Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said his panel is aiming for a June 7 markup of legislation that would reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Read more »
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a health cost control plan she said would trim at least $120 billion a year from national health care spending. A key feature of the seven-point plan calls for a "National Prevention Initiative" that would require insurers doing business with the federal government to cover "high priority" preventive services as well as wellness programs to maintain health, the New York Democrat said. Read more »
Congressional Budget Office Director Peter R. Orszag proposed the creation of a new research entity that would use evidence-based medicine to bring down soaring health care costs. Read more »
House Energy and Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark flipped the order of witnesses at a hearing to force the Bush administration to respond to testimony critical of private fee-for-service plans in the Medicare program. It was the start of what was a long afternoon for supporters of the plans, which the California Democrat said in his opening statement are "at the top of my list" for Medicare cuts. Read more »
Congressional passage of the emergency spending bill (HR 2206) funding the Iraq War drew praise from hospital groups for delaying, by one year, two regulations that would have trimmed Medicaid spending by $5.6 billion over five years. The measure also provides funding for states facing shortfalls this year under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and saves a Wisconsin state program assisting lower-income seniors with their prescription drug costs. Read more »
Sen. Ron Wyden, trying to build momentum for a broad health care overhaul, told an audience of small business owners that they would be better off under his proposed health insurance plan than under today's patchwork system. Read more »