Selected stories from the daily newsletter CQ HealthBeat from the week of March 21, 2011. Provided as a service under rights licensed by The Commonwealth Fund. The full-text version of this newsletter is available in the
newsletter archive.
Confronted with selling a health care law that in its first year hasn't yet won over the hearts of the public, Democrats and the Obama administration are targeting young adults to spread the word about the benefits of the law for them. Read more »
Congress will soon be looking for a way to address the problems associated with a 29.5 percent payment cut that the Medicare physician reimbursement formula will impose next year on doctors. Read more »
Health and Human Services officials working to make a long-term care insurance program viable have a struggle ahead, but it is possible to design some changes to help The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program survive, members of an Urban Institute panel said at a discussion. Read more »
The $5 billion early retiree subsidy program created by the health overhaul law has been swamped with so many requests that the program may be out of money by 2012, far earlier than its expected 2014 end date, according to a new analysis by the House Energy and Commerce Republican staff. Read more »
While it's not been the most remarked-upon feature of the health care law, the federal government injected nearly $1 billion into local economies in 2011 via rebates for Medicare prescription drug benefits. Californians received $87 million and Floridians received $64 million in the payments authorized by the health care law. Read more »
If the health care law's requirement for most individuals to buy insurance is struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, other viable alternatives exist, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in a new report. But all of them involve tradeoffs or challenges. Read more »