The percentage of children lacking health insurance declined in 2008 due to increasing enrollment in public programs and hit its lowest rate since comparable data first was collected in 1987, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. However, the relatively good news about children was offset by the estimates for adults. Read more »
Bipartisanship—to the extent the word has any place in the health overhaul debate—was hanging on by a thread thanks to a case of perfect attendance at a morning session by the "Gang of Six" Senate Finance Committee bipartisan negotiators. But if the health overhaul speech by President Obama psyched Democrats up to get health care done this year, Republicans were in a sour and combative mood.
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Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed confidence that Senate Democrats would unite and pass a health-care overhaul by Thanksgiving, with the support of at least "a few" Republicans. Read more »
At 69, and after a quarter-century of service in the U.S. Senate, Tom Harkin of Iowa has landed his dream job. Harkin became the successor to the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts at the helm of one of the two chief Senate panels steering health care policy. Read more »
A health care overhaul appears to be regaining momentum as the Senate Finance Committee enters the final stages of its efforts to write a bill that can pass the chamber.
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The environment for major change in the health care system may be even tougher than when President Clinton's attempt failed in the 1990s, but a panel of experts assembled at the American Enterprise Institute held out hope that the outcome still may be different. Read more »