After much debate and an attempted derailment, the Senate finally manages to pass its version of a health reform bill — early on Christmas Eve — before dashing home for the holidays. Next stop: the House-Senate conference committee, where major differences over abortion and a public option still wait to be ironed out. Physician groups express [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘health care reform’
December 22, 2009
The Christmas Rush is On
From press conferences, interviews, and events in Washington, D.C.
Senate Democrats are preparing to give the President an early Christmas present– passage of health reform legislation. A vote is scheduled for Christmas Eve and it appears that Democrats have the votes to pass the bill. It’s been a tough road. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- [...]
December 14, 2009
Cheaper Drugs, More Medicare: The Policy & Practice Podcast
The health reform battle slogged on last week, with new proposals emerging to break the stalemate: allowing reimportation of drugs from other countries, and ditching the public option in favor of expanding Medicare to include people aged 55-64. Meanwhile, physicians were left wondering whether Congress was going to act to stave off an impending 21% [...]
December 7, 2009
Senate Plods Along on Health Reform
From hearings, press conferences, and interviews in Washington, D.C.
Senators were in Washington over the weekend, sloughing away on health reform legislation. Democrats are hopeful that with slow, but steady progress they can get a final bill by Christmas.
In this week’s Policy & Practice Podcast, we take a look at one of the first amendments made to [...]
November 23, 2009
Not All Turkey and Football: The Policy & Practice Podcast
The Senate cleared a big hurdle last week when it voted 60-39 to bring its health reform bill to the floor for debate. Now the horse race begins as senators jockey with Majority Leader Harry Reid for the provisions they would like to see changed or added. In the meantime, physicians are waiting to see [...]
November 2, 2009
High Stakes for Physicians: The Policy & Practice Podcast
From press conferences, interviews, and more around Washington, D.C.
Physicians have a lot riding on what happens in Congress this year. After months of wrangling over health reform, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) will try to get her version of the health overhaul bill through the chamber. The bill includes a public plan whose rates [...]
October 19, 2009
Making Waves On and Off the Hill: The Policy & Practice Podcast
From hearings and press conferences in Washington, DC:
The Democratic-controlled Senate Finance Committee finally passed a health reform bill with a little help from the other side of the aisle: a Yes vote from Maine Republican Olympia Snowe. Meanwhile, health insurers and medical device makers sound alarm bells about their concerns, and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) [...]
October 16, 2009
Whose Medical Record Is It Anyway?
From a federal advisory committee meeting in Washington, D.C.:
You’d think that a meeting of the federal Health Information Technology Standards Committee would be pretty dull, but actually, the discussions can get interesting. Such was the case on Oct. 14, when the panel discussed how much online access patients should have to their health records.
No one [...]
October 14, 2009
A Seat at the Table
From the American Academy of Family Physicians Scientific Assembly in Boston.
The new president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Dr. Lori Heim, wants you to know that the AAFP is politically connected. During her presidential address at the AAFP’s annual meeting, she touted the organization’s advocacy credentials. AAFP leaders have met personally with [...]
October 12, 2009
The Price Tag for Reform: The Policy & Practice Podcast
From press conferences and events in Washington, D.C.
It was all about money on Capitol Hill last week as the Congressional Budget Office released its estimate of the 10-year cost of health reform — at least health reform as envisioned by the Senate Finance Committee. At $829 billion, the bill is expected to cover 94% of [...]
