Orshe

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:

To no one’s surprise, Jon Corzine signed New Jersey’s medical marijuana bill into law yesterday, on his last day on the job as the state’s governor.

That makes 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana. But as both the WSJ and the New York Times note this morning, research into the medical uses of the drug remains rather limited.

The morning papers are full of speculation about what the Democrats will do with their health-care bill if Scott Brown, a Republican, wins the senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. Massachusetts is holding a special election for the seat today; if Brown defeats Martha Coakley, a Democrat, the Dems will lose their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

It looks like Scott Reuben, the Massachusetts anesthesiologist said to have used phony research data in 21 published papers, has reached a plea deal with the feds.

Federal prosecutors accused Reuben of health-care fraud for allegedly faking data that suggested after-surgery benefits from painkillers including Merck’s Vioxx and Pfizer’s Bextra and Celebrex, the Justice Department said yesterday. The Justice announcement said he faces as much as a 10-year sentence and a $250,000 fine.

The push to clamp down on the relationship between doctors and drug and device companies came to New Jersey today. A report from the attorney general’s office there called for state agencies to create a bunch of new rules that would:

Bar doctors and their office staff from accepting food from drug companies, “whether in-office, at health care facilities or in commercial venues, such as restaurants.” Laws in Vermont and Massachusetts recently went into effect imposing similar restrictions.

Medical device companies like Medtronic have been under fire lately for their megabucks deals with doctors who can influence purchases of medical products.

So what happens to doctors who complain about these types of relationships? Those who, in effect, are whistleblowers?

As Republicans laid into Max Baucus’s health-care bill Tuesday, the senator said he’d accept some of the more than 500 amendments that other Finance Committee members have suggested for the legislation.

The changes would lower the penalty on those who don’t buy coverage and blunt the effects of a tax on high-end health-insurance policies, the WSJ notes. And they’d increase government subsidies to help people buy insurance.

Sen. John Kerry hasn’t been shy about supporting new taxes to pay for the health-care overhaul. The Massachusetts Democrat was the force behind a provision in the Senate Finance Committee’s health bill that puts a 35% tax on generous health-insurance plans, the bill’s main source of new revenue.

We’re combing through the 223-page health overhaul bill that Sen. Max Baucus unveiled this morning. Here are some tidbits about what kinds of plans insurers would need to offer to be allowed into the insurance exchange and who would be eligible for insurance subsidies:

While analysts are scouring the proposed Baucus health-reform bill, a draft of which has been circulating since the weekend, here’s one tidbit that stuck out in the dry language — Medicaid will no longer classify smoking cessation prescription drugs as “excludable.” Put another way, the medicines will be covered by the program that provides coverage to low-income people.