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It’s crunch time in the fight over a health-care bill, so groups for and against the legislation are getting ready for a final push before congressional votes that could come later this month.

These efforts take money, of course, and advocate groups have put together war chests, much of it slated to go to advertising. Here are some of the spending plans outlined in a WSJ report this morning:

Elective cosmetic surgery, which is often not covered by insurance, has dropped in demand during the recession, Anjali Athavaley reports on the News Hub panel.

The rest is here: News Hub: Plastic Surgery Demand Sags/a>

President Obama was back on the campaign trail Monday, using his election-style oratory to stump for a health-care overhaul that still awaits an uncertain fate in Congress.

As is the case routinely these days, the president took aim at health insurers. He lambasted them 22 times in a speech to a college audience near Philadelphia, according to the Washington Post. “How much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it,” Obama said in the speech punchline.

President Obama might seem like a pushover with some liberals and the Chinese, but in other regards, he’s showing he’s tough by taking on insurance companies, teacher unions and Pakistan. Executive Washington Editor Jerry Seib explains.

Read the rest here:  Will Obama Prove He Can Be Tough on Health?/a>

The overhaul swirl of late has been focused largely on medical costs, insurance regulation, coverage mandates and the like. One pivotal issue has gotten less attention: abortion.

Five CEOs from the health-insurance big dogs (UnitedHealth, WellPoint, etc.) are at the White House this morning to discuss — or more accurately, take flack — over the health overhaul’s issue de jour: rising insurance premiums.

Yesterday’s health summit produced seven hours of televised history but little evidence of movement toward a health-care overhaul. No surprise there, but the dividing lines between Democrats and Republicans are clearer now and there could be a silver lining in that.

The big gulfs come down to three basic philosophical disagreements, the WSJ’s Capital Journal column says this morning:

Well, there was no breakthrough of understanding between Democrats and Republicans over health care at today’s summit, but there were areas of agreement on some issues. Of course even where there were shared goals, there was division over how to achieve them.

But the aim of the summit was to find shared ground, so here are some small patches of agreement during the session:

As expectations hover at low levels for the outcome of today’s bipartisan health summit, the Obama White House is preparing a modest overhaul proposal in case more-sweeping plans remain stalled in Congress.

The fallback plan would extend health insurance to around 15 million people by expanding current federal-state programs, the WSJ reports this morning. Insurers also would be required to allow family members to stay on their parents’ health-care plans up to age 26, it says.

President Obama has juggled the health-overhaul plans approved by the House and the Senate and added some twists of his own to come up with a White House proposal he hopes can win enough support for passage in both chambers.

The Obama plan is crafted mainly from the Senate-passed bill, but not entirely. Here are some of the big points in the proposal, as posted on the White House Web site: