NEWS

A New Heart, Tangled in Red Tape – New York Times

In the debate about health care overhaul, there are countless stories of families saddled with hospital bills and unemployed workers who have lost their insurance.

Trumka warns lawmakers on health care overhaul – Associated Press

The man expected to become the AFL-CIO’s next president said Monday that lawmakers would pay a political price if they abandon a government-run option in any health care overhaul.

Baucus: Health Care Reform Will Happen This Year With Or Without GOP – Associated Press

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana says a health care overhaul will happen this year even if Republicans back out of bipartisan talks under growing public pressure and that the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy could help hold together a compromise deal.

House Democrats plot health care comeback – Politico

In late July, Arkansas Rep. Vic Snyder was a fired-up partisan, declaring that health care was going to be transformed “under President Obama’s leadership.”

White House fires back at Sen. Enzi – The Hill

The White House criticized Republican Sen. Mike Enzi Monday for walking away from bipartisan healthcare talks.

Sen. Grassley: No public option in health reform – Associated Press

Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley said Monday he remains hopeful a limited health care reform measure can be negotiated, but that a small bipartisan group of senators working on the issue agrees a government-run public option won’t be part of the package.

Democrats probe ‘purging’ of health coverage – Associated Press

A top House Democrat is investigating whether the nation’s largest health insurers have deliberately canceled coverage for small businesses after their employees became sick and sought expensive treatment.

What’s Karen Ignagni’s Copay? - Mother Jones

What kind of health care coverage does the nation’s top health insurance lobbyist have? Her trade group refuses to say.

Grassley Fundraises Against Health Care Plan – Political Wire

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) "is facing a potentially difficult primary challenge in 2010. As such, he’s been working hard to cover his right flank," Ezra Klein notes.

U.S. health reform estimates need long view: study – Reuters

The Congressional Budget Office may be missing potential savings from various health reform proposals by not looking at efforts to manage or prevent expensive, chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, researchers said in a study released on Tuesday.

Family says insurer’s decision to drop coverage spotlights need for reform – South Florida Sun-Sentinal

For the past 18 years, muscular dystrophy patient Ian Pearl has been using a wheelchair, breathing via a ventilator and living at his family’s home in Southwest Ranches, with 24-hour nursing assistance. The care cost his insurer more than $700,000 last year.

OPINION

The Gang of Six Appears to be Dead — But How Many of Them Know It? – Ezra Klein

The White House has, for the first time, spoken out against a member of Max Baucus’s "Gang of Six." After Mike Enzi used the GOP’s weekly radio to attack the Democrats’ health-care plan for promoting "the rationing of [America's] health care," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs fired back that Enzi "clearly turned over his cards on bipartisanship and decided that it’s time to walk away from the table."

Betsy McCaughey: Medicare Can Save Money By Cutting Americans Aged 65 To 69 From Program – Think Progress

This morning, during an interview with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, health care provocateur Betsy McCaughey suggested that policy makers could slow Medicare spending without cutting $500 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years and “denying care to the elderly.”

It’s Official: Bennett Succumbs to the Right – The New Republic

Some more disappointing news from the Senate: it looks like the right-wing attack on Bob Bennett is working. As I discussed last week, conservative activists are trying to exploit the Utah Republican’s political vulnerabilities, accusing him of supporting a government takeover of health care because of the Wyden-Bennett reform plans. Unfortunately, Bennett–who’s up for reelection in 2010–seems to be relenting more and more to the pressure. ThinkProgress flags comments he made at a Salt Lake City fundraiser with Karl Rove last Friday, quoting a local paper.

Yes, We Can Afford Health-Care Reform - Washington Post

"Moderate" opponents of health-care reform like to say that we cannot afford it, particularly in the midst of a recession that has widened the deficit with both reduced tax revenue and the fiscal stimulus package. This was the argument advanced by Sen. Joe Lieberman on TV a week ago and repeated by Michael Gerson in this newspaper: "Obama’s massive spending, intended to stabilize the economy, also drained the Treasury, making it more difficult to propose major new expenditures."

The Health Care Cost Shifting Myth - The Health Care Blog

There is a pervasive notion that providers of health care can make up for lower payments received from one set of payers (e.g. Medicare, Medicaid, uncompensated care) by increasing prices charged to other payers (e.g. private insurance companies). To the extent it occurs cost shifting offsets attempts to control overall health care costs through reduced fees paid by public insurers. It makes "bending the cost curve" harder.

(complied for Health Care for America Now)