Posts Tagged ‘health-care overhaul’
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 04:21 | Comments Off
What Obama Wants in the Health-Care OverhaulCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
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:
The plan’s cost is pegged at $950 billion over a decade — ..read more -
Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 04:31 | Comments Off
The Insurance-Premium Kettle That Keeps Getting HotterCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
And speaking of the health-overhaul proposals (see previous post), we note an armful of stories today dealing with what has become a third-rail issue — the rates at which premiums are going up for individual health plans.
The cost of health policies has been an eye-of-the-beholder issue for a long time in the overhaul debate. There’s been broad agreement that individual rates are headed up, but overhaul opponents have contended they would rise even more under Democratic-backed health-system changes, while the ..read more
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Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 02:19 | Comments Off
Obama Readies Single Democratic Plan Before Health SummitCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
President Obama is making headway on coming up with a single Democratic overhaul proposal before next week’s televised health summit with Republicans, according to reports this morning.
The presidential plan is supposed to be posted on the Internet by Monday, which — given the differences between the bills already passed by House and Senate Democrats — is taking some doing. Nonetheless, “There will be one proposal” with “some of the best ideas” form both bills, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said yesterday.
The ..read more
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Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 01:07 | Comments Off
State of the Union: Obama on ‘Health-Insurance Reform’Categories: Wall Street Journal, insurancePresident Obama was more than 3,000 words into his 7,000-word State of the Union speech last night by the time he got to the health-care overhaul.
What’s more, he referred to the health-care overhaul as “health-insurance reform” — a subtle shift from “health-care reform” and perhaps an indication of the Dems’ move toward less-sweeping changes, and their sharpened focus on health insurance regulation.
Here’s a selection of Obama’s comments on the subject. (For the Republican response, scroll down to the bottom ..read more
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Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 02:34 | Comments Off
The Other Health-Care Overhaul: The Debt CommissionCategories: Wall Street Journal
The future of the Dems’ big health-care bill looks murky, but there’s another big Washington plan that could have profound effects on health care: The idea of creating a bipartisan commission to cut the budget deficit is gaining ground.
In the latest proposed iteration, the commission would include Republicans and Democrats appointed by the White House and by congressional leaders from both parties. The group would be charged with coming up a plan by the end of the year to cut ..read more
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Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 01:01 | Comments Off
What Does Scott Brown Mean for the Health-Care Debate?Categories: Wall Street Journal
So maybe that big health-care bill won’t pass. Either that, or the Dems will have to thread the legislative needle even as opposition to the bill is running high. That’s the gist of this morning’s Washington coverage (e.g. WSJ, Washington Post, New York Times, Politico).
The key points:
Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts means the Dems no longer have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That means Republicans could (and almost certainly would) block any wholesale changes to the Senate health-care bill. The ..read more -
Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 09:50 | Comments Off
Dems May Seek Billions More From Drug and Device CompaniesCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
Some health-care news out of Washington this afternoon:
More fees may be coming for drug and device makers, the WSJ reports. Dems may add $10 billion in fees for device makers over 10 years, on top of the roughly $20 billion already included in the House and Senate bills. The final health-care bill may also cut reimbursements or increase fees on drug makers by an additional $10 billion over 10 years, beyond the $80 billion the industry agreed to last year.
Democrats ..read more
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Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 06:04 | Comments Off
Hey, Docs: Walgreens Also Says Medicaid Doesn’t Pay EnoughCategories: Wall Street Journal
Walgreens is threatening to stop filling Medicaid prescriptions at 64 of its 121 pharmacies in Washington state because of state cuts in payments.
Walgreens, the biggest drug-store chain in the country, has been down this road before. It threatened to pull out of Medicaid programs last year before settlements were reached in Delaware and in an earlier dust-up in Washington state.
This time, the chain says it is losing money on 95% of the brand-name drugs it dispenses to Medicaid patients ..read more
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Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 04:18 | Comments Off
Break’s Over: Back to Health-Care PolicyCategories: Wall Street Journal
If, like a kid after summer vacation, you’ve forgotten everything you learned before the holiday break, allow us to suggest a quick re-entry to the health-care debate.
It’s time for the House and Senate to hash out the (substantial) differences between the bills they’ve passed. And while it’s pretty clear that the House is going to have to do most of the giving in order to get a final bill through the Senate. The new, government-backed plan that’s included in ..read more
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Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 08:10 | Comments Off
Looking for Overhaul Answers? Here Are Bunches of QuestionsCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
The media coverage spawned by the health-care overhaul has taken many forms, but one of the most popular vehicles — according to our less-than-scientific observation — has been that venerable journalism standby, the Q&A.
Editors love the question-and-answer format for offering up lots of factoids about complex data in bite-size chunks. Deliver it in a conversational, reader-friendly tone and you’ve got a winner, the thinking goes.
So in case you share a hankering for Q&A’s, here a sampling from ..read more

