Posts Tagged ‘senate-finance’
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Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 01:24 | Comments Off
Health-Care Debate: The Return of the Public-Option Trigger?Categories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
Nearly 98% of bills that make it to the Senate floor for a full debate wind up passing. But that doesn’t mean that the Senate’s big health-care bill — which this weekend got the 60 votes it needed to move to the floor — is a done deal.
A few of the senators who voted Saturday to begin debate on the bill rushed out to the Sunday news shows to say they wouldn’t vote for final passage of the bill in ..read more
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 08:05 | Comments Off
$172.8 Billion In Health-Care Savings, ExplainedCategories: Wall Street Journal
Wade through the CBO estimates of the House health-care bill, and you’ll notice some big projected savings for things like this:
Incorporating Productivity Improvements Into Market Basket Updates That Do Not Already Incorporate Such Improvements
In all, in fact, the CBO says there are $172.8 billion in savings (spread over 10 years) tied to these changes in “market basket updates.” We talked with Eric Hammelman, a senior manager at the D.C. analysis shop Avalere Health, to figure out what this means.
Every ..read more
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Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 00:04 | Comments Off
Did Your Doctor Get Paid to Give Talks for Merck?Categories: Wall Street Journal
Merck yesterday became the latest company to tell the world something about its payments to doctors. Specifically, the company published this list of doctors (along with a few nurses and pharmacists) paid by the company to give speeches.
All told, the company paid a total of more than $3 million, spread among 1,078 people. Providers get paid about $1,500 for a typical speech. “Increasing the visibility of our activities … will enhance the public’s trust,” Merck CEO Dick Clark said ..read more
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Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 23:24 | Comments Off
How Many Jobs Has Pfizer Cut This Year?Categories: Wall Street Journal
When the Pfizer-Wyeth deal was announced earlier this year, Pfizer said it would cut about 15% of the combined companies’ work-force — just under 20,000 jobs. That figure included 8,000 jobs that Pfizer had already said it planned to cut.
When we checked in with Pfizer last week, after the deal closed, a spokesman told us those cuts had already begun on the Pfizer side — but didn’t tell us how many jobs had been eliminated so far.
Pfizer’s third-quarter earnings announcement, ..read more
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Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 01:42 | Comments Off
Why the Health-Care Bill Could Be Good for ChantixCategories: Wall Street Journal
Any time you have a great-big bill — like, say, one to make major changes to the U.S. health-insurance system — there are going to be lots of interesting nooks and crannies, with all sorts of business implications.
One example: The health care bill that passed the Senate Finance committee last week could boost sales of drugs that are supposed to help people quit smoking, such as Pfizer’s Chantix and GlaxoSmithKline’s Zyban.
As this morning’s WSJ points out, the Senate Finance ..read more
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Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 09:19 | Comments Off
Health Bill Clears Senate Finance CommitteeCategories: Wall Street Journal, health -
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 07:00 | Comments Off
PM Report: Next Front for Health-Care BattleCategories: Wall Street Journal, health -
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 04:31 | Comments Off
Olympia Snowe: I’ll Vote Yes Today. Tomorrow Is Another Issue.Categories: Wall Street Journal
Today’s One Big Question in the health care debate — How will Olympia Snowe vote on the Senate Finance bill? — has been answered. She’ll vote in favor.
But she made a point of noting that this doesn’t mean she’ll back the health-care overhaul legislation all the way down the line. “My vote today, is my vote today,” she said moments ago. “It doesn’t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow.”
As WSJ’s WashWire notes, Snowe praised the bill for preventing insurers ..read more
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Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 00:44 | Comments Off
News Hub: Key Vote on Health BillCategories: Wall Street Journal, health -
Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 07:06 | Comments Off
Washington Update: Pelosi, Labor and the Public OptionCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
Now that you’ve had a chance to read every page of yesterday’s CBO estimates of the Senate Finance bill, here’s a roundup of what’s happening in the Washington health-care debate. Today’s familiar theme: The public option.
The United Auto Workers and the Teamsters say they’ll fight the Senate Finance bill unless it’s changed from its current form, Bloomberg News reports. (The committee will vote on the bill on Tuesday.) Many unions have been openly opposed to the bill’s tax on expensive ..read more




