THE DAILY DOSE: FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2009

Under the Microscope

Health Care Headlines

• Grass-Roots Effort Launched to Tout Obama’s Health Care Plan
  The Democratic National Committee grass-roots outfit Organizing for America is beginning a door-to-door campaign to drum up popular backing for President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul effort.
  [Roll Call, 7/9/2009]
• White House Urges More Cuts in Medicare, Medicaid Payments to Providers
  The White House wants House Democrats to make deeper spending cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and do more to change payment systems for doctors and hospitals as part of a health overhaul they are writing. [CQ Today, 7/9/2009] Read about the Speaker's similar instructions..
• Blue Dog Democrats Hold Up Health Overhaul Bill in House
  The drive to remake the nation's health care system suffered yet another setback in Congress on Thursday when a pivotal group of House Democrats demanded changes in legislation the leadership was drafting on a fast track. [USA Today, 7/9/2009]
  Read more coverage in Roll Call and see the letter from Blue Dogs.
• Band of House Centrists Offers Support for ‘Robust’ Public Health Insurance Plan
  A band of 22 New Democrat and Blue Dog lawmakers say they support a “robust” government-run health plan, boosting chances of moving healthcare reform with a public insurance plan through the House.
  [The Hill, 7/9/2009] Read about other letters sent.
• AHA Missive Notes Benefits to Members of White House Deal
  It didn’t exactly say, “Hey, we got a pretty good deal” — but it might have. A bulletin sent by the American Hospital Association (AHA) to its members favorably contrasts the terms of a health overhaul agreement announced with the White House Wednesday to other proposals pending on Capitol Hill while noting the financial benefit to the industry of expanded coverage. [CQ HealthBeat, 7/9/2009]
• House Chairmen Thumb Noses at White House Health Care Deal
  The three House chairmen writing the chamber’s health care bill are warning the White House, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and industry groups that they are not on board with deals struck behind their back. [Roll Call, 7/9/2009] Read what business interests think.
• Democrats Open to Idea of Forming Health Co-Op
  Senate Democratic leaders appeared open Thursday to establishing a non-government cooperative as part of a U.S. health-care overhaul. [Wall Street Journal, 7/10/2009] .
• Health Overhaul Could Bring Down Costs for Small Business Owners, Panel Says
  Small business owners could spend up to $2.4 trillion on health insurance in the next 10 years unless lawmakers step in to reduce the cost of coverage, one participant in a Senate small business roundtable told lawmakers Thursday. [CQ HealthBeat, 7/9/2009] Read a related article.
• In Health Bill, Billions for Parks, Paths
  Sweeping healthcare legislation working its way through Congress is more than an effort to provide insurance to millions of Americans without coverage. [Boston Globe, 7/9/2009]
• Senate Votes to Allow Online Purchases of Canadian Drugs
  The Senate dealt a blow to the drug lobby Thursday by voting to permit people in the United States to order lower-cost drugs from Canada over the Internet. [USA Today, 7/9/2009]
• Baucus Offers Plans to Pay Health Bill
  Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) presented his members Thursday with more than a dozen ways to pay for health care legislation, ranging from new fees on industry to an income-tax hike on couples making more than $1 million a year. [Politico, 7/9/2009]
  Read more about pay-fors including curtailing hospitals’ tax breaks.
• OPINON: A Strategy for Health Care Reform – Toward a Value-Based System
  By Michael E. Porter, PhD
  Despite many waves of debate and piecemeal reforms, the U.S. health care system remains largely the same as it was decades ago. We have seen no convincing approach to changing the unsustainable trajectory of the system, much less to offsetting the rising cost of an aging population and new medical advances. [New England Journal of Medicine, 7/9/2009]
• OPINION: No House Bill Today. Sigh.
  By Jonathan Cohn
  Well, it's early Friday morning. By now, I had been hoping to be well into reading the House of Representatives' reform bill, which the leadership was all set to unveil. [New Republic, 7/10/2009]
  Read another Cohn opinion on voter perception & the job of lawmakers.
• OPINION: Congress Can Fix the Health Care System for Kids
  By Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund
  On June 23, I testified before the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health, to comment on its comprehensive health reform discussion draft. I pressed the Subcommittee on the need for health care reforms that extend affordable and accessible coverage with comprehensive benefits to all children in every state and urged them to simplify enrollment and retention, particularly in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
  [Chicago Defender, 7/8/2009]
• LETTER TO EDITOR: Cutting Hospital Infections to Cut Costs
  By Stephen M. Davidson, Boston University School of Management professor
  Mr. O’Neill focuses on important issues. But instead of simply exhorting hospital leaders to do better, he should ask this question first: Since medical personnel already know how to “eliminate all hospital-acquired infections,” as he points out, why haven’t they done so already? [New York Times, 7/9/2009]