Selected stories from the daily newsletter CQ HealthBeat from the week of January 25, 2010. Provided as a service under rights licensed by The Commonwealth Fund. The full-text version of this newsletter is available in the Health Reform section of
commonwealthfund.org.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pressing her caucus to agree to clear the Senate health care overhaul plan along with a package of compromises passed through expedited reconciliation rules, according to a well-placed lobbyist—in spite of her recent declarations that the Senate plan cannot pass the House and decision to float a series of more limit alternative bills. Read more »
Democrats, encouraged by President Obama's State of the Union address, consider options to pass a health care overhaul measure. A freeze looms on discretionary health spending. Read more »
As the future of the health care overhaul and attempts to rein in spending teetered, Elliott Fisher of Dartmouth University told a Washington conference of health care advocates that he still holds out hope that higher quality and lower costs in health care can be achieved over time. At least the problem has begun to be identified and a groundwork laid, he said. Read more »
Interest in testing new ways to pay for and deliver health care is on the rise in health policy circles as the need becomes increasingly urgent for more efficient health care spending. Pending health care overhaul legislation would fund a variety of experimental approaches. Read more »
On Feb. 17 last year, Obama signed into law an economic stimulus provision jump-starting health information technology—puny stuff compared to the overhaul proposals now stalled on Capitol Hill. It is likely nonetheless to leave a lasting mark on the nation's health care system. Read more »
President Obama pressed the case for a health overhaul measure in the State of the Union address to Congress. He declined to elaborate a specific approach to passing legislation but pressed for action. Read more »