Reuters has a stunner today. The insurance company WellPoint had a policy of targeting its customers with fraud investigations if they were diagnosed with breast cancer, according to federal investigators. The goal: Find a reason to drop their coverage of sick women before big bills started to arrive.
The women all paid their premiums
…
Yesterday, I traveled out to Staten Island to catch up with Rep. Michael McMahon, a freshman Democrat who voted against health care reform. McMahon seems pretty happy with how his vote is being perceived at home, even though Moveon.org and the SEIU are now actively searching for a Dem to primary him. He’s raised more than $1.1 million …
In the middle of a meeting in the early evening Wednesday on – what else? – reconciliation, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer interrupted proceedings to speak with the Senate Parliamentarian. Though neither man would discuss what was going on, reports soon emerged: Tea Party protesters were planning to picket the …
With the help of TIME’s Katy Steinmetz:
The last few weeks Senate Republicans were all sturm und drang. “The American people are getting tired of this crap,” Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican told ABC’s This Week. “If [Democrats do reconciliation], it’s going to poison the well for anything else they would like to …
The passage of health care reform hasn’t been easy for the GOP. But there is a silver lining (though, some Republicans might argue that encouraging their party chairman is not exactly in the Party’s best interests): Michael Steele has finally figured out a way to raise money. The RNC’s webite, www.firenancypelosi.com, which depicts the …
Reporters leaving Capitol Hill in the wee hours of Monday morning were, for the most part, heaving sighs of relief: health care reform had – finally! — passed, a vote for the history books. However imperfect, the deed was done, the fat lady had sung. A day later and Republicans seem not to have gotten the memo: they are attacking the …
The great mystery of the passage of health care reform is resolved. Who yelled “baby killer” at Bart Stupak during the debate over the motion to recommit? Texas Republican Rep. Randy Neugebauer just now issued the following statement:
“Last night was the climax of weeks and months of debate on a health care bill that my constituents
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Bart Stupak and the congressional leaders are in a complicated mating dance. In a bold courting move this morning leadership sources leaked that the Michigan Democrat was a Yea. Not so quick, replied Stupak’s office. Coyly, he said, he’s still in talks and reviewing the executive order. Word back from leadership sources is that Rep. John …
MSNBC and C-SPAN are reporting that Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak will vote for the bill, bringing along at least half a dozen votes with him. Apparently, an executive order on abortion that the White House had been negotiating with Stupak is what pushed him over the edge. Stupak, a pro-life Democrat, nearly derailed the passage of …
A story from me today about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s whip style as we head into the final sprint on health care.
Just when we thought Dennis Kucinich was the last Democrat objecting to the bill because it wasn’t progressive enough, enter Rep. Steve Lynch. The Massachusetts Dem, who voted for the bill in November, says he doesn’t like the Senate version because it doesn’t do enough to put competition into the health insurance market – ie, …
Take a good look around, Democrats, this is likely to be as bad as it’s going to get. As Kate Pickert and I note in a story out today on time.com, the 24-hour cable net cycle has been stuck on ugly process maneuverings in the vacuum of no score from the Congressional Budget Office and no bill. This meme just adds to the back room aura …
Ohio Congressman and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich today announced his support for health care reform. Kucinich was one of two progressives who voted against the legislation when it passed the House in November on the grounds that it didn’t go far enough towards the single payer system they supported. The other member …
