Search the News Archive

Senator Feinstein to Introduce Legislation to Curb Health Insurance Premium Hikes

Excerpt: Feinstein to introduce legislation to curb premium hikesSen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced her intentions to introduce legislation ... to prevent insurance companies from raising their premiums unfairly. The bill would create a national Medical Insurance Rate Authority, which would regulate 'egregious premium rate increases,' according to a statement put out Friday by the senator's office.

A New Fault Line Is Forming in the Health Care Reform Debate: The Schism Between Single-Payer and Public-Private Advocates

Excerpt: Both sides are pushing for universal health care, but the more purist single-payer advocates believe that any approach that retains the insurance industry is doomed to fail. 'Private health insurance is no longer a workable model for health care reform, because the insurance companies sell a defective product and health care costs are so high that even moderate-income families can no longer afford the premiums, co-pays and deductibles,' said Ida Hellander, executive director of Physicians for a National Health Program, a group of 15,000 doctors who support a single-payer system.

Conflict Over Health Benefits Brochure Required by Health Reform

Excerpt: The little-noticed provision in the health reform law calls for insurers to outline their health insurance plans on a standardized, four-page form with information about costs, benefits and definitions of commonly used terms.

Pols Turning on Labor Unions Over Benefit Costs

"Spurred by state budget crunches and an angry public mood, Republican and some Democratic leaders are focusing with increasing intensity on public workers and the unions that represent them, casting them as overpaid obstacles to good government and demanding cuts in their often-generous benefits."

Administration to Issue Health Care Tax Guidelines for Small Business Health Premiums

Excerpt: While the final guidelines are still yet-to-be released, an outline obtained by POLITICO clarifies how businesses will qualify for the tax credits and what health costs will get subsidized.

Obama Administration Health Care Defense Offered

Excerpt: The administration argues that consumer decisions to forgo health insurance do 'substantially affect interstate commerce by shifting costs to health care providers and the public,' thus giving the government power to regulate via the Commerce Clause.

Obama's New Term: 'Health Insurance Reform'

Excerpt: If you haven't been paying attention, you might have missed it. But with the substitution of one word, President Barack Obama was able to redirect his health care message from uninsured Americans to those who already have insurance. In his Wednesday night address, Obama talked about 'health insurance reform' a noticeable shift from the 'health care reform' he had been talking up until late last week.

Senate Finance Committee Explores Health Insurance Mandate

Excerpt: The Senate Finance Committee is exploring whether to impose a mandate that would require individual Americans to purchase health insurance, which has proven controversial in places like Massachusetts where it has been tried. The idea comes in a 63-page 'policy options' paper released Monday by the committee ahead of a private negotiating session Thursday, where it will debate options to expand access to health coverage, as called for by President Barack Obama. The paper refers to the requirement to buy insurance not as a mandate but as 'a personal responsibility' to own health coverage.

Healthy Lifestyle Key to Controlling Costs

Excerpt: As is well-known, comprehensive health care reform comes with a price tag, which will be based on the analysis of the Congressional Budget Office. But will lawmakers have all the information they need on costs? Will they be looking at a complete picture? The answer to these questions is critical to solving the challenge we face. If past is prologue, there is reason to believe that the CBO price tag for health care reform, on which legislators will base decisions, will not capture the future savings, because it underestimates the value of investment in health care as a means to achieving a healthier, more productive and, ultimately, more prosperous America.

GOP Slow to Respond to Democratic Party's Health Plans

Excerpt: Congressional Republicans are in disarray over how to handle the Democrats' aggressive push for universal health care next year -- a far cry from the machine that brought down President Bill Clinton's health care reform plan in the early 1990s. The GOP has no organized alternatives to Democratic plans taking shape and no grass-roots armies or big-moneyed interest groups ready to carry its opposition message once it gels.