I can't see how the struggle for a people-oriented health care system can be separated from the fight against the corporate-takeover of our political system. Therefore, I'm including this interview with Senator Russ Feingold in today's healthcare reform clippings.

Russ Feingold Speaks Out

John Nichols | January 13, 2011

Russ Feingold was a different kind of senator—more committed to progressive principles than to a party, an internationalist who opposed free-trade deals because they served multinational corporations rather than multinational communities, a stalwart defender of the Constitution whose commitment to civil liberties and regard for the requirement that wars be declared by Congress led him to stand alone against presidents and colleagues. Feingold's independence and rectitude were such that the most conservative member of the Senate, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, would mark the departure of the most progressive member by saying of the Wisconsin Democrat, "One man of great integrity [kept] his word and [held] to his values through every crisis and every vote."
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/4617-russ-feingold-speaks-out

AP-GfK Poll: Opposition to health care law eases

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and JENNIFER AGIESTA, Associated PressMon Jan 17, 3:50 am ET

WASHINGTON – As lawmakers shaken by the shooting of a colleague return to the health care debate, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds raw feelings over President Barack Obama's overhaul have subsided.

Ahead of a vote on repeal in the GOP-led House this week, strong opposition to the law stands at 30 percent, close to the lowest level registered in AP-GfK surveys dating to September 2009
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_ap_poll_health_care/print

E.J. Dionne Jr. - GOP Test: A Civil And Honest Health-Care Discussion

Having properly postponed all legislative action last week out of respect for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of the Tucson shootings, the House Republican leadership decided it could abide no further delay in a vote on its "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." And so, as a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor explained, "thoughtful consideration of the health care bill" is slated for this week.

It's disappointing that the House did not wait a bit longer before bringing up an issue that has aroused so much division, acrimony and disinformation. After all, the repeal bill has no chance of becoming law. The president would certainly veto it, and the Democratic-led Senate is unlikely to pass it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/16/AR2011011603150.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

'Job-killing' regulation? 'Job-killing' spending? Let's kill this GOP canard.

By Steven Pearlstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 6, 2011; 10:37 PM

Republicans these days can't get through a sentence without tossing in their new favorite adjective, "job-killing."

There's "job-killing legislation," in particular the health-care reform law. And "job-killing regulations," especially anything coming out of the EPA and the IRS. Big deficits are always "job-killing," which might come as something of a surprise to all you Keynesians out there, along with the "job-killing spending binge" and even "job-killing stimulus projects."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/06/AR2011010605889_pf.html

Primary Care A Compelling Mission For Harvard Medical School Student

The clinic starts at 5 p.m. sharp with a team huddle in the conference room. A black plastic tray of stale bagel halves and crusted cantaloupe sits on the table, remnants of a breakfast meeting, but despite our medical-student hunger, we focus on the task at hand.

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/January/12/ishani-ganguli-primary-care.aspx

Accountable Care Organizations, Explained : NPR

As the House begins debate today on an effort to repeal the health care law, we took a closer look at one of the provisions of the law that health care providers are talking about the most — accountable care organizations.

ACOs take up only seven pages of the massive new health law but the idea has providers buzzing. ACOs are a new model for delivering health services that offers doctors and hospitals financial incentives to provide good quality care to Medicare beneficiaries while keeping down costs. A cottage industry of consultants has sprung up to help even ordinary hospitals become the first ACOs on the block.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/18/132937232/accountable-care-organizations-explained?ft=1&f=1001

JANUARY 18, 2011, 8:32 AM

Democrats Make a Case for the Health Care Law

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

With House Republicans planning to approve a bill on Wednesday that would repeal the big health care overhaul, Democrats on Tuesday ramped up their efforts to defend the law.

The secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, will hold a news conference on Tuesday morning to discuss a report by her agency showing that as many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have some pre-existing medical condition that could lead them to be denied health insurance coverage without protections included in the new law.

“Under the full range of policies in the Affordable Care Act to be in place by 2014, Americans living with pre-existing conditions are free from discrimination,” the assistant secretary of health and human services for public affairs, Richard Sorian, wrote in a blog post.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/democrats-make-a-case-for-the-health-care-law/?pagemode=print

With House Set To Debate Healthcare, Government Finds Up To Half Of Americans Under 65 Have Preexisting Conditions

With House set to debate healthcare, government finds up to half of Americans under 65 have preexisting conditions

By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 18, 2011; 9:07 AM

As many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have medical problems that are red flags for health insurers, according to an analysis that marks the government's first attempt to quantify the number of people at risk of being rejected by insurance companies or paying more for coverage.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/17/AR2011011702842_pf.html

The House Health Care Repeal Vote, The National Debt, And The Imperative For Democrats And Republicans To Compromise

This week's House health care repeal vote is little more than a political stunt--everyone knows the effort will die in the Senate.

But, when the day is done the only way for the Republicans to do anything with the new health law will be to work out a compromise—repeal before the 2012 elections is impossible and it isn’t very likely after the 2012 elections. Even if the Republicans sweep the White House and both houses of Congress in 2012, it is highly unlikely they will have the 60 Senate votes needed for a full repeal.

So, in the end, a compromise will be needed.

http://healthpolicyandmarket.blogspot.com/2011/01/house-health-care-repeal-vote-national.html

Our View: Health Care Repeal Vote Is An Empty Gesture

January 9

Congress would do better to fix the law than to make futile attempts to get rid of it.

Republican candidates for Congress knew -- or should have known -- when they were promising to repeal President Obama's health care law that it would never happen.

Now, many of the candidates who railed against health care reform while campaigning last summer and fall have taken office and they are making a show of trying to keep their promise.

Unfortunately, the exercise in promise-keeping is as phony as the promise was in the first place.

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/editorials/health-care-repeal-vote-is-an-empty-gesture_2011-01-09.html

Repeal Vote Is Just Republicans' First Step On Health Care - Carrie Budoff Brown

The highly anticipated vote Wednesday to repeal the health care reform bill will make headlines and count as a promise kept by House Republicans.

But in the end, it’s really just for show.

VIDEO: Daschle repeal has no chance

VIDEO: Coburn: debate will go on

The real work begins immediately afterward, with Republicans using every legislative and political tool at their disposal to wage a two-year campaign against the overhaul. And there won’t be anything subtle about this slow-drip strategy as Republicans aim to erode public confidence in the law and, they hope, make it so politically unpalatable that even some Democrats turn against it.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47714.html#continue

California Wants To Lead The Way On Health Care - Sarah Kliff

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —While Republicans open debate Tuesday on repealing health reform, leaders in California are sitting down to a completely different discussion: how they can most aggressively implement the new law and remain among the Obama administration’s model states on the reform — without stumbling over the significant challenges that stand in their way.

California’s Health and Human Services secretary, Diana Dooley, had dinner last week with Joel Ario, the Obama administration’s lead on health exchanges, and discussed the state’s progress on implementing the new law.

Ario complimented Dooley, telling her that the Obama administration saw California as a “pace car” on health reform. Dooley offered a slightly different perspective.

“I told him we don’t want to be a pace car state,” Dooley told POLITICO in an interview after just one week in office. “We want to be the lead car.”

Health Care Lobby Mum On Repeal - Kate Nocera

The health care industry’s biggest trade groups have remained uncharacteristically neutral on the Republican effort to repeal the health care reform law, choosing instead to save their political capital for smaller, more targeted changes that have a chance at becoming law.

America’s Health Insurance Plans lobbied against much of the health care overhaul when it was passed in Congress, but it is not supporting the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act. The heads of Aetna and Cigna, members of AHIP, have publicly said they do not support efforts to repeal the law.

Health Care Reform Articles

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Monday, January 17, 2011

Health Care Reform Articles - January 18, 2011