Selected stories from the daily newsletter CQ HealthBeat from the week of March 1, 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.
Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer laid out a schedule to bring the long battle over health care to the House floor by late March. It was the firmest indication yet that Democratic leaders are preparing for a final House vote on health care overhaul legislation that has bitterly divided Congress and the country before Congress leaves town for two weeks beginning March 26.
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Flanked by doctors and nurses, President Obama demanded that Congress send him health overhaul legislation on an up-or-down vote — a tacit endorsement of Democratic leaders' plan to use budget reconciliation procedures to finish the legislation.
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President Obama told congressional leaders that he was willing to include at least four Republican proposals in a final health care bill, in a gesture to a minority party that has steadfastly opposed his top domestic priority. Read more »
The Government Accountability Office released a report saying that 55 percent of Medicare enrollees taking at least one of a category of high-cost pharmaceuticals known as "specialty tier" drugs reached what Medicare considers to be "catastrophic" levels of out-of-pocket drug spending. Read more »
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission in its annual report to Congress rapped the continuing payment disparity that benefits private Medicare health plans over traditional Medicare. Read more »
The rate of hospitalization for heart disease varies sharply among Medicare patients depending on where they live, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Read more »