By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, January 4, 2011;
If the incoming Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is serious about trying to repeal health-care reform, there's only one appropriate Democratic response: "Make my day."
Just to be clear, there's no earthly chance that a bill repealing the landmark health-care overhaul could make it through Congress and be signed into law. Even if Republicans managed to hold together their new majority in the House, they would face the inconvenient fact that Democrats still control the Senate. And even if a repeal measure somehow sneaked through the Senate, President Obama would veto the thing faster than you can say "preexisting conditions."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/03/AR2011010303442_pf.html
Number Of Uninsured Americans Soars To 50 Million
Last week the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured issued a new report giving a grim assessment of the toll the recession and high unemployment has taken on the nation's workforce: the number of uninsured rose to 50.0 million in 2009, an increase of 4.3 million. There are now nearly as many uninsured non-elderly people as those receiving Medicaid or other public insurance (such as CHIP, the children's insurance program, Medicare and military/veterans coverage).
A Reversal On End-Of-Life Planning Under Medicare
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new health care law, administration officials said Tuesday.
The move is an abrupt shift, coming just days after the new policy took effect on Jan. 1.
Both Sides Prepare To Battle Over Repeal Of Health-Care Law
Supporters of the law have begun planning protests, petitions and phone calls to block repeal. Its opponents are cheering efforts to dismantle the measure, which House GOP leaders have said they will put up for a vote on Jan. 12.
The strategies that are emerging could set up a grass-roots battle that rivals the shouting town halls and Capitol Hill marches that made headlines before the law was passed.
"We are holding events all across the country at district offices and elsewhere to hold the repeal mongers accountable for their votes," said Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now, which spent $53 million last year campaigning for health-care reform.
Many CEOs Of Health Industry Groups Earned Big Bonuses
This story also appeared in 
.
.The CEOs of many key health care trade groups earned big bonuses in 2009, when the congressional debate over health legislation dominated their agendas.
While the bonuses suggest that member companies were pleased with the performance of their Washington advocates, the battle over the law isn’t over, and the well-rewarded CEOs and lobbyists face new challenges. There’s ferment in some groups: PhRMA replaced departed CEO Billy Tauzin in 2010 with former Business Roundtable CEO John Castellani and five of the largest members of America’s Health Insurance Plans are considering creating a separate coalition from the trade group, even as they remain members of the organization.
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States grapple with health care | |
| As House Republicans revive debates of the past with the planned repeal vote on health care reform, their state-level counterparts are quietly pushing into health reform’s future. All states — including those led by Republican governors who campaigned against reform — have implemented at least some of the new law’s provisions. And every state has now received federal funding from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The action in the states is a sharp contrast to the scene on the Hill Tuesday, where familiar foes rehashed old rhetoric. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=53BB4270-CDD3-E19E-7EF30AD9A43EAA9E |
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