wall Street Journal: Use of federal health clinics soars

Federally funded health centers, originally created to serve the poor, are seeing a surge of patients as more Americans struggle financially.
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09-28-2009

Wall Street Journal: Insurers tally up Baucus bill provisions

The health system overhaul proposed by Sen. Max Baucus would create millions of new insurance customers without subjecting health insurers to government-run competition - two key victories for the much-maligned industry.
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09-28-2009

NPR: Stacks of medical bills afflict the ’underinsured’

More than 25 million Americans have Swiss-cheese health insurance: It’s full of holes. Experts call them the "underinsured."
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09-28-2009

NPR: Would a health overhaul help the underinsured?

People who are described as underinsured have health benefits that don’t adequately cover their medical expenses.
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09-27-2009

Missourinet: KC hospital chief wants more imput from public hospitals in health care debate

Capitol Hill lawmakers who are crafting a health care reform package are being urged to consider the effects of reform on public hospitals.
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09-27-2009

Washington Post: On a street in Gaithersburg, health care anxiety abounds

When it comes to their health care, no one is completely happy. Everyone has a complaint. And nobody understands the way the current system works, only that it doesn’t work very well.
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09-26-2009

Kansas City Star: Health care safety net stretched thin

Araceli Jurado of Kansas City, Kan., has a kidney stone so large it threatens to destroy her kidney. She needs surgery, but she’s uninsured and she can’t afford the operation.
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09-26-2009

Washington Post: Baucus bill may end up being a mere rough draft

Baucus has promised to resume committee work Tuesday. But the fight is increasingly shifting away from him and onto the Senate floor, where 99 other independent-minded lawmakers are already scheming about how to put their stamp on what could be the most significant piece of domestic-policy legislation in a generation.
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09-26-2009

Wall Street Journal: The Senate bill gives and takes for most groups

The health bill by Sen. Max Baucus went through four days of debate this week that revealed deep divides over how to fix the U.S. health care system.
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09-25-2009

Kansas City Star: What would health care coverage mandate mean for individuals?

A proposal to reform America’s health care system by forcing everybody to buy into it has touched a nerve.
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09-25-2009

Wall Street Journal: Overhaul divides business and its traditional GOP allies

Business is parting from its traditional allies in the Republican Party on health care as companies and big corporate lobbyists lend tentative support to a congressional overhaul that conservative lawmakers staunchly oppose.
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09-25-2009

AP: Senators to square off on public insurance plan

Advocates for a public insurance plan — the idea that has generated the most passion in the high-decibel health care debate — are pressing for a crucial test vote in the Senate Finance Committee.
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09-24-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Program helps poor families learn how to treat sick kids

Instructor Jane Bennett tries to get the crowd, nearly all of whom are on Medicaid, to spend two hours learning about their children’s health.
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09-24-2009

Los Angeles Times: Mandate minus price controls may increase health care costs

In the drive to bring health coverage to almost every American, lawmakers have largely rejected restrictions on how much insurers can charge, sparking fears that consumers will continue to face the skyrocketing premium increases of recent years.
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09-24-2009

Washington Post: Senators delay confronting hardest issues tied to health bill

Slogging through a second day of work on legislation intended to overhaul the nation’s health care system, the Senate Finance Committee wrestled Wednesday with politically volatile proposals to squeeze money out of Medicare but largely delayed confronting the most difficult issues before it.
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09-24-2009

Washington Post: Medicare is focus on day 2 of health care negotiations

Slogging through a second day of work on legislation intended to overhaul the nation’s health care system, the Senate Finance Committee wrestled Wednesday with politically volatile proposals to squeeze money out of Medicare.
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09-23-2009

Reuters: Tensions between states, U.S. governement over Medicaid grow

Assurances from the U.S. Congress that states will not be saddled with extra costs from a nationwide health care reform plan have done little to relieve the nervousness rippling through state legislatures and governors’ offices.
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09-23-2009

Kansas City Star: Answers about health care reform

Will your insurance premiums go up? Will your taxes? Will your Medicare coverage stay the same?
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09-23-2009

Los Angeles Times: Baucus offers higher subsidies, other changes to his health care bill

Proposals would make buying insurance more affordable, reduce penalties and limit those hit by a new tax.
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09-22-2009

USA Today: Health care: Five faces of the uninsured

The nation’s uninsured — a growing class of people whose recession-fed ranks have swelled to 46.3 million — are central to the health care debate in Washington and the questions about how and whether to get them covered are as vexing and emotional as they come.
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09-22-2009

Wall Street Journal: Biden says rising health premiums show need for overhaul

Vice President Joe Biden said new data showing health insurance premiums rising faster in every state than wages or inflation highlight the need for health care legislation.
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09-22-2009

NPR: Medicare coverage explained

Medicare is the federal program that covers many of the health costs for people age 65 and older, as well as people younger than 65 who are permanently disabled. Within these groups, no one is excluded because of income or pre-existing conditions.
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09-22-2009

NPR: Medicare makes patients happy, but can it last?

Whether or not to create a new government-run health plan may be the biggest source of discord in the ongoing debate over a health overhaul. At the same time, however, many of the nation’s most satisfied health care consumers are recipients of an existing government health plan: Medicare.
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09-22-2009

NPR: The uninsured: Rates by state and congressional district

The Census Bureau reports that 17 percent of the U.S. population under age 65 was without health insurance last year. Texas had the highest rate at 26.5 percent, and Florida was second at 24.8 percent.
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09-22-2009

Los Angeles Times: Senate Finance Committee keeps eye on health care target price

As the Senate Finance Committee begins reworking Sen. Max Baucus’ health care bill today, the focus will be on keeping the final price tag below $900 billion - a target considered crucial to winning over moderate Democratic votes.
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09-22-2009

Wall Street Journal: Baucus aims to ease middle-class burden in plan

Sen. Max Baucus said he would revamp his health overhaul proposal to ease the financial burden for middle-income Americans and pare back a key tax increase, responding to critics on Capitol Hill who called the measure too harsh.
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09-22-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis area ranks high for health coverage

A greater percentage of residents in most of the metro region have health insurance than the average population in Missouri, Illinois or even the nation, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Monday.
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09-21-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 2,000 rally for bill calling for insurance coverage for autism

Parents in the crowd wiped their eyes as the legislator told how he is fighting for therapy that will help a father take his son to a ballgame, a mother enjoy a movie with her daughter and a family go out to dinner.
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09-21-2009

New York Times: A tax on Cadillac health plans may also hit the Chevys

Although cast as a tax on gold-plated insurance policies for the well-heeled, it has prompted anxiety among the middle class.
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09-21-2009

Los Angeles Times: For many, health policy jargon is clear as mud

Neil Dukas knew little about health insurance because he had always been healthy. When he and his wife bought a high-deductible policy in 2008, he didn’t know the difference between a deductible and an out-of-pocket limit. He simply assumed that when he needed care, the insurer would cover it.
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09-21-2009

NPR: How health overhaul would affect the uninsured

According to the Census Bureau, in 2008, more than 46 million Americans — about 15 percent of the population — did not have health insurance. Because of the recession, many experts believe the number is now larger.
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09-21-2009

NPR: Facing aging without health insurance

Fernando Arriola spends his days keeping track of four or five construction projects, and his nights praying for good health. The New Orleans home builder is one of the 46 million people in this country who don’t have health insurance.
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09-21-2009

NPR: Federal employees’ health benefits explained

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) is the "marketplace" for full-time governmental employees and qualified retirees to select health and dental insurance offered by insurance companies and employee associations.
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09-21-2009

NPR: For federal employees, insurance plan offers choice

"This is what keeps me alive," says 13-year-old Toni Bethea, as she picks a tiny glass bottle off the kitchen counter of her home in Washington, D.C. The clear liquid inside is insulin. Toni has Type 1 diabetes.
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09-20-2009

Joplin Globe: Roundtable to offer health care diagnosis amid multiple plans

As proposals ricochet around Washington and forums held by legislators locally and around the country provoke deep passions on all sides, a roundtable will be held next week in Joplin so residents can get a diagnosis of health care reform.
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09-20-2009

Springfield News-Leader: State to examine complaints about health insurance reimbursements

Some 25 complaints since 2006 from southwest Missouri health care providers and hospitals about health insurance reimbursements will be investigated by the state Department of Insurance, state officials said.
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09-18-2009

Wester-Kirkwood Times: Advocating for autism insurance bill

It’s not exactly a political or town hall rally, but there will be plenty of fervor this Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at a special "Show-Me Coverage Autism Insurance Rally" at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O’Fallon, Mo.
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09-18-2009

Washington Post: Affordability is major challenge for reform

Lawmakers in both parties raised concerns Thursday that the health care reform bill offered by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus a day earlier would impose too high a cost on middle-class Americans and said they will seek to change the legislation to ease that potential burden.
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09-18-2009

Los Angeles Times: Splitting health care tab is a balancing act

Consumers, businesses and government have to divide a bill that now tops $2.5 trillion. The question is how.
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09-18-2009

New York Times: New tax in Senat health plan draws bipartisan fire

Senators of both parties said Thursday that they would seek significant changes in a Democratic proposal to tax generous high-cost health insurance policies.
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09-18-2009

Washington Post: Obama to speed up tort reform tests, but doctors want more

One day after physicians suffered a pair of setbacks in a health care bill unveiled by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), President Obama moved Thursday to ease the pain by accelerating a $25 million program aimed at softening the pinch of medical malpractice lawsuits.
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09-18-2009

New York Times: Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance

Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year - one every 12 minutes - in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.
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09-17-2009

Wall Street Journal: Q& A: How Baucus’s health bill would impact consumers

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) on Wednesday introduced his long-awaited health overhaul bill. Here are some questions and answers about how its provisions would affect consumers.
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09-17-2009

NPR: Economists debate ’public option’ on health care

Princeton economist and professor Uwe Reinhardt has spent his life giving out grades. So much so that he gives them out by instinct, even to things that don’t usually get grades.
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09-17-2009

Wall Street Journal: Proposal’s cost savings seem to be elusive

The latest health bill to emerge from the Senate contains a slew of measures designed to control costs. But it would be years before they kick in, and many may only put a dent in spending.
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09-17-2009

Washington Post: Baucus measure would expand care without adding to deficit

A year-long effort by senators to draft a bipartisan overhaul of the nation’s health care system on Wednesday yielded the only congressional proposal that would extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans while making good on President Obama’s pledge not to add "one dime" to budget deficits.
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09-17-2009

New York Times: Guarded optimism among insurers, but some health sectors remain skeptical

In an important victory for the insurance industry, Senator Max Baucus’s legislative proposal does not call for a government-run health plan that would directly compete with private insurers.
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09-17-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senate bill sets lines for health showdown

The major new health care overhaul bill that landed in the Senate on Wednesday sets the lines for a fall showdown over taxes, spending and coverage for millions of uninsured Americans.
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09-17-2009

Los Angeles Times: Sen. Max Baucus unveils his health care overhaul plan

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) released the crucial moderate alternative Wednesday in the struggle to refashion America’s health care system, a $856-billion bill that includes a mix of sweeping new insurance regulations but no government-run plan.
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09-17-2009

Washington Post: From finance chief, a bill that may weather the blows

On the surface, it appears that no one is happy with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) - and that may be the best news President Obama has had in months.
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09-17-2009

Missourinet: Malpractice insurers show profits for fifth year

Insurance companies that provide medical malpractice coverage in Missouri are showing a profit due to fewer claims.
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09-16-2009

BusinessWeek: The truth about malpractice lawsuits

President Barack Obama tapped into a large vein of public support when he suggested recently that he is open to reforming medical malpractice laws.
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09-16-2009

Wall Street Journal: Banks battle for health savings accounts

Banks and insurers are battling for tax-advantaged health savings accounts to remain as one of the options in health care reform.
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09-16-2009

St. Louis Beacon: After uneventful veto session, Missouri lawmakers brace for year’s budget woes

While this year’s veto session passed without any substantive action, lawmakers are bracing for what could be a very difficult battle next year over the state’s budget.
[ Read More ]

09-16-2009

Washington Post: Many employers to raise cost of health benefits, survey finds

Though Americans who already have medical coverage may be wary of change, a new survey indicates that they may be hard-pressed to escape it - even in the absence of health care reform.
[ Read More ]

09-16-2009

Wall Street Journal: Mandated health insurance squeezes those in the middle

President Barack Obama and his congressional allies have made insuring nearly all Americans a major goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system.
[ Read More ]

09-16-2009

Washington Post: Young adults likely to pay big share of reform’s cost

As health care legislation advances through Congress, the young adults who were so vital to President Obama’s election are emerging as a significant beneficiary of his top domestic priority, but they are also likely to play a major role in funding any reform.
[ Read More ]

09-16-2009

New York Times: Senate health bill draws fire on both sides

The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said Tuesday that he could not support sweeping health care legislation drafted in more than three months of bipartisan negotiations by the chairman of the panel, and several liberal Democrats criticized the bill from the other side of the political spectrum.
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09-15-2009

KWMU: MO House committee explores autism insurance

Missouri lawmakers heard competing testimony today on the cost of requiring health insurance companies to cover the treatment of children with autism.
[ Read More ]

09-15-2009

Wall Street Journal: Baucus crafts health care plan, but Senate Democrats have concerns

Some rank-and-file Senate Democrats are voicing concerns about sweeping health legislation being crafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, citing what they describe as excessive burdens placed on some families and concerns over financing for the $880 billion package.
[ Read More ]

09-15-2009

New York Times: New objections to Baucus health care proposal

Two of the three Republicans in a small group trying to forge a bipartisan compromise on health care have requested numerous major changes in a proposal drafted by the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, reducing the chances that he can win their support.
[ Read More ]

09-14-2009

NPR: Poll finds most doctors support public option

Among all the players in the health care debate, doctors may be the least understood about where they stand on some of the key issues around changing the health care system. Now, a new survey finds some surprising results: A large majority of doctors say there should be a public option.
[ Read More ]

09-14-2009

Los Angeles Times: Will U.S. learn its health care reform lesson from California?

The difference between a government program that works and one that fails spectacularly can be razor thin. A few words here, a loophole there, and you can turn a boon for the consumer into a windfall for big business.
[ Read More ]

09-14-2009

Wall Street Journal: Maryland reins in hospital costs by setting rates

In the fight over a health care overhaul, Maryland’s experience with setting hospital rates suggests the federal government could realize savings on health spending, but at a price of more regulation for health providers.
[ Read More ]

09-14-2009

New York Times: Nonprofit groups upset at exclusion from health bills

Nonprofit organizations say they are upset that Congress and the Obama administration have not addressed their rising health care costs in the various health care proposals being floated on Capitol Hill.
[ Read More ]

09-14-2009

New York Times: U.S. cost-saving policy forces new kidney transplant

Melissa J. Whitaker has one very compelling reason to keep up with the health care legislation being written in Washington: her second transplanted kidney.
[ Read More ]

09-14-2009

Los Angeles Times: Explaining the $900 billion health care price tag

In his speech to a joint session of Congress, President Obama said his health care overhaul would cost "around $900 billion over 10 years" -- a hefty price tag but substantially less than the projected cost of some of the proposals lawmakers are considering. Here is a look at what that number means.
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09-13-2009

Washington Times: ’Gang of 17’ key to health reform future

For weeks, all eyes have been focused on the "gang of six." Now, President Obama has set his sights on a group of 17.
[ Read More ]

09-11-2009

Baltimore Sun: Young adults a key to health care reform

In the debate over health care reform, Stokes and his peers are known as "invincibles," strong and healthy young adults who have no experience with wallet-crippling illness and feel they have no need for coverage. They’re also the most likely to be affected by the reform effort that President Barack Obama insisted in Wednesday’s prime-time address to Congress is crucial to the future of the economy.

[ Read More ]

09-11-2009

Los Angeles Times: How would Obama’s proposed spending ’trigger’ work?

In his health care address Wednesday night, President Obama proposed a new element in his overhaul plan - the creation of a so-called trigger to prevent higher medical costs from pushing the budget deficit higher.
[ Read More ]

09-11-2009

Wall Street Journal: States could offer template for revising malpractice law

Programs under way in several states could provide a template for President Barack Obama’s pledge to address medical-malpractice abuses.
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09-11-2009

Washington Post: On malpractice reform, fine print is still hazy

When President Obama broached medical malpractice laws in his speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, it was one of the few times that Republican lawmakers stood to applaud. But the ideas the president embraced stopped considerably short of the federal limits on awards in malpractice lawsuits that the GOP and the nation’s physicians have sought for years.
[ Read More ]

09-11-2009

New York Times: Automatic cuts could help push past a health hurdle

President Obama’s new call to impose automatic spending cuts if the health care overhaul adds “one dime” to federal budget deficits could help push his top domestic priority over one of the biggest hurdles in its path through Congress.
[ Read More ]

09-11-2009

KWMU: Nixon orders D.O.I. to examine insurance reimbursements

Governor Jay Nixon has ordered the Missouri Department of Insurance to look into complaints that health insurance companies are unreasonably delaying reimbursements to doctors and hospitals.
[ Read More ]

09-11-2009

Wall Street Journal: A clear signal on total cost, less clarity on how to pay

President Barack Obama said in his address to Congress on Wednesday that the health overhaul should cost about $900 billion over a decade and not increase the budget deficit. It was the strongest signal he has given on the total tab, but Mr. Obama left unclear how he wants to cover it.
[ Read More ]

09-11-2009

Wall Street Journal: Government becoming insurer for more people

More people are getting their health insurance from the government as the number of individuals with coverage from an employer declines, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
[ Read More ]

09-11-2009

New York Times: Last year’s poverty rate was highest in 12 years

In the recession, the nation’s poverty rate climbed to 13.2 percent last year, up from 12.5 percent in 2007, according to an annual report released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The report also documented a decline in employer-provided health insurance and in coverage for adults.
[ Read More ]

09-10-2009

Washington Post: Senators continue work on health care bill, but obstacles remain

Senators are proposing changes to a draft health care bill offered this week by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), but their work has made plain that deep divisions remain among the lawmakers a week before they are due to make their bill official.
[ Read More ]

09-10-2009

NPR: Can Obama pay for his health bill?

President Obama laid out a lot of specifics in his speech to Congress and the nation Wednesday night, but when it came to how he would finance the measure — not so much information.
[ Read More ]

09-10-2009

Reuters: More people in U.S. lack health insurance — census

The number of people living in the United States without health insurance rose to 46.3 million in 2008 from 45.7 million a year earlier, a U.S. Census Bureau official said on Thursday.
[ Read More ]

09-10-2009

New York Times: Check point: Examining Obama’s assertions

It was an angry retort to Mr. Obama’s statement that illegal immigrants would not benefit from proposed health care legislation. And while other points in Mr. Obama’s speech were debatable, this one was not.
[ Read More ]

09-10-2009

Los Angeles Times: Obama says he will weigh medical malpractice reform

President Obama on Wednesday night called for a new look at how medical malpractice lawsuits were handled as a possible way of containing spiraling health care costs.
[ Read More ]

09-10-2009

Wall Street Journal: President makes his pitch

President Barack Obama gave an emotional, sometimes contentious address to Congress on Wednesday, combining tough talk to opponents with olive branches on policy in a bid to break the impasse on revamping the health care system.
[ Read More ]

09-09-2009

Wall Street Journal: Overhaul’s contours are starting to take shape

This summer’s heated national debate on the health care overhaul has centered on a wide range of proposals in Congress -- only some of which will end up in the final bill.
[ Read More ]

09-09-2009

Los Angeles Times: Baucus presents health care overhaul plan

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Tuesday unveiled his long-awaited compromise blueprint for health care reform, proposing new taxes on high-end insurance plans and offering nonprofit insurance cooperatives as an alternative to a controversial government-run option.
[ Read More ]

09-09-2009

New York Times: Summer of work exposes medical students to system’s ills

This summer, medical students from the University of Washington took a long look under the hood of the health care system they are about to inherit, and many returned to campus last week with their eyes wide open and their idealism tempered.
[ Read More ]

09-09-2009

Los Angeles Times: Plenty of health care aches and pains

As President Obama and his critics prepare for a climactic battle over health care, they face a seeming paradox: Millions of Americans say the system they depend on for everything from routine flu shots to life-saving heart surgery is broken and needs fixing. Yet most Americans also say they’re pretty satisfied with their health care.
[ Read More ]

09-09-2009

Wall Street Journal: Obama to endorse public plan in speech

President Barack Obama, in a high-stakes speech Wednesday to Congress and the nation, will press for a government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health care system that has divided lawmakers and voters for months.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

USA Today: More discharged patients are returning via the ER

When you have heart bypass surgery, you don’t want to find yourself pulling up to the hospital’s ER entrance two weeks later.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

USA Today: Chronic conditions crank up health costs

Raymond Harris is only 54, but he already has gone through three kidneys.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

Springfield News-Leader: Missouri medical malpractice claims reach record low

The number of medical malpractice claims pending in Missouri has reached a record low.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

Wilmington News Journal: A health care reform Q & A

To help sort out the substantive from the sound bite, we asked local and national health and policy experts to weigh in on 10 key questions -- including some submitted by readers.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

Washington Post: 8 questions about health care reform

Here’s a look at some ideas being considered and the impact they might have.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

Wall Street Journal: Senate leaders race to reach health deal

Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee are racing to reach an agreement on a health plan before President Barack Obama’s Wednesday night speech, but it isn’t clear if they’ll make it.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

Washington Post: When your insurer says you’re no longer covered

The untimely disappearance of Sally Marrari’s medical coverage goes a long way toward explaining why insurance companies are cast as the villain in the health care reform drama.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

Los Angeles Times: Congress may consider tax on executives’ health plans

As the chief executive of TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., John Plant received the company’s generous health care benefits last year, as well as special "executive medical" coverage worth an additional $38,272.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

Los Angeles Times: House vs. Senate: How health care proposals compare

Returning from their summer recess, congressional lawmakers are facing a climatic showdown to the yearlong struggle over health care. At issue are scores of competing provisions scattered through half a dozen bills. And no final decisions have been made on any of them.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

New York Times: Health compromise floated before Obama speech

As President Obama and top advisers drafted his eagerly awaited health care speech to Congress, new details emerged Monday about fees and coverage limits under a proposal being floated by the chairman of a crucial Senate committee.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

Wall Street Journal: Key week for Obama starts on feisty note

President Barack Obama kicked off a crucial week for his top domestic priority by pressing for a new government-run health insurance program just as key senators moved closer to a bipartisan deal that leaves out the public plan.
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

Washington Post: Congress is back, and health care tops the agenda

Who will benefit — and who won’t — if Congress overhauls America’s health care system?
[ Read More ]

09-08-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Health care on mind of workers at parade

Amid the highest unemployment rate since 1983 and a contentious political debate over health care reform, hundreds of marchers in the annual Labor Day parade through downtown were demanding change.
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09-07-2009

USA Today: ’24 hours in the ER’ shows challenges of health system

This is where we head when a baby is in distress, when chest pains may signal a heart attack, when a person with asthma can’t stop wheezing, when there’s nowhere else to go for help. Four in 10 Americans have visited an emergency room in the past year, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.
[ Read More ]

09-07-2009

Los Angeles Times: Questions from readers about health care debate

Would illegal immigrants be covered under Democrats’ plan? Would paperwork be handled more efficiently? What would state and local taxpayers pay? How would Medicare change?
[ Read More ]

09-07-2009

Kaiser Health News: Democrats are tightening the belt for health reform

Over the weekend, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., proposed a health care overhaul "framework" for committee consideration that would cost under $900 billion over the next decade, according to a source close to the negotiations.
[ Read More ]

09-07-2009

Missourinet: St. Louis businessman says health care reform needed

With President Obama set to address a joint session of Congress about health care tomorrow evening, a St. Louis businessman makes his case for why health care reform is needed.
[ Read More ]

09-06-2009

KMOX: MO to curb millions in hospital Medicaid payments

Hospitals have received hundreds of millions of extra Medicaid dollars over the past few years as a result of a quiet deal intended to soften the blow of Missouri’s 2005 Medicaid cuts.
[ Read More ]

09-06-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis-area legislators gearing up for return to health care talks

Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., said people stop him in stores to talk about insurance. On her annual August farm tour, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, fielded concerns about health care amid questions about crop prices.
[ Read More ]

09-05-2009

New York Times: Young adults swelling ranks of uninsured

Some of the difficult financial choices facing uninsured Americans — whether to go to a hospital or tough out an illness, whether to pay the rent or pay doctor bills — confront young people who not that long ago had to worry only about buying gasoline or paying a cellphone bill.
[ Read More ]

09-05-2009

Kansas City Star: Congress is returning this week with health care reform front and center

Indeed, as Congress prepares for a fall session that promises to be dominated by the contentious health care issue, the political terrain is shifting as the nation has grown increasingly skeptical.
[ Read More ]

09-04-2009

NPR: A medical mystery: Why health care is so expensive

For all the attempts to lower the cost of health care in the United States, it remains expensive. Overall medical spending accounts for more than 17 percent of America’s entire economy.
[ Read More ]

09-04-2009

New York Times: Health care idea has public plan only as backup

As President Obama faces conflicting pressures from the left and the right over his proposal for a new public health insurance program, White House officials are investigating a possible compromise under which the government would offer its own health plan only if private insurers failed to provide affordable coverage.
[ Read More ]

09-04-2009

Kaiser Health News: Tightening the belt for health reform

If health care reform has to be put on a diet to pass this year, how much must the proposal slim down?
[ Read More ]

09-03-2009

San Jose Mercury News: Will safety net hospitals survive health reform?

Janie Johnson has no health insurance, so when she cut her toe while giving herself a pedicure, she limped to the emergency room at one of Chicago’s safety net hospitals and waited her turn.
[ Read More ]

09-03-2009

Wall Street Journal: Tangible and unseen health care costs

When a patient shows up at a doctor’s office with a bruise after falling and bumping his head, the physician might order a CT scan even if she believes the injury is superficial. Worries about a malpractice lawsuit might prompt her to take steps that aren’t medically necessary.
[ Read More ]

09-03-2009

New York Times: Conservatives see need for serious health debate

The roiling debate over health care this summer has included a host of accusations from opponents of the plan that have been so specious that many in the mainstream news media have flatly labeled them false. Far from embracing the attacks, many leading conservative health care policy experts said in recent interviews that the dynamic was precluding a more robust real-world debate.

[ Read More ]

09-03-2009

Southeast Missourian: Health reform will pass, but climate bill will only generate debate, Emerson predicts

Congress is more likely than not to pass some form of health care legislation after it returns to work next week, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson said Wednesday.
[ Read More ]

09-03-2009

NPR: Minnesota experiment puts patient health first

In the health care debate, many agree that the payment system for doctors and hospitals doesn’t work. They’re paid for each procedure they perform, giving them a perverse incentive to perform more.
[ Read More ]

09-02-2009

NPR: Fixing health care by altering patient behavior

Economists have long said health care, as a market, is a strange animal. A large part of this is because patients don’t act like regular consumers.
[ Read More ]

09-02-2009

NPR: Taking doctors’ profits out of medical care decisions

In the national debate over health care, a key factor driving up costs seldom gets discussed: the payment system for doctors.
[ Read More ]

09-02-2009

Reuters: Health experts urge insurance, pay changes

U.S. lawmakers returning next week to work on major health care legislation need to focus on insurance market reforms, consumer rebates and other measures that will curb soaring costs over time, economic and health experts said on Tuesday.
[ Read More ]

09-02-2009

Los Angeles Times: States most likely to win under health care overhaul are home to its biggest foes

Rural states have more uninsured and lower-income people who stand to benefit from legislation, but it’s there where the effort faces the most vocal resistance.
[ Read More ]

09-02-2009

NPR: Could lawsuit curbs pave way for health care deal?

In the Republicans’ most recent weekly radio address, Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi offered several of what he called "common sense reforms" aimed at curbing health care costs: more competitive insurance plans, better information for health care shoppers, and that old GOP chestnut — cutting down on frivolous lawsuits.
[ Read More ]

09-01-2009

Kansas City Star: Enforcement is a concern with an individual mandate in health care reform

If health care reform occurs, it is likely to include an individual mandate — a requirement that every American have health insurance.
[ Read More ]

09-01-2009

Missourinet: Department of Insurance to parents: check coverage for college students

Sending kids off to college is a stressful time for parents, but the Missouri Department of Insurance is reminding them to check their policies.
[ Read More ]

08-31-2009

AP: Democrats probe ’purging’ of health coverage

A top House Democrat is investigating whether the nation’s largest health insurers have deliberately canceled coverage for small businesses after their employees became sick and sought expensive treatment.
[ Read More ]

08-31-2009

New York Times: A new heart, tangled in red tape

In the debate about health care overhaul, there are countless stories of families saddled with hospital bills and unemployed workers who have lost their insurance. But the story of Eric De La Cruz, of Las Vegas, stands out as a striking example of both the best and the worst that the American health care system has to offer ” extraordinary medical prowess that is too often out of reach for all but the luckiest and best insured.

[ Read More ]

08-31-2009

Los Angeles Times: Dissecting Democrats’ health care bills

Critics of the Obama administration’s effort to overhaul the nation’s health care system say, among other things, that the nation cannot afford it. Here are some key questions and answers about the cost.
[ Read More ]

08-31-2009

New York Times: Health bill would cut drug spending for many on Medicare, budget office says

Medicare beneficiaries would often have to pay higher premiums for prescription drug coverage, but many would see their total drug spending decline, so they would save money as a result of health legislation moving through the House, the Congressional Budget Office said in a recent report.
[ Read More ]

08-31-2009

Kansas City Business Journal: Public plan isn’t merely ’an’ option

Now, toward the end of the August recess, members of Congress are poised for a standoff on the issue. Based on the latest tallies, it appears reform legislation without a strong public option won’t fly in the House, and any bill that contains such an option will be sunk in the Senate.
[ Read More ]

08-30-2009

USA Today: Health care overhaul’s quandary: Costs vs. fairness

For years, insurers have charged older customers far more than younger ones, in part because of older residents’ higher use of medical services. Now, as Congress wrestles with a health care overhaul aimed at covering the majority of the 46 million uninsured, that discrepancy is one area targeted for change.
[ Read More ]

08-30-2009

Los Angeles Times: Health care reform’s biggest fans: young adults

Young people account for 30% of the uninsured population, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy research foundation. They are least likely to be offered health insurance through employment benefits -- just 53% of working young adults are eligible for employer-based coverage.
[ Read More ]

08-28-2009

Kansas City Star: Would tort reform make a difference in health care?

Few causes in the health care debate draw more support than tort reform — the idea of reining in frivolous lawsuits that lead to unjust cash awards, soaring malpractice premiums and “defensive medicine,” the unnecessary tests ordered by doctors to avoid being sued.
[ Read More ]

08-28-2009

Los Angeles Times: Amid the acrimony, Congress has consensus on some health care issues

With a virtual civil war raging over parts of President Obama’s health care agenda, the smoke of battle has obscured a surprising fact: Democrats and Republicans actually agree on a bundle of proposals that could make medical insurance better for millions of Americans.
[ Read More ]

08-27-2009

Washington Post: Cooperatives’ record weighed in health care debate

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), a pivotal lawmaker in the health care debate, wants to deliver coverage to the uninsured by starting up new cooperatives modeled on rural electric cooperatives that were founded during the Great Depression.
[ Read More ]

08-27-2009

AP: Elderly have their own concerns on health overhaul

Turns out you can fear a government takeover of health care even if the government already took over your health care.
[ Read More ]

08-27-2009

Wall Street Journal: Vote is lost at key point

Democrats quickly tried to turn the death of Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy into a new spur for their stalled health care overhaul effort. But the liberal icon’s passing could as well hobble the campaign, by depriving the majority party of a key vote at a critical juncture in the debate.
[ Read More ]

08-26-2009

New York Times: Estimate for 10-year deficit raised to $9 trillion

The nation’s fiscal outlook is even bleaker than the government forecast earlier this year because the recession turned out to be deeper than widely expected, the budget offices of the White House and Congress agreed in separate updates on Tuesday.
[ Read More ]

08-26-2009

New York Times: Real choice? It’s off limits in health bills

Health insurers often act like monopolies — like a cable company or the Department of Motor Vehicles — because they resemble monopolies. Consumers, instead of being able to choose freely among insurers, are restricted to the plans their employer offers.
[ Read More ]

08-25-2009

AP: Health care claim costs expected to rise 10.5 percent

Costs for employer-provided health plans are expected to rise more than 10 percent within the next 12 months, a jump workers may feel in their paychecks or through changes to their insurance coverage.
[ Read More ]

08-25-2009

NPR: Advocates push to include the homeless in Medicaid

Most homeless people in America are too poor to buy their own health coverage, but many also don’t qualify for Medicaid, the government-run health program for the poor.
[ Read More ]

08-25-2009

Kaiser Health News: Children’s advocates fear health reform could undermine CHIP

As Democratic leaders pursue their quest to provide millions of Americans with health care insurance, some advocates see an unlikely casualty of reform: youngsters now covered by the Children’s Health Insurance Program whom they fear could end up with reduced benefits.
[ Read More ]

08-25-2009

NPR: Getting doctors talking key to health care fix

A coordinated, patient-centered health care system is one of the main promises of health care overhaul.
[ Read More ]

08-25-2009

Kansas City Star: Forum focuses on reasons for health care reform

There is a moral and financial imperative to strive for universal health care coverage. But the devil’s in the details of how and how quickly to get there.

[ Read More ]

08-25-2009

New York Times: Policy experts call fear of medical rationing unfounded

Policy experts say people are rightly concerned about the nation’s health care costs. But they also say there is nothing in the current proposals in Washington to suggest that the country is likely to embark on a system of medical rationing anytime soon.
[ Read More ]

08-24-2009

Los Angeles Times: Health care insurers get upper hand

Lashed by liberals and threatened with more government regulation, the insurance industry nevertheless rallied its lobbying and grass-roots resources so successfully in the early stages of the health care overhaul deliberations that it is poised to reap a financial windfall.
[ Read More ]

08-23-2009

Los Angeles Times: The cost of health care reform

Among the most contentious issues in the national health care debate is how to pay for it. President Obama wants legislation that is "deficit-neutral over the next decade." Here are the basics of what a healthcare overhaul would cost and how the bill could get paid.
[ Read More ]

08-23-2009

Wall Street Journal: Keeping kids insured

As Washington wrestles with health care reform, states have been busy passing their own laws to allow many young adults to remain longer on a parent’s health insurance.
[ Read More ]

08-23-2009

Springfield News-Leader: Medicaid expansion lost in debate

A big component of President Obama and congressional Democrats’ plans to reduce the number of Americans without health insurance is a massive expansion of Medicaid coverage to low-income adults making less than $14,404 a year.
[ Read More ]

08-22-2009

AP: Competition lacking among private health insurers

One of the most widely accepted arguments against a government medical plan for the middle class is that it would quash competition — just what private insurers seem to be doing themselves in many parts of the U.S. Several studies show that in lots of places, one or two companies dominate the market.
[ Read More ]

08-22-2009

Wall Street Journal: New splits emerge in health plan talks

Senate Finance Committee negotiators are trying to bring down the cost of a broad health care bill, but new splits are emerging on whether to reduce subsidies for people to buy insurance, according to Senate aides familiar with the talks.
[ Read More ]

08-21-2009

NPR: 46 million uninsured: A look behind the number

President Obama and fellow Democrats are throwing around a big number in the health care debate — the number of people living in this country without health insurance.
[ Read More ]

08-20-2009

USA Today: Health insurance debate turns to issue of co-ops

After 30 years of punishing caseloads and never-ending stacks of paperwork, Harry Shriver was getting ready to hang up his doctor’s coat and retire when he tried something new.
[ Read More ]

08-20-2009

Los Angeles Times: Health care co-ops emerging as viable alternative

With prospects fading that the Senate will include a government-run insurance option in health care reform legislation, congressional Democrats and Republicans are already sparring over an alternative -- a series of private regional cooperatives that advocates say could achieve the goals of a public plan without the potential for government interference.
[ Read More ]

08-20-2009

Wall Street Journal: New Rx forhealth plan: Split bill

The White House and Senate Democratic leaders, seeing little chance of bipartisan support for their health care overhaul, are considering a strategy shift that would break the legislation into two parts and pass the most expensive provisions solely with Democratic votes.
[ Read More ]

08-19-2009

NPR: Health co-ops touted as alternative to public plan

The Obama administration appears to be backing away from the idea that a health care overhaul has to include the option of a government-run insurance program. If this public plan is removed from the bills currently under construction in Congress, it could be replaced by nonprofit health insurance plans run on the co-op model, where people who buy the insurance are the ones who own the insurance company.
[ Read More ]

08-19-2009

New York Times: Tackling the mystery of how much it costs

You go to a restaurant, peruse the menu, take your waiter’s suggestions, and order a meal. But there is something odd: the menu has no prices and you have no idea what you will be required to pay until a few weeks later when the bill arrives in the mail.
[ Read More ]

08-18-2009

Philadelphia Inquirer: ’Public option’ and its role in health care debate

So what is the "public option"? And why has it become such a threat to an overall health care overhaul that on Sunday, the White House suggested President Obama would settle for a compromise - nonprofit insurance cooperatives?

[ Read More ]

08-18-2009

Wall Street Journal: Conrad defends health co-ops plan

The idea of nonprofit co-ops has come to the fore in the health overhaul debate as the Obama administration retreats from the idea of a public, Medicare-like insurance program to compete with private insurers.
[ Read More ]

08-18-2009

KWMU: Former Major Leaguer adds voice to push for insurance coverage for autism

Supporters of legislation that would require insurance companies to cover treatment for autism spectrum disorders have launched a grassroots push to get the bill through the Missouri General Assembly next year.
[ Read More ]

08-18-2009

St. Louis Beacon: For many rural Missourians, you just can’t get to health care from here, Part 2

Lesley O’Daniel, a nurse who works in rural Missouri, shook her head as she contemplated the nation’s emotional debate over health care reform.
[ Read More ]

08-18-2009

New York Times: Alternate plan as health option muddies debate

The White House has indicated that it could accept a nonprofit health care cooperative as an alternative to a new government insurance plan, originally favored by President Obama. But the co-op idea is so ill defined that no one knows exactly what it would look like or how effectively it would compete with commercial insurers.
[ Read More ]

08-18-2009

Washington Post: Cooperatives being pushed as an alternative to a government plan

As prospects fade for a public, or government-run, option as part of health care reform, key senators are considering another model to create competition for private insurers: member-owned, nonprofit health cooperatives.
[ Read More ]

08-17-2009

New York Times: ’Public option’ in health plan may be dropped

The White House, facing increasing skepticism over President Obama’s call for a public insurance plan to compete with the private sector, signaled Sunday that it was willing to compromise and would consider a proposal for a nonprofit health cooperative being developed in the Senate.
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08-16-2009

Los Angeles Times: Health coverage for all, and what that means

A centerpiece of President Obama’s health care agenda -- and of the bills being developed on Capitol Hill -- is extending insurance to all Americans. Here is a rundown of the basics about what health coverage looks like now and what may change
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08-16-2009

St. Louis Beacon: For many rural Missourians, you just can’t get to health care from here

Every Monday morning, primary health care arrives on a bus in Oran, a town of 1,264 in southeast Missouri that hasn’t had a doctor for at least 15 years, or maybe 30, depending on who you ask.
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08-16-2009

Springfield News-Leader : Health care reform debate about more than catch phrases

Through the storm of words and catchphrases that fly in the name of "health care reform," there are real people. Some are struggling.

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08-14-2009

NPR: What health care overhaul means for you

How exactly would new health care overhaul legislation affect you? Click on the category below that best fits your situation and see what the major proposals currently before Congress would mean for you.
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08-14-2009

Washington Post: Deficit plays into health reform

With polls showing rising concern over the government’s grim financial situation, key Republicans and a growing number of Democrats say it will be hard to push a reform bill through Congress unless it reduces projected spending on health care and begins to bring the federal debt under control.
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08-13-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Nixon, legislators in another push for autism coverage

That’s because Missouri, like all but 14 states in the country, doesn’t mandate coverage of autism in health insurance policies. (Illinois is the only Missouri border state to mandate such coverage.)
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08-12-2009

NPR: Kill grandma? Debunking a health bill scare tactic

The story has spread so fast even President Obama got asked about it at one of his town hall meetings. But no, the health care overhaul bill now working its way through Congress would not require seniors to learn how to die prematurely.
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08-12-2009

New York Times: Survey finds high fees common in medical care

A patient in Illinois was charged $12,712 for cataract surgery. Medicare pays $675 for the same procedure. In California, a patient was charged $20,120 for a knee operation that Medicare pays $584 for.
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08-12-2009

NPR: Will insurance exchange help cut health costs?

One of the key issues in the health care debate is how to make health insurance more affordable. Front and center in the Democrats’ plans is something that has gotten little attention but could be central to cutting costs: an insurance exchange.
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08-12-2009

Los Angeles Times: Many seniors aren’t sure health care system needs repair

Far from the hue and cry over health care legislation that is erupting at town halls across the country, many senior citizens are quietly confused about what an overhaul might mean for them.
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08-12-2009

New York Times: Obama offers reassureance on plan to overhaul health care

Fans and foes of President Obama’s push to overhaul health care descended on a local high school here on Tuesday to challenge him and hear him fight back against the criticisms — some outlandish — that have slowed the legislation’s progress.
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08-11-2009

Reuters: Q & A: Co-ops in focus in U.S. health care debate

The co-op idea has appeared in both Senate and House of Representatives discussions of healthcare reform. Here are some questions and answers about how it would work.
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08-11-2009

Washington Post: Obama criticizes ’misrepresentations’ of health refrom plan

President Obama, taking center stage in an increasingly contentious national debate over health care reform, told a packed town hall meeting here Tuesday afternoon that "I need your help" to overcome what he called "wild misrepresentations" about the program by opponents and special interest groups.
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08-11-2009

Southeast Missourian: McCaskill holds forum on health care reform in Poplar Bluff

The government is not going to take over the health care system, and it will not tell the elderly what treatment they can receive, benefit illegal aliens or pay for abortions, Sen. Claire McCaskill said Monday.
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08-10-2009

Los Angeles Times: Sorting out claims about health care legislation

With lawmakers home for their August recess, a fierce battle has broken out over what precisely is in the mammoth health care bills being pushed by congressional Democrats.
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08-10-2009

New York Times: A primer on the details of health care reform

Each side hopes to win ground by boiling down one of the most complex policy discussions in history into digestible nuggets. For beachside viewers who might be more interested in iced-tea service than fee-for-service, here is a guide to the main fight points.
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08-10-2009

Wall Street Journal: Tax on high-end health plans threatens wider group

A proposal to tax generous health plans could ensnare a broader swath of employers and workers whose benefits aren’t necessarily gold-plated.
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08-09-2009

NPR: Mass medical clinic’s sobering message

For two-and-a-half days, about 800 doctors, nurses, dentists and optometrists treated 2,700 uninsured and underinsured people, most from Appalachia. No one was asked for an insurance card. There were no co-pays. And there were no bills.
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08-09-2009

Washington Post: Seniors remain wary of health care reform

Senior citizens are emerging as a formidable obstacle to President Obama’s ambitious health care reform plans.
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08-09-2009

St. Louis Beacon: What area members of Congress say about health reform

As the debate over health care heats up, the Beacon asked area members of the House and Senate where they stand at this time.
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08-07-2009

Carthage Press: Blunt, business leaders discuss health care reform

With health care reform dominating the national conversation, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt came to Southwest Missouri on Thursday to lay out his position to his constituents.
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08-07-2009

Kaiser Health News: Community health centers strained by recession, face bigger caseloads under reform

These centers, which have seen their caseloads increase significantly with the growing number of uninsured Americans and the economic tumult of the recent recession, appear to be in line for a major rise in federal support and likely a corresponding crush in patients seeking treatment if a health care overhaul is passed.
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08-07-2009

New York Times: Senators hear concerns over costs of health proposal

Senior members of the Senate Finance Committee, trying to put together a bipartisan bill to guarantee health insurance for all Americans, were told Thursday that their proposals might be unaffordable to states and to many low-income people.
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08-07-2009

Washington Post: Senate health care negotiators hope to keep deal alive during break

Senators headed home for their August break Thursday amid an escalating partisan battle over health care reform, with a small band of lawmakers hoping to keep their delicately negotiated compromise alive until Congress reconvenes in September.
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08-06-2009

Wall Street Journal: More answers to your health reform questions

While lawmakers are home for the August recess, they’re likely to get plenty of questions from constituents about the big health bills being debated in Congress.
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08-06-2009

Los Angeles Times: United Agricultural Benefit Trust spotlighted as model for health care cooperatives

Now, as Congress examines ways to overhaul the nation’s health care system, the co-op has found itself in the national spotlight as a model for a proposed co-op option consumers could consider along with private insurers.
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08-06-2009

Columbia Missourian: Gov. Nixon details guiding principles for autism regulation

Gov. Jay Nixon made Columbia his first stop Thursday on a tour to outline his priorities for autism legislation.
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08-06-2009

Washington Post: Senators closer to health package

Senate negotiators are inching toward bipartisan agreement on a health care plan that seeks middle ground on some of the thorniest issues facing Congress, offering the fragile outlines of a legislative consensus even as the political battle over reform intensifies outside Washington.
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08-06-2009

KMOX: Nixon outlining details for autism insurance bill

Gov. Jay Nixon is taking to the road to outline what he wants in legislation requiring autism insurance coverage for children.
[ Read More ]

08-05-2009

Kansas City Star: Health care debate: How many actually uninsured?

It’s a central goal of the president’s plan: Extending health care coverage to the millions of Americans who lack it. Question is, just how many million are uninsured?
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08-05-2009

Joplin Globe: Blunt challenges Obama’s proposal as too costly

U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt said Wednesday that President Barack Obama’s proposed health care plan would cost more Americans good coverage than it would provide.
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08-05-2009

Los Angeles Times: In health care debate, small business becomes pivotal

As they work to overhaul the nation’s health care system, President Obama and his congressional allies have pledged to help small-business owners such as Rhonda Ealy and Kelli Glasser.
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08-04-2009

Wall Street Journal: U.S. psyche bedevils health effort

I hate the health care system -- but don’t you dare mess with it. That’s a pretty apt summary of the American mind-set about health care -- and not just now, but for decades.
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08-03-2009

Denver Business Journal: White House: Health reform to help small firms

Health care reform would be good for small businesses because it would enable them to obtain better insurance coverage for less money, according to a report issued by President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.
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08-03-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Federal health care reform may increase the number of Missourians on Medicaid

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s approval Friday of a bill overhauling the nation’s health care system reinforced the hopes and fears of Missouri’s political players on both sides of the debate.
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08-03-2009

Kansas City Star: Fact check: Distortions rife in health care debate

Confusing claims and outright distortions have animated the national debate over changes in the health care system.
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08-03-2009

Wall Street Journal: California offers lessons on insurance exchanges

As Congress debates creating insurance "exchanges" as part of a health care overhaul, the failure of a similar effort in California may offer important insights, former participants in the program say.
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08-03-2009

New York Times: Two sides take health care debate outside Washington

With Republicans mobilizing against the proposed health care overhaul, President Obama, Congressional Democrats and leading advocacy groups are laying the groundwork for an August offensive against the insurance industry as part of a coordinated campaign to sell the public on the need for reform.
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08-03-2009

Washington Post: Democrats find rallying points on health reform, but splinters remain

Democrats leave town for the August recess with frayed nerves and fragile agreements on health care reform, and a new bogeyman to fire up their constituents: the insurance industry.
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08-02-2009

Springfield News-Leader : In rural America, skepticism of reform

In rural America, many are too poor to afford basic care. People who can afford doctors often can’t find them. The lack of health care in small towns like Walsenburg is a problem Congress is just beginning to address.
[ Read More ]

08-02-2009

Los Angeles Times: Where does the health care overhaul legislation stand?

Amid a flurry of activity on health care legislation, the House left Friday for its month-long summer recess. The Senate will take off at the end of this week. Here is an update on where the debate stands in Washington.
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08-02-2009

Washington Post: Obama trims sails on health reform

As lawmakers begin to flee Washington for a month-long recess, the White House team is retooling its message and strategy, hoping a more modest approach will reinvigorate Obama’s signature domestic policy initiative.
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08-01-2009

New York Times: Health bill clears hurdle and hints at consensus

House members headed home on Friday, leaving behind the outlines of a nearly $1 trillion health care overhaul that is sure to draw fire from a variety of interests, but also shows the beginnings of a consensus that would provide insurance for more Americans and give them new rights in dealing with insurers.
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08-01-2009

Columbia Daily Tribune: Health care reform passes out of committee

Democrats narrowly pushed sweeping health care legislation through a key congressional committee last night and cleared the way for a September showdown in the House.
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07-31-2009

NPR: Health care costs measured in cupcakes

Health care costs are killing small businesses. Their insurance premiums are rising dramatically and unpredictably.
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07-31-2009

Wall Street Journal: Key Senate panel won’t vote till fall

Sen. Max Baucus Thursday ended any hope the influential Senate Finance Committee would take up bipartisan health legislation this summer, kicking the issue to the fall amid lingering divisions over a bill intended to provide insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans.
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07-31-2009

Washington Post: GOP Senators try to slow health talks

Senate GOP negotiators sought Thursday to slow down health care talks, likely delaying a long-awaited bipartisan deal until after the August recess.
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07-31-2009

New York Times: House health care bill criticized as panel votes for public plan

The House Energy and Commerce Committee resumed work Thursday on major health care legislation, voting to establish a government-run health insurance plan, as top Republicans stepped up their criticism of the ambitious legislation.
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07-30-2009

USA Today: Pols vow to fight for health care

An increasingly intense battle over health care legislation in Congress will now shift to states across the country as lawmakers begin returning home for a month-long recess and outside groups prepare to flood the airwaves.
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07-30-2009

Washington Post: Would tax on benefits rein in spending?

The heath care bill that has been wending its way through the Senate Finance Committee is likely to contain a provision that President Obama opposed during his campaign: a tax on at least some employer-provided insurance plans.
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07-30-2009

NPR: Taxing ’Cadillac’ health plans has widespread effects

While you’ve been trying to follow the ins and outs of the health care debate, you’ve probably heard some reference to "gold plated" health plans.
[ Read More ]

07-30-2009

Los Angeles Times: Obama changes health care tack to win over the insured

As polls showed eroding support for his overhaul of the nation’s health care system, President Obama spent Wednesday courting the majority of Americans who already have insurance and are most resistant to the proposed changes.
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07-30-2009

New York Times: New poll finds growing unease on health plan

President Obama’s ability to shape the debate on health care appears to be eroding as opponents aggressively portray his overhaul plan as a government takeover that could limit Americans’ ability to choose their doctors and course of treatment, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
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07-30-2009

Washington Post: Lawmakers cut health bills’ price tag

Key lawmakers on Wednesday moved to cut roughly $100 billion from the cost of health care reform proposals as they sought to break weeks of gridlock on President Obama’s signature legislative initiative before Congress departs for a month-long recess.
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07-30-2009

Los Angeles Times: House Democrats make a health care deal

After weeks of fractious debate that threatened to derail President Obama’s health care overhaul, House Democrats on Wednesday reached a critical if fragile agreement that appeared to pave the way for the chamber to vote on a package in September.
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07-29-2009

AP: House Republicans unveil $700B health care plan

House Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a $700 billion health care plan that would offer tax credits to help people buy insurance, yet unlike Democratic proposals, wouldn’t require either individuals or employers to get coverage.
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07-29-2009

Missourinet: Bond opposes health care plan, makes counter-proposal

Senator Bond opposes President Obama’s health care legislation, insisting that targeted changes in law would solve most of the nation’s health care problems.
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07-29-2009

Wall Street Journal: Obama defends health agenda

President Barack Obama, on the defensive and acknowledging the rising protests against his health care efforts, took some of the sharpest jabs yet at his opponents, accusing them of rallying opposition with scare tactics and hypocrisy.
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07-29-2009

Denver Post: Nation studies Western Slope’s low-cost, high-quality care

Lawmakers struggling to unclog negotiations over sweeping health care reform are focusing on a handful of areas in the country that seem to have cracked the health care code by delivering high-quality care at a bargain price.
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07-29-2009

Wall Street Journal: Plan to tax insurers stirs interest in House

Senior House Democrats, seeking a health bill acceptable to rank-and-file lawmakers, are warming to a plan to tax insurers that sell high-end health policies.
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07-29-2009

Washington Post: The House gets a dose of its own medicine

They held the tutorial in the Capitol basement. The leadership had set aside five hours, from 4 to 9 p.m. Monday, with one break for procedural votes upstairs.
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07-29-2009

Los Angeles Times: The centrist alternative on health care: Cooperatives

A bipartisan group of senators, uneasy with public plan’s prospects for passage, endorses cooperatives, which would offer a system of health providers or contract out for members’ medical services.
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07-29-2009

Washington Post: Senators close to health accord

An emerging consensus among a bipartisan group of senators is poised to shift the dynamic in the congressional debate over health care reform and could lead to a final product that sheds many of the priorities that President Obama has emphasized and that have drawn GOP attacks.
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07-29-2009

Wall Street Journal: Seniors air doubts to Obama

President Barack Obama on Tuesday sought to reassure senior citizens that squeezing billions of dollars from Medicare spending won’t hurt their benefits.
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07-29-2009

New York Times: Democrats push health care plan while issuing assurances on medicare

President Obama tried Tuesday to sell his health care plan to older Americans, as members of Congress said they were deluged with calls from constituents worried that their Medicare benefits might be cut to help finance coverage for the uninsured.
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07-28-2009

AP: A look at health care plans in Congress

A look at health care legislation taking shape in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate as President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul the system, cover nearly 50 million uninsured Americans and contain rising costs.
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07-28-2009

St. Louis Business Journal: MO chamber opposes national health care plan

A government-run or public-option health insurance plan threatens employers and workers, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, along with 1,536 business groups, said Tuesday in a letter to Congress.
[ Read More ]

07-28-2009

Southeast Missourian: Group plans health care rally in Cape Girardeau

As the debate over health care reform continues in Washington, D.C., a conservative organization is bringing the discussion to Cape Girardeau.
[ Read More ]

07-28-2009

Washington Post: key lawmakers restart health care talks

Key congressional negotiators resumed talks Monday evening on the emerging health care legislation, scrambling to strike separate deals in House and Senate committees that would give momentum to the stalled reform effort.
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07-28-2009

Washington Post: Health care for the blue dogs

The fate of health care reform hangs on what President Obama and leading Democrats do in the next few weeks. In particular, it hinges on an effective response to moderate Democrats in the House -- known as "Blue Dogs" -- who are threatening to jump ship.
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07-28-2009

Wall Street Journal: Consensus hard to come by without key players

The absence of some big players in the health care debate may be one reason why Congress and the Obama administration are finding it hard to find agreement.
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07-28-2009

New York Times: Health policy now carved out at a more centrist table

On the agenda is the revamping of the American health care system, possibly the most complex legislation in modern history.
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07-28-2009

Washington Post: Debate focuses on a satisfied majority

With the Obama administration’s top domestic priority struggling in Congress, supporters and opponents of the health care proposals are focusing on the constituency that both sides agree has become pivotal to the debate: the majority of Americans who have health insurance and are generally satisfied with their care.
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07-28-2009

Wall Street Journal: Core issues still divide Democrats in the House

Prospects dimmed for getting a full House vote on a consensus health care bill this week, despite stepped-up efforts Monday by Democratic leaders in the chamber.
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07-28-2009

New York Times: Senators progress as House delays again on health bill

A bipartisan group of senators on Monday reported progress toward agreement on a compromise health care overhaul while the House speaker suggested that any House vote on a health plan would be delayed until more was known of the Senate approach.
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07-27-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Gov’t plan can coexist with private insurance

A new government health insurance plan sought by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats could coexist with private insurers without driving them out of business, an analysis by nonpartisan budget experts suggests.
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07-27-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Hundreds in St. Louis weigh in on health care reform

Health care reform took center stage Monday night in St. Louis. Senator Claire McCaskill’s staff expected a few dozen people to show up at Monday’s health care question and answer forum but more than 500 people shouted, pleaded and argued their points.
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07-27-2009

Springfield News-Leader : Funds cut in half for home monitoring

A program that saved state money by reducing emergency room visits and hospital stays for home-bound Medicaid patients is another victim of the June state budget cuts.
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07-27-2009

Wall Street Journal: Idea to tax insurers is gaining traction

A proposal to tax insurance companies on their most-expensive policies appears to be gaining momentum in Congress and the White House, as lawmakers search for politically acceptable ways to fund a health overhaul.
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07-27-2009

Los Angeles Times: How a health care overhaul could affect you

Lawmakers are considering options and costs for currently insured and uninsured Americans. Here are some key questions regarding the effort to overhaul the nation’s health care system.


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07-27-2009

NPR: Health commission plan wins some, angers others

The problem with putting together a big proposal — like overhauling the nation’s entire health care system — with lots of moving parts and many different interests to please, is that every time you satisfy one important constituency, you upset another.
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07-27-2009

New York Times: Democrats disagree on state of health reform bill

White House officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continued to say on Sunday that progress was being made on legislation to overhaul the health care system, but fiscally conservative Democrats remained less optimistic while Republicans remained steadfast in their opposition to it.
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07-27-2009

Washington Post: Pelosi vows passage of health care overhaul

Defying skeptics in her party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed Sunday to overcome lingering obstacles and pass health care reform in the House, restoring momentum to President Obama’s top domestic priority and order to her own unruly Democratic caucus.
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07-27-2009

New York Times: Reach of subsidies is critical issue for health plan

The major health care bills moving through Congress would require nearly all Americans to have health insurance. But as lawmakers struggle to achieve the goal of universal coverage, a critical question is whether the plans will be affordable to those who are currently uninsured.
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07-26-2009

Kansas City Star: Sheer size, impact of health care system seen complicating reform effort

Why is it so difficult to get an agreement on overhauling America’s health care system? There’s a simple answer: "It’s going to affect everybody," said House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif.

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07-26-2009

Columbia Daily Tribune: Obama cites study in health debate; GOP scoffs

President Barack Obama, citing a new White House study suggesting that small businesses pay far more per employee for health insurance than big companies, said yesterday the disparity is “unsustainable — it’s unacceptable.”
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07-26-2009

Washington Post: Focus on health savings obscures other issues

President Obama says the primary goal of health reform is to rein in runaway spending, and he points to real-world examples in which doctors and hospitals have improved care and reduced costs.
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07-26-2009

Wall Street Journal: Obama seeks backing from small business on health reform

The Obama White House will seek to shore up support for its health care overhaul this weekend by reaching out to millions of small-business owners and employees.
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07-26-2009

Missourinet: Luetkemeyer criticizes rush to pass health care reform

An all out effort to get President Barack Obama’s health care proposal through Congress by September is beginning, with the proposal facing tough challenges in both the Senate and House.
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07-25-2009

New York Times: Hospital savings: Salaries for doctors, not fees

Visiting the Cleveland Clinic this week, President Obama held up that well-known hospital as a model for the rest of the country. But for most of the nation’s nearly 6,000 hospitals, copying the Cleveland Clinic would be like asking the Durham Bulls, a minor league team, to copy the New York Yankees.
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07-24-2009

Wall Street Journal: Obama’s health expert gets political

President Barack Obama’s health care plan is in jeopardy because of serious concerns that costs will spin out of control. As much as anyone, it’s White House budget director Peter Orszag’s job to save it.
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07-24-2009

New York Times: As health bill is delayed, White House negotiates

White House officials negotiated furiously on Thursday to keep major health care legislation on track after the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said his chamber would not vote on a health measure until after Congress returned from its summer recess.
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07-24-2009

Washington Post: Health reform deadline in doubt

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid acknowledged Thursday that his chamber is unable to pass health care reform before its August recess, a move that highlighted internal Democratic divisions on the legislation and is likely to result in significant changes to the shape of the final bill.
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07-24-2009

New York Times: For public, Obama didn’t fill in health blanks

As Craig Brown watched President Obama’s news conference on Wednesday night on his TiVo-equipped television, he kept hitting the pause button so he could throw questions at the image frozen on the screen.
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07-24-2009

Springfield News-Leader : Health proposal inspires passion

From Thursday’s street corner demonstration in Springfield to party-sponsored forums, health care reform appears to be a high priority. But crafting legislation that will garner enough support from lawmakers -- and voters -- may be tough.

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07-23-2009

Rolla Daily News: People urge health care reform

There have been committee meetings, numerous ideas and discontent from both sides of the health care reform debate. Some Rolla residents are taking to the streets to express their opinion on the issue.

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07-23-2009

Washington Post: Obama visits clinic known for qualtiy care, controlling costs

The Cleveland Clinic, the renowned medical center visited by President Obama on Thursday, embodies many features that experts believe are essential to both improving health care and controlling its cost.
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07-23-2009

Reuters: Shortage of doctors could damage health care reform

A growing shortage of primary care doctors could place a major burden on the U.S. health care system if President Barack Obama succeeds in extending medical insurance to millions of Americans who currently lack it.
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07-23-2009

New York Times: Concerns on plan show clashing goals

As Democratic Congressional leaders try to round up the votes to remake the health care system, they face a range of concerns about the cost and scope of the legislation among centrist lawmakers in each party whose support is vital to a deal.
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07-23-2009

Washington Post: Employers are far from unified against overhaul

Even as the national business lobby ramps up its opposition to health care reform, there are signs that employers around the country are divided on the issue, reducing the force of an opposition push.
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07-23-2009

Wall Street Journal: Replicating Cleveland Clinic’s success poses major challenges

President Barack Obama plans to visit the Cleveland Clinic Thursday, an institution he has held up as a model for delivering high-quality and cost-effective health care. But trying to replicate the clinic’s approach across the U.S. would pose difficult challenges.
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07-23-2009

New York Times: Experts dispute some points in health talk

President Obama showed great fluency in the intricate details of health policy at his news conference on Wednesday night, but experts said some of his points were debatable.
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07-23-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Obama lays out health care case

President Barack Obama Wednesday tried hard to create momentum for his health care overhaul plan, offering a lengthy, methodical — and at times defensive — explanation of why Americans should embrace his changes.
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07-23-2009

Los Angeles Times: Obama strives to personalize health care debate for Americans

He explains how people would gain from an overhaul and argues that sticking with the status quo will impose huge costs on ordinary families.
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07-22-2009

USA Today: Mass. has lessons for health care debate

The state that pioneered health care for all is about to take another leap into the unknown: paying for it.
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07-22-2009

Reuters: Health care reform seen critical for rural U.S.

For many of the 60 million people living in rural America, inadequate and unaffordable health care is an immediate and growing problem.
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07-22-2009

Missourinet: McCaskill on health care reform: Inaction not an option

Missouri’s junior Senator thinks it will be months, not weeks, before Congress passes a health care reform bill.
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07-22-2009

NPR: Providing better health care for less money

The health care debate in Washington has basically deteriorated into a choice between raising taxes or cutting care. But "that’s wrong," says Don Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. "There’s a third way. It’s redesign."
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07-22-2009

Boston Globe: No "Cadillacs" in U.S. health care reform proposals

Some of the ideas proposed for U.S. health care reform could cost patients thousands of dollars a year out of their own pockets, and premiums could end up being too high, according to two reports.
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07-22-2009

New York Times: Conservative Democrats push health bill changes

Fiscally conservative House Democrats forced leaders of their party on Tuesday to slow the pace of work on major health care legislation so Congress and President Obama could address their concerns about the cost of the bill, its impact on small businesses and the shape of a proposed new government health insurance plan.
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07-22-2009

Los Angeles Times: Obama urges action, not just politics, on health care

Urging lawmakers to move quickly to overhaul American health care, President Obama on Tuesday criticized the "politics of the moment" and said some in Congress were trying to put off decisions on legislation "until special interests can kill it."
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07-22-2009

Washington Post: Senate panel takes a careful approach to crafting health bill

While the issue of health care reform has divided Democrats in the House and stirred relentless GOP attacks, members of the Senate Finance Committee have seemingly ignored the hubbub, and a presidential deadline, as they huddle daily in pursuit of a breakthrough bill.
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07-22-2009

Washington Post: Health insurance industry spins data in fight against public plan

The industry that helped scuttle health reform 15 years ago with its "Harry and Louise" ads is back, voicing support for a central element of the Obama administration’s plans: making sure everyone is covered.
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07-22-2009

New York Times: Challenge to health bill: Selling reform

The typical person watching from afar is left to wonder: What will this project mean for me, besides possibly higher taxes?
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07-22-2009

Washington Post: Like car insurance, health coverage may be mandated

If lawmakers can reach an accord, one thing is virtually certain: For the first time ever, every American would be required to carry health insurance.
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07-21-2009

NPR: Obama: Overtreatment drives health care costs

President Obama has promised to overhaul the nation’s health care system in a way that controls costs and expands insurance coverage.
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07-21-2009

AP: No jobs, no insurance: hard times for young adults

Already the least likely of any age group to have coverage, adults in their 20s face brutal job searches and more time uninsured because of the recession.
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07-21-2009

St. Louis Beacon: Small business is grappling with a huge problem: health care for employees

As the national debate about health care reform grows more heated, Jim Henderson, president of Dynamic Sales of St. Louis, has his own deeply held opinion about the role employers should play.
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07-21-2009

Kansas City Star: Stimulus will provide $220 million for health care training

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Tuesday that $220 million in federal stimulus funds will be disbursed to programs across the country to train workers in health care and other high-growth industries.
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07-21-2009

NPR: Obama says Congress close to health overhaul

President Obama tried Tuesday to create momentum for overhauling the nation’s health care system, saying Congress is closing in on a plan that will provide care to all Americans.
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07-21-2009

Missourinet: Democrats campaigning hard for health care

It might not be an election year, but the campaign is on for health care reform.
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07-21-2009

Wall Street Journal: Ten question on the health care overhaul

It is crunch time for health care. Lawmakers who are trying to fundamentally remake one-sixth of the U.S. economy say this might be the most complicated legislation they have undertaken.
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07-21-2009

New York Times: Democrats may limit tax increases for health care plan

As President Obama began a new push to overhaul the health system, Democratic Congressional leaders, bowing to unease among lawmakers and governors in their own party, on Monday suggested scaling back a plan to tax top earners to pay for the sweeping legislation and signaled a retreat from their ambitious timetable.
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07-20-2009

New York Times: Governors fear Medicaid costs in health plan

The nation’s governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care plan emerging from Congress, fearing that Washington was about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them.
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07-20-2009

Chicago Tribune: Little unity among businesses on health care reform

Business is far from unified in its lobbying efforts for health-care reform. The disparity dilutes its power and may contribute to a plan no faction wants — or no plan at all.
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07-20-2009

KTVI: Controversy brews over health care reform in St. Louis

Opponents are growing more vocal as the American Medical Association says a government option as well as private insurance is necessary.
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07-19-2009

Dallas Morning News: For disabled, two-year wait for Medicare is ’devastating’

Besides covering 38 million Americans 65 and older, Medicare helps pay for the health care of more than 7 million younger Americans who suffer from significant disabilities.
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07-19-2009

New York Times: Defying slump, 13 states insure more children

Despite budgets ravaged by the recession, at least 13 states have invested millions of dollars this year to cover 250,000 more children with subsidized government health insurance.
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07-17-2009

St. Joseph News-Press: Local voices debate health care legislation

Congress continues its effort to pass health care legislation before the autumn leaves turn, opponents calling the consideration too hasty and supporters regarding it as time-critical.
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07-17-2009

New York Times: Harry and Louise return, with a new message

Harry and Louise have changed their minds about health care reform.
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07-17-2009

Wall Street Journal: Budget blow for health plan

Congress’s chief budget scorekeeper cast a new cloud over Democratic efforts to overhaul the nation’s health care system, telling lawmakers Thursday that the main proposals being considered would fail to contain costs.
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07-17-2009

New York Times: House committee approves health care bill

The House Ways and Means Committee approved legislation early Friday to overhaul the health care system and expand insurance coverage after a marathon session.
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07-16-2009

Wall Street Journal: Squeeze for some in middle class

Legislation moving forward in Congress would require nearly every American to carry health insurance.
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07-16-2009

Springfield News-Leader : Springfield commission aims to provide health care for uninsured

Better access to health care may be a little closer for Greene County’s uninsured and underinsured families.
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07-16-2009

Kansas City Star: Poll: Americans split on health care

Americans are divided over how they want health care fixed and whom they trust most to do it, refusing to forge a consensus for or against President Barack Obama as he and Congress march toward a historic overhaul.
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07-16-2009

Wall Street Journal: Democrats turn up the heat on insurance industry

Democrats ratcheted up an offensive against health insurers Wednesday, proposing $100 billion in new fees on the industry, as health care legislation took another step forward in the Senate.
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07-16-2009

Washington Post: Senate panel advances health care overhaul

President Obama’s ambitious drive to overhaul the nation’s $2.3 trillion health care system cleared a key Senate committee yesterday.
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07-15-2009

Reuters: UnitedHealth in "constructive" talks: CEO

UnitedHealth Group is in "constructive" talks with lawmakers about how to best care for underserved communities efficiently, its chief executive, Stephen Hemsley, said on Wednesday.
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07-15-2009

Missourinet: Health care debate getting warmer in Washington

Health care legislation moves closer to floor debate in both houses of Congress.
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07-15-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Senate health committee clears insurance overhaul

The Senate health committee cast a milestone vote Wednesday to approve legislation expanding insurance coverage to nearly all Americans, becoming the first congressional panel to act on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.
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07-15-2009

Los Angeles Times: House Democrats unveil health care overhaul plan

Capping months of work, House Democratic leaders on Tuesday introduced their plan for a sweeping remake of the nation’s health care system.
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07-15-2009

Wall Street Journal: Small business faces big bite

House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled sweeping health care legislation that would hit all but the smallest businesses with a penalty equal to 8% of payroll if they fail to provide health insurance to workers.
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07-15-2009

New York Times: House health plan outlines higher taxes on rich

House Democratic leaders took a big step toward guaranteeing health insurance for most Americans on Tuesday as they unveiled a bill that detailed how they would expand coverage, slow the growth of Medicare, raise taxes on high-income people and penalize employers who do not provide health benefits to their workers.
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07-14-2009

USA Today: How much health care for $1 trillion?

The White House and Democratic congressional leaders, scrambling to pass health care bills within the next few weeks, are trying to keep the cost of legislation that expands coverage and controls costs to about $1 trillion over 10 years — a benchmark for moderates in both parties.
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07-14-2009

Reuters: Factbox: Major provisions of the House health care plan

Here are major provisions of the U.S. House of Representatives’ health care plan introduced by Democratic leaders on Tuesday.
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07-14-2009

Joplin Globe: Local employers question call for coverage mandate

Retail giant Wal-Mart is parting company with many other retailers and businesses: Its executives are calling for health care reform to include a requirement that most employers provide health insurance coverage for their workers.
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07-14-2009

Rolla Daily News: Reform takes on many options

Health care reform is shaping up to be a complicated battle with several options being tossed around in the Capitol Hill, while Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-8th District) remains undecided.
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07-14-2009

Wall Street Journal: GOP’s Grassley key to Senate hopes for a bipartisan deal on health care

Democrats now have a supermajority in the Senate. But their top priority, a health care overhaul, may well need the blessing of a veteran Republican, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, if it has any hope of becoming law.
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07-14-2009

Washington Post: Obama names Surgeon General

He says Benjamin would be voice in health care debate.
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07-14-2009

Los Angeles Times: Pressure on Obama mounts over health care

The president has been a cheerleader for reform, but he’ll soon need to address specifics: how to pay for it, and whether government-run insurance should be involved.
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07-14-2009

Wall Street Journal: Discord hinders health bill

The effort to pass a health-care overhaul is being frustrated by divisions among Democrats over a wide range of issues, from how to pay for the measure to its impacts on small business and rural areas.
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07-14-2009

New York Times: Obama prods lawmakers in meeting on health bill

President Obama had a message on Monday for critics who think he has lost momentum in his bid to overhaul health care: “Don’t bet against us.”
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07-13-2009

USA Today: Poll: Americans want health care bill, but not the cost

Most Americans say it’s important to overhaul health care this year, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, but they are less enthusiastic about some of the proposals to pay for it.
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07-13-2009

Reuters: Health care costs to U.S. companies seen rising 9 percent

Health care costs for U.S. businesses are seen rising by 9 percent in 2010, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC.UL survey, which showed that employers will expect workers to pay more of the bill.
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07-13-2009

Reuters: Republicans plan rival health care plan

Pushing back against Democratic plans to overhaul the U.S. health care system, Republicans on Tuesday readied a less costly alternative they say will make insurance more affordable.
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07-13-2009

Kansas City Star: On health care reform, businesses big and small have divergent approaches

Business is far from unified in its lobbying efforts for health care reform.
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07-13-2009

Wall Street Journal: Sick and getting sicker

For entrepreneurs trying to start or run a business, the obstacles are huge. But few loom as large as one: health care.
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07-13-2009

Missourinet: Nixon signs 11 bills and vetoes 18 to wrap up session

Governor Nixon has wrapped up his work on the legislative session, signing the budget bills plus 122 others, vetoing a total of 23.
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07-13-2009

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: WH summons top lawmakers for health meeting

The White House summoned two lawmakers critical to President Barack Obama’s hopes for health care overhaul to a private meeting Monday as the timetable for a comprehensive bill continued to slip.
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07-13-2009

Springfield News-Leader : Health overhaul unlikely by August

Legislation to overhaul the nation’s health systems is unlikely to make it through the House and Senate before the August target set by President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders, lawmakers said Sunday.
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07-13-2009

Los Angeles Times: Concern grows that health care overhaul won’t cut costs

Although still publicly beating the drums for President Obama’s health care overhaul, representatives of some of the biggest players are beginning to express concern behind the scenes that it won’t do enough about the major problem: runaway medical costs.
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07-12-2009

Washington Post: Obama’s focus on health care will be crucial to reform

After a week of international diplomacy, President Obama returns to Washington this week facing an even greater diplomatic challenge: nudging the large and controversial health care reform package toward consensus on Capitol Hill.
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07-12-2009

Wall Street Journal: Help for the uninsured

Federal stimulus funding is helping community health centers nationwide deal with an influx of newly uninsured patients.
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07-12-2009

New York Times: For doctors in Congress, little harmony on health care

In the struggle to overhaul the nation’s health care system, 16 physicians have ended up in ringside seats — as members of the House and Senate.
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07-11-2009

Joplin Globe: Missouri farmers face tough choices getting health insurance

Kerry Rose knows firsthand the risks farmers face when they gamble on working in one of the nation’s most dangerous occupations without health insurance.
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07-11-2009

Boston Globe: Kennedy’s voice missed in health debate

Progress on a health care overhaul in Congress slackened this week, slowing momentum at the start of a critical month for President Obama’s top domestic priority.
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07-11-2009

Wall Street Journal: Health bill in House relies on wealth tax

House Democrats plan to pay for their health care legislation with a big tax increase on wealthy households, aiming to raise $540 billion over the next decade with a package of surtaxes on families making $350,000 or more.
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07-10-2009

Kaiser Health News: Exchanges may play key role in an overhauled health system

When Michael Kovner decided to buy health insurance earlier this year, he logged onto his computer, entered his age and zip code on a special Web site and studied the nearly 20 different policies that popped up.
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07-10-2009

Wall Street Journal: Democrats open to idea of forming health co-op

Senate Democratic leaders appeared open Thursday to establishing a non-government cooperative as part of a U.S. health care overhaul.
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07-10-2009

Boston Globe: Mass. health overhaul offers lessons for U.S. program

A fear that employers will drop private coverage and dump their workers onto federally subsidized health plans is a major concern among lawmakers crafting healthcare legislation on Capitol Hill.
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07-10-2009

New York Times: Democrats are at odds on financing health care

House and Senate Democrats appeared on Thursday to be on a collision course over how to pay for a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
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07-09-2009

Reuters: Retail group opposes Wal-Mart on health care

The U.S. retail industry’s main lobby group voiced its strong opposition to employer mandated health care coverage on Thursday, pitting itself against Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, which has said it would support such a measure.
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07-09-2009

Reuters: Big changes in Medicare pay key to health reforms

Recent industry deals to accept lower costs for the Medicare health program are a first step in health care reform but more substantial payment changes will be needed to shore up the ailing system in the long term and improve patient care.
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07-09-2009

Wall Street Journal: Health care overhaul goals prove challenging

Lawmakers are trying to keep the price of a health overhaul near $1 trillion over a decade. They also want the plan to result in near-universal coverage, so that more than 95% of Americans have health insurance.
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07-09-2009

Kansas City Star: Conservative Democrats break ranks on health care

Conservative House Democrats are demanding significant changes before they can support a sweeping health care overhaul, forcing the House to join the Senate in delaying action on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.
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07-09-2009

Washington Post: Health care overhaul suffers another setback

The drive to remake the nation’s health care system suffered yet another setback in Congress on Thursday when a pivotal group of House Democrats demanded changes in legislation the leadership was drafting on a fast track.
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07-09-2009

Los Angeles Times: Baucus and Grassley team up on bipartisan health care compromises

Often outsiders in their own parties, the Montana Democrat and Iowa Republican believe that together they can find a middle ground on the divisive issue.
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07-09-2009

Reuters: For many Americans, health coverage is key to a job

Real estate agent Lisa DeWaal serves coffee at a Starbucks outlet for four hours every morning before she goes to the office to start her "day job."
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07-09-2009

Washington Post: Discord on health care dulls luster of new pacts

The Obama administration, hoping to boost its health care reform effort with financial concessions from the hospital and pharmaceutical industries, is instead confronting deep dissension on several fronts within Democratic ranks and possible defections among key constituencies.
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07-09-2009

Los Angeles Times: Health care reform gets boost from hospital groups

In the face of mounting Republican opposition to its health care agenda, the Obama administration received a boost Wednesday, winning a preliminary agreement with leading hospital groups to cut federal payments to the industry over the next decade.
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07-09-2009

New York Times: Democrats divide over a proposal to tax health benefits

An effort by Senator Max Baucus of Montana to develop compromise health care legislation has come under sharp assault by fellow Democrats who have urged him to abandon a plan to help pay for the bill by taxing some employer-provided health benefits.
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07-08-2009

NPR: Health care overhaul ignores illegal immigrants

As Congress wrangles with overhauling the health care system, there is one population not being discussed. No proposal for a national health plan would cover the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.
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07-08-2009

Missourinet: Survey points to small business concerns over health care costs

An online survey of Missouri small businesses finds the cost of health care is a huge concern - above taxes, energy, and other issues.
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07-08-2009

NPR: New face of the uninsured: Middle-class Americans

Deborah Llavanes is one of a growing number of middle-income Americans who, because of the recession, have lost their jobs and their health coverage.
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07-08-2009

Kansas City Star: Questions and answers about health legislation

President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority is revamping the nation’s health care system.
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07-08-2009

Missourinet: Nixon blames House leadership for lack of major autism bill

Governor Nixon signs a minor autism bill, blaming House leadership for blocking a bill that would have mandated insurance coverage of the disorder.
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07-08-2009

Reuters: Americans doubt insurance plans will cover cancer

Fewer than half of all Americans trust that their health insurance plans would pay for the full costs of cancer treatment and nearly two-thirds falsely believe Medicare would not pay anything, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
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07-08-2009

New York Times: Health deals could harbor hidden costs

The deals, trumpeted loudly by the White House, would each help pay for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system.
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07-08-2009

Washington Post: Health care overhaul racing against the clock

President Barack Obama is struggling to show progress in a race against the clock to revamp the nation’s health care system this year.
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07-08-2009

Wall Street Journal: Support slips for tax on employee health benefits

Senators are cooling to a proposal that would impose a first-ever tax on employer-provided health insurance and are giving renewed attention to taxes on the wealthy to pay for a sweeping health care overhaul.
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07-08-2009

Washington Post: In retooled health care system, who will say no?

How will tough decisions be made about what to spend money on? In a country where "rationing" is a dirty word, who will say no?
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07-08-2009

New York Times: In health reform, a cancer offers an acid test

It’s become popular to pick your own personal litmus test for health care reform.
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07-07-2009

NPR: Obama backs helping hand for long-term care

Until recently, it looked like long-term care was not going to be a serious part of any potential health care overhaul.
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07-07-2009

Reuters: Health care reform could impact wellness programs

Company wellness programs, designed to coax workers to eat better, smoke less and exercise more, could undergo transformations of their own under health care reform proposals under consideration in Congress.
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07-07-2009

Springfield News-Leader : Health care plans show party divide

Congress is back in session this week after a break, facing a self-imposed deadline to hold House and Senate floor votes on a health care overhaul before lawmakers take their August recess.
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