Orshe

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.

President Obama outlines his three-part proposal for health care reform in an address at the White House. Courtesy Fox News.

See original here: Obama’s New Health Care Proposal/a>

President Obama outlines his three-part proposal for health-care reform in an address at the White House. Courtesy Fox News.

View original here:  Obama Outlines Health-Care Proposal/a>

To hear some Democrats tell it over the weekend, the health-care overhaul has already passed Congress, leaving just some procedural matters to wrap up before the changes begin.

“Health-care reform has already passed both the House and the Senate with not only a majority in the Senate but a supermajority. And we’re not talking about changing any rules here,” White House adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle says in the Washington Post this morning.

Some obese children as young as 3 years old have elevated levels of a marker that is linked to heart disease in later life, a new study 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:

Not surprisingly, food companies and doctors’ groups rushed to back Michelle Obama’s new campaign targeting improved eating habits and more exercise for kids.

But the most bubbly statement we spotted came from the American Beverage Association — a trade group that’s been trying to quell ideas of putting a tax on sugary drinks.

On Abbott’s earnings call today, an analyst asked CEO Miles White about the company’s short-term M&A strategy. “Is your plate full?” the analyst asked, according to a transcript from Thomson Reuters.

The company cut a deal last fall to buy Solvay’s vaccines business for about $7 billion. That followed a January deal to buy Advanced Medical Optics, an eye-care company, for more than $1 billion.

But there are still some deals that would interest the company, White said:

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.

Enough already about the White House gate crashers. What we’re really interested in is the key health-care players who came to the Obama White House this year by invitation.

As it happens, the administration just released a bunch of names from its visitor list for the first several months of the year — you can search a nicely sortable list on the White House Web site.