senate HELP committee

Following in the footsteps of House health care leaders, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, plans to hold a hearing on contentious new recommendations for screening breast cancer, Harkin’s office said this afternoon.
The senator has yet to announce a date, but with the health reform debate likely [...]

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), interviewed today in The Washington Post, points to the central reason that a health reform bill that hits the floor with a public option already included stands a better chance of ultimately keeping that provision: Namely, the burden of getting 60 votes would shift from supporters trying to add it to [...]

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told reporters on Friday that a public option will be included in the health reform bill ultimately signed by President Obama.
Harkin said that a “vast majority” — as many as 55 of the Senate’s 60 Democrats — support a robust public [...]

Even as Senate Finance Committee Democrats are patting themselves on the back over a damn fine cost estimate for their enormous health reform proposal, Republican leaders are quick to remind us that it’s a far different bill than the rest of the chamber will be voting on. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) just issued [...]

Even as the Senate Finance Committee just shot down a long-debated proposal to create a public insurance plan, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is predicting a victory for the proposal on the Senate floor, according to The Iowa Independent, TWI’s sister site.
“Why shouldn’t we have a [...]

The Iowa Independent reports a bold prediction today from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa):
At his 32nd annual Steak Fry fundraiser, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) was cheered by an enthusiastic crowd when he declared that a health care reform bill would pass both houses of Congress “by Christmas,” and that it would include a government-run, not-for-profit [...]

Still recovering from prostate cancer surgery, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) just shot out a statement reaffirming the importance of the public insurance option to the Democrats’ health reform legislation. Dodd had stepped in to replace the ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee during the July [...]

So implies Congressional Quarterly, which reported today that the Obama administration is leaning toward a strategy of basing its “bipartisanship” determination on GOP amendments to the health bill, rather than the number of GOP votes the proposal ultimately wins.
[P]rivately, White House officials said the administration is moving closer to advancing the overhaul under a congressional [...]

In the wake of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s party-line passage of sweeping health reform legislation this morning, all eyes are now on Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who’s still scrambling to craft a proposal that can win GOP votes.
To succeed, Baucus will have to stray decidedly from the HELP [...]

President Obama today made official an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry to cut prescription drug costs for the nation’s seniors.
As it is, Medicare patients are forced to pay the full cost for their prescription drugs when annual expenses fall between $2,700 and $6,154. Under the new agreement, drug companies would pick of 50 [...]