Back in October, I included this line in a blog post:
Political pressure and a seemingly paralyzing fear of bad headlines, however, appears to be guiding Administration policy this close to election day.
As if to prove the point, within an hour of publishing this line, I got a call from a White House press person vigorously …
Tomorrow, Don Berwick, the head of Medicare and Medicaid, will appear before the Senate Finance Committee. Republicans are, to put it mildly, looking forward to this. Berwick was installed via recess appointment, bypassing a Senate confirmation hearing. Expect a peek of what’s to come in 2011, once Republicans control the three …
An early proposal from President Obama’s deficit commission appears to have been leaked today. The commission was due to release recommendations in December and its findings and proposals were much anticipated.
It’s unclear if the “draft” unveiled today will mirror final recommendations from the commission, but at the very …
Per Ben Smith, here’s a new ad from a Tennessee Republican running for the House. Her dismay with cutting $500 out of Medicare “all to help pay for government control of medicine” encapsulates a contradictory message I haven’t heard so overtly since a man attending a town hall last year told a South Carolina congressman to “keep your …
Kentucky’s Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul is in a spot of trouble over a comment he made about how to shore up Medicare. Speaking at a town hall in September 2009, Paul said “a $2,000 Medicare deductible would solve a huge amount of problems.” His Democratic opponent, Jack Conway, has seized on the statement, highlighting it …
Just not to me – or any other media types for that matter. The new head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid has, until today, been kept under virtual lock and key by the Obama Administration. He was installed via recess appointment, circumventing the Senate confirmation process, which would have included a public hearing. He hasn’t …
The Congressional Budget Office said in a recent letter that repealing the parts of the Affordable Care Act, including changes to Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, would increase the deficit by $455 billion. The CBO released the figure this week in a letter responding to a request from Republican Sen. Mike …
By now, most of us can agree that Democrats have largely failed to use health care reform as a political boost. The new law remains unpopular with half or more of the U.S. population and it will be one of several critical issues in the upcoming mid-term elections, particularly in districts where freshman, Blue Dog or vulnerable Democrats …
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services certainly knows its audience. As Adam noted earlier, the agency signed up Andy Griffith to appear in television ads now airing and touting changes to Medicare brought about by the new health reform law.
This has caused a bit of a stir, with five Republican senators sending a letter …
The president’s “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform,” chaired by Democrat Erskine Bowles and former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, held its first official meeting this morning at the White House. Speaking about the endeavor, Obama pointed to the challenges financial crisis and economic downturn thrust on the …
Health reform proponents got another round of bad headlines today, as the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a report saying that the new law will increase costs. According to an AP story by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, the report is “a worrisome assessment for Democrats,” showing that while cost …
In this week’s cover story, we noted that one of the biggest challenges for the Obama Administration in implementing the new health care law is:
… filling key posts in the Executive Branch that remain empty more than 14 months after Obama was inaugurated. After all, there will be thousands and thousands of new regulations to
…
In the cover story for the new issue of dead-tree TIME that hits newsstands tomorrow, Kate and I, along with our colleague Alice Park, explore five elements to watch closely as policymakers translate the sweeping legislation that Barack Obama signed Tuesday into a real-world transformation of the health care system.
Kate also …
