$609,000 a day. That’s how much the drug and biotech companies have been spending to influence Congress in the health reform debate, more than any other industry. So it’s no surprise that they have been extraordinarily successful.
In the upcoming issue of dead-tree TIME, Michael Scherer and I look behind the scenes at the fight over …
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just told reporters that he will not be moving Senator Debbie Stabenow’s 10-year, $247 billion freeze on doctors’ Medicare payments. He said he thought he had the votes – and was promised Republican 27 votes from the AMA – but has since realized he doesn’t. “I don’t bring anything to the …
The $247 billion bribe bill to help the nation’s doctors may be stalling out on the Senate floor this week (here’s my story). But Dems have won at least one concession from the group: an agreement not to push for the inclusion of medical liability reform in the broader bill. From Rebecca J. Patchin, M.D., board chair of the AMA:
The Capitol Hill dual loyalty dilemma–national interest vs. provincial interest–is clearly displayed in this quote from Sen. Harry Reid, who as the top Democrat in the Senate is responsible for getting health reform to President Obama’s desk. “I make absolutely no apologies,” he says, “none – – for helping people in my …
Yup, he’s one of those 60 crucial votes on health care. And like most of his colleagues, he’s got some demands. Gotta love this AP lede:
WASHINGTON – For Democrats determined to get a health care bill, Sen. Roland Burris is like the house guest who couldn’t be refused, won’t soon be leaving and poses a plausible threat of ruining
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The Republicans’ famed discipline is cracking. As Politico’s Lisa Lerer and Manu Raju reported this week, Lindsey Graham’s wheeling and dealing on global warming. And, of course, Olympia Snowe is the lady of the hour, week and month on health care (as much as Nancy Pelosi downplays her importance).
How does the GOP prevent …
By now, you know the story of the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report that came out this week. It was commissioned by the health insurance industry to show how private rates might rise under health reform. It used narrow, worst-case scenario assumptions, and ignored other parts of the reform effort that would lower costs. It was widely …
If you’re under 65, chances are you don’t know a lot about a program known as Medicare Advantage. But you will be hearing a lot more about it soon. It has become a major front in the growing war that the insurance industry is waging on the Obama Administration’s health reform effort. On Tuesday, the health insurance lobby launched a …
So, four months after its first deadline, the Finance Committee is finally done. Now the spotlight turns to Harry Reid. The fates must have some small sense of irony to burden the largest bill of just about anyone’s career (unless you’re Bobby Byrd and were here for the passage of the Civil Rights Act) on the most vulnerable 2010 …
Olympia Snowe didn’t make a liar out of Max Baucus, who had been predicting for months that he would have at least some GOP support when passing his health care reform bill out of the Finance Committee (all along most of us read this as one person: Snowe). For the chairman this must be a huge relief. But Snowe made it clear that her …
If you are out there somewhere reading the Congressional Budget Office’s preliminary analysis of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill (and, really, aren’t we all?), I am sure you have already noticed an intriguing line-item under SUBTITLE I-MATERNAL, INFANT AND EARLY CHILDHOOD VISITATION.
It says “Assisted Suicide.”
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