Health Benefits News

Headlines 2-9

Blue Cross raises California health care premiums 39%

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California’s largest for-profit health insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross, has notified their 800,000 individual policy holders to expect an increase in premium rates of up to 39%.

Considering the rate hike comes in the middle of the profound economic disaster that is California, it takes a pretty cold-blooded company to institute such a boost. But then, nobody should be particularly surprised when considering that, just last year, the company raised premiums for many of these same people by up to 68%.

California Insurance Commissioner, Steve Poizner, who is engaged in a primary battle for the California GOP gubernatorial nomination, has weighed in big saying that he is hiring an independent actuarial firm to determine if the price increase is reasonable.

Obama’s health care summit: Just for show?

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Could this turn into something more than political theater? President Barack Obama’s televised dialogue with Republican lawmakers on health care, promised for later this month, has the makings of an entertaining exchange. But the differences between the basic Democratic and GOP ideas are stark — and the two sides have increasingly hardened their positions in this election year.

Yet, in a story with more twists than a soap opera, Obama’s invitation to congressional leaders of both parties to attend a Feb. 25 meeting can’t be dismissed as a mere diversion. Although many Americans have doubts about the Democrats’ sweeping plans to cover the uninsured, Republicans can’t afford to be perceived as oblivious to the health care insecurities of middle-class families.

Veteran congressman’s death adds to Barack Obama’s woes

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The Democratic party faces another election test after the death yesterday of John Murtha, a congressman dubbed by his colleagues the “king of pork”.

Murtha, aged 77, had been in the House of Representatives since being elected to his Pennsylvania district in 1974.

The fear in the party is that Republicans will notch up another victory when a special election is held, probably May.

Headlines 2-8

Clinton-era health aides push to save Obama’s plan

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Shock and awe. That’s what survivors of the Clinton-era health care collapse are feeling as President Barack Obama’s overhaul legislation wobbles in Congress.

Aides who shaped Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 1990s plan to cover all Americans, then labored in vain to pass it into law, are adamant that the Democrats can’t afford another health care disaster. But they’re divided on whether scaling down Obama’s plan would be an acceptable solution.

White House announces televised health meet

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President Barack Obama is planning to host a televised meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on health care reform.

The Feb. 25 meeting is an attempt to reach across the aisle but not a signal that the president plans to start over, as Republicans have demanded, a White House official said.

Al Franken lays into David Axelrod over health care bill

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Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.

Five sources who were in the room tell POLITICO that Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration’s failure to provide clarity or direction on health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to enact.

Democrats protect backroom deals

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The health care bill is in trouble, but a series of narrow deals — each designed to win over a wavering senator or key interest group — is alive and well, despite voter anger over the parochial horse-trading that marked the rush toward passage before Christmas.

Headlines 2-3

Nancy Pelosi’s new health care plan

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With the broader health care bill still perilously close to collapse, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to take a shot at the health insurance industry next week by scheduling a vote on a smaller bill to revoke its half-century-old exemption from antitrust laws.

The vote is part of her new two-track strategy to tackle things that won’t be included in a more sweeping bill — if Congress ever passes one — while giving her members something politically popular to vote on. The move also puts pressure on Republicans, the industry and wavering Democrats, who wish their leaders would abandon the push altogether.

GOP’s Senate prospects on the rise

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The long-shot bid by Republicans to retake control of the Senate is suddenly in play, as the prospect of high-profile Republican candidates entering the fray has pushed the GOP even or ahead in polling for 10 races.

The potential candidacies of former Republican Govs. George E. Pataki in New York and Tommy G. Thompson in Wisconsin are improving the polling fortunes of the party as it pursues seats long in the hands of Democrats, while the anti-government “tea party” movement has provided momentum to Republican challengers in states such as Florida, Arkansas and Pennsylvania.

Obama to Democrats: Don’t ‘Play It Safe’

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President Obama urged Democrats not to be defeatist about the loss of their supermajority in the Senate, declaring: “If anyone is searching for a lesson from Massachusetts, I promise you, the answer is not to do nothing.”

In an appearance today at a retreat for Senate Democrats, the president reminded his former colleagues that they still held one of the party’s largest majorities in Senate history. While he implored Congress to press forward on health care legislation, he said initiatives to create jobs should also take priority.

Headlines 2-2

Canadian Premier (Newfoundland) Williams set to have heart surgery in U.S.

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Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.

Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.

“He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done,” said Ms. Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Mr. Williams is away for three to 12 weeks.

“In consultation with his own doctors, he’s decided to go that route.”

Mr. Williams’ decision to leave Canada for the surgery has raised eyebrows over his apparent shunning of Canada’s health-care system.

Virginia Senate bills say no to requiring health insurance

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Virginia’s Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party’s efforts in Washington to reform health care.

States Restart Health-Care Push

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With the fate of a national health care overhaul unclear, state legislators are pushing their own bills aimed at expanding coverage, though tight budgets are likely to hinder many of these efforts.

Lawmakers in at least two states, California and Missouri, have introduced legislation for the current session to create government-backed coverage for state residents. In others, including Virginia and New Jersey, legislators are hoping to tweak existing state programs to include more people.

In 11 states, lawmakers have proposed bills for this year aimed at improving access to health care, said the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Headlines 2-1

Health-Care Overhaul Still on Table

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The Obama administration still foresees a major health-care overhaul in its 2011 budget, estimating that the cost of the legislation will reach $743 billion over 10 years.

Budget documents released by the White House estimate that in 2011 alone the costs of legislation will total $16 billion and the cost will rapidly increase each year until 2020. The budget states that the figures come from the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates of House and Senate-passed version of the bills.

Interactive Graph

States Seeking to Ban Mandatory Health Insurance

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Although President Barack Obama’s push for a health care overhaul has stalled, conservative lawmakers in about half the states are forging ahead with constitutional amendments to ban government health insurance mandates.

The proposals would assert a state-based right for people to pay medical bills from their own pocketbooks and prohibit penalties against those who refuse to carry health insurance.

Robert Hardaway: Health care bill would be disaster for the poor

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Most Americans are aware that buried somewhere in the 2,000-page health care reform bill are provisions for cutting the already- strapped Medicare program by billions of dollars. Few are aware that the bill also cuts expenditures on county hospitals currently serving the poor.

Headlines 1-29

U.S. Democrats vow to move ahead on healthcare

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Democratic congressional leaders said on Thursday they would keep pushing for a stalled healthcare overhaul and would explore all options to pass it, but acknowledged the process would not move quickly.

The day after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress, leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives said they would not abandon the bill despite sharp Democratic divisions on how to proceed.

LANDRIEU: HEALTH REFORM ‘ON LIFE SUPPORT’

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Moderate Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) said the comprehensive health-care bill is “on life support” and criticized President Obama for not laying out a clear path to pass it in his State of the Union address.

Asked for a status report on the bill, she said “I think it’s on life support, unfortunately. But it still has a pulse. And I think the president’s suggestion about a cooling off period, short cooling off period, might be good to give us a chance to sort of reorganize and reorder.”

Reid raises $2M, spends it all

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) raised an impressive $2 million in the fourth fundraising quarter, but spent $2.1 million — even more money than he brought in — much of it on campaign advertisements designed to improve his profile.

With all that spending, Reid begins the new year with $8.7 million in his campaign account — a formidable sum, but less money  than he banked last September.  And the ads have not improved his low popularity back home, with a new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll showing his approval rating down to 36 percent.

Reid still holds a substantial financial edge over his leading Republican opponents. Former state party chairwoman Sue Lowden raised the most money ($800,000) on the Republican side last quarter.

Banker John Chachas, who loaned his campaign $1.3 million, has the most cash-on-hand of all the Republican candidates, with $1.7 million in the bank.

Headlines 1-28

Health Care Moves Down the Agenda

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President Obama drew sustained laughter from Congress, especially Democrats, on Wednesday when he declared in his State of the Union speech that “by now it should be fairly obvious that I didn’t take on health care because it was good politics.”

But after spending 2009 emphasizing that a health care overhaul was his top domestic priority, Mr. Obama gave it much less prominence in his address. He did not mention it until more than half an hour in — a sign of how imperiled the bill has become.

Wandering Around for Health Care Reform

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This past Fall I was so concerned about the state of the health care reform debate I was utterly compelled to do something. There was a vote about to happen in the House so I got on the computer and made some signs. Mr. Attitude and I reviewed the selections and he helped me narrow down the selection to settle on a, shall we say, diplomatic sentiment. A friend we have can print on vinyl so we went over to print the sign and we all laughed at my death panel of grim reapers with the caption, “Insurance Claim Review Department = Death Panel.” Man, that one was sweet, but Mr. Attitude said that was a bit too much. I relented but I wondered what kind of reaction I would meet up with if I used it.

Pelosi Pushes $300 Billion ‘Fix’ to Senate Health Care Bill

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing a $300 billion “fix” to the Senate health care bill, saying that her chamber could approve the Senate’s package if those changes are made first.

Headlines 1-27

A Bipartisan Health Care Plan

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It’s never too late to do what you said you were going to do. This is the chief lesson that President Obama should draw from Massachusetts voters’ stunning rebuke to Democrat’s bloated and expensive health care legislation. Obama campaigned as a centrist who would draw on the best ideas of both parties, but he has governed by deferring to the liberal wing of his party and locking Republicans out of Democrats’ backroom health care deals. As a result, the current bill is justly opposed by the majority of Americans as too expensive, too convoluted and packed with bribes, payoffs and exemptions for too many special interest groups.

Obama Expected To Hit on Health Care in State of the Union Address

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President Obama is expected to primarily focus on an agenda to create more jobs in his State of the Union address tonight, but he also is expected to discuss how he hopes to salvage health care reform after Senate Democrats lost their 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Obama: ‘I didn’t sign off on those shady health care deals.’ Really?

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Mary Katharine Ham notes that President Obama tells ABC:

“Let’s just clarify. I didn’t make a bunch of deals [on health care]. … There is a legislative process that is taking place in Congress and I am happy to own up to the fact that I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked.”

Religious Left to Obama: Man Up and Push Reform

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Yesterday it was the Catholic hierarchy telling Congress to shape up and pass a health care reform bill. Today it is a high-profile cohort from the religious left telling President Obama, in effect, to man up and show some leadership.

“Your active and public leadership is desperately needed at this moment of doubt on Capitol Hill,” the nearly two dozen religious leaders, including eight from Obama’s own faith-based task force, write in a letter sent to the White House on Wednesday. “The political twists and turns of the last week do not change the facts on the ground: hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose their homes, thousands who would otherwise live will die, and countless people will continue to go without needed care if Congress does not pass health reform.”

Headlines 1-26

Poll Shows Growing Fears on Health Care Overhaul

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Fears about President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul increased significantly in December, according to a new poll released as the legislation’s future hangs in doubt. The monthly poll out Monday from the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation measured consumers’ views of how a remake would affect their own finances and access to care, among other things.

Kerry wants House to pass Senate health care bill

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Senator John Kerry said today his preferred route to completing health care reform is for the House to pass the Senate bill, and for the Senate to make it more digestible to the House by approving fixes through the reconciliation process, which allows legislation to pass the Senate by a simple majority instead of 60 votes.

Hoyer Sees Obama Pushing for Broad Health-Care Bill

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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he expects President Barack Obama to push for a broad health-care overhaul in his nationally televised address to the nation tomorrow, and he cast doubt on the idea of passing smaller measures instead.

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