House Democrats approved a budget outline for fiscal 2010 that would advance President Obama's plans to remake the health care system and transform student aid programs. Read more »
The House is taking a more aggressive approach than the Senate to implementing President Obama's proposals for overhauling the health care system and federal student aid programs. The House Budget Committee was marking up a fiscal 2010 draft budget resolution Wednesday that includes reconciliation instructions to allow legislation implementing these policies to move later in the year. The Senate Budget Committee, which was to begin a markup of its own budget resolution later in the day, does not intend to include similar provisions in its version. Read more »
The health insurance industry offered to phase out the practice of charging people more for their coverage if they are sick. The proposal, sent in a letter to Senate committees working on comprehensive health care legislation, would apply only to the individual market that provides insurance for about five percent of people under 65 who have insurance and is contingent on lawmakers' willingness to impose a mandate requiring individuals to buy health insurance. Read more »
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman said that a congressional overhaul of the health care system must not only provide for universal coverage but also for more primary care doctors and nurses to ensure that an insurance card actually gives the holder access to treatment. Read more »
Community health service centers will get another $338 million in economic stimulus funding as part of the approximately $137 billion in total funds provided to the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency announced. Read more »
Medicare demonstration programs to test better ways of treating the chronically ill don't point the way to a single best method, but other promising approaches do exist and should be pursued, panelists said at a Capitol Hill forum sponsored by the seniors' lobby AARP. Read more »