Health Care

The death of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is a blow to Democratic efforts to pass the Senate version of health care reform in the House — they’re now down one vote from a swing district Democrat willing to make the tough choice.
But what might turn out to be an insurmountable problem is the intransigence of [...]

Georgia’s House Republicans have a simple warning for Democratic leaders still hoping to pass health care reform this year: Our state can’t afford it.
In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the Republicans argue that the Democrats’ plans to expand Medicaid, a program funded jointly by state and federal [...]

As Republican leaders are urging President Obama to scrap the Democrats’ health care reform legislation and start the process from scratch, they’ve found an unlikely ally in Rep. Dennis Kucinich. The Ohio Democrat — a perennial presidential candidate — wants President Obama to consider government-sponsored, single-payer health coverage in lieu of the insurance industry-based reforms [...]

Since Scott Brown’s stunning Senate victory in Massachusetts last month, the thinking among a good number of moderate Democrats seems to be that simply having the House pass the Senate’s version of health care reform — complete with $100 million in special Medicaid funding for Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D) Nebraska — would leave them vulnerable [...]

The trouble facing Democrats as they continue to push for health care reform is that, in a country of roughly 300 million people, almost 260 million already have health insurance, and of those who don’t, a vast majority likely won’t face any medical emergencies this year. Contrast that with those without jobs, who feel the [...]

Via The Hill, here’s House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) telling Fox News yesterday that the extended debate over Democratic priorities (ie, health care reform) has created an uncertainty in the business community that has hobbled economic recovery.
“It’s the policies that are coming out of this administration and liberals here in Congress that are holding [...]

On Monday, President Obama (via his budget proposal) put out the request for six additional months of extra federal Medicaid funding to help strapped states weather the economic downturn. Today, Senate Democrats complied.
Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader, and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of a key health panel, will introduce legislation this week to provide [...]

In the face of widespread suspicion that health care reform is stalled indefinitely, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters this afternoon that Democrats will succeed in passing the party’s top domestic priority, adding that “we are very close to doing that in a comprehensive way.”
How? Well, it won’t happen by the House simply taking [...]

As we’ve written here before, Medicaid funding is a tricky business, not least of all because program enrollment always jumps in times of economic turmoil, when state budgets are least able to absorb the additional costs.
In recognition of that flawed formula, Congress last year provided an increase in the federal portion of Medicaid funding — [...]

The message from the Senate was clear: More screenings, not fewer, are better for women’s health.