THE DAILY DOSE: MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2009

Under the Microscope

POLL: Government and Health Care in the United States
Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
[New York Times, 6/20/2009]

View graphics with public health insurance option results here.
View New York Times article on survey results here.

AGREEMENT: Lowering the Price of Prescriptions for Seniors
On Saturday President Obama announced a deal between lawmakers and the nation’s pharmaceutical companies that will bring down health care costs and reduce the price of prescription drugs for millions of America’s seniors. The agreement will help close a gap referred to as “the donut hole” in Medicare Part D drug coverage.
[The White House, 6/20/2009]

Read remarks or the blog from the President’s press conference today.
Read coverage of this breakthrough in the The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, and The Wall Street Journal 

Health Care Headlines

• Americans Struggle to Pay for Healthcare: Study
  Americans are struggling to pay for healthcare in the ongoing economic recession, with a quarter saying they have had trouble in the past 12 months, according to a survey released on Monday. [Reuters, 6/21/2009]
• Costs are Keeping Massachusetts Patients From Care
  People with robust health insurance are putting off doctors’ appointments and skimping on prescriptions because they can’t afford the increasing costs of copayments and deductibles, according to managers of patient-assistance hot lines in Massachusetts. [Boston Globe, 6/22/2009]
• House Unveils Health Bill, Minus Key Details
  House Democrats on Friday answered President Obama’s call for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system, unveiling a bill that they said would cover 95 percent of Americans. [New York Times, 6/19/2009]
• Co-Ops Gain Backing as Alternative to Government Insurer
  Nonprofit health-insurance cooperatives are gaining favor among lawmakers working to revamp the U.S. health-care system, but whether these entities could rein in prices by competing with private insurers is unclear.
  [Wall Street Journal, 6/20/2009]
  Read an opinion piece in Time on co-ops here.
• Some Political Score Settling on Health Care
  Baseball fans don’t clear out of the ballpark with their team down by a few runs after the second inning. But that was largely how the Beltway press was expecting the seemingly inadvertent release of a partial “score” to play out in the Senate’s health care game. [CQ Weekly, 6/22/2009]
• 5 Keys to Getting Health Care Deal
  It was always going to be hard for President Barack Obama to pass health care reform by the fall. Lately, there are signs it’ll take a political miracle. [Politico, 6/22/2009]
• Primary Care Doctor Shortage May Undermine Reform Efforts
  As the debate on overhauling the nation's health-care system exploded into partisan squabbling this week, virtually everyone still agreed on one point: There are not enough primary-care doctors to meet current needs, and providing health insurance to 46 million more people would threaten to overwhelm the system. [Washington Post, 6/22/2009]
• Experts: Most Type 2 Diabetes Can Be Stopped In Childhood
  When you're 8 years old, it can be darn hard not eating a cupcake when everyone else is having one. But that's the way life is for Nyla Wright, a Philadelphia-area second-grader who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes last year. [USA Today, 6/21/2009]
• EDITORIAL: A Public Health Plan
  As the debate on health care reform unfolds, no issue has caused such partisan rancor — and spawned such misleading rhetoric — as whether to create a new public insurance plan to compete with private plans. [New York Times, 6/20/2009]
• EDITORIAL: Diagnosing the Problem
  Legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system hasn't emerged from congressional committees, yet it has gained enough momentum for the demonization of the reform effort to start in earnest.
  [L.A. Times, 6/22/2009]
• OPINION: Health Care Showdown
  By Paul Krugman
  America’s political scene has changed immensely since the last time a Democratic president tried to reform health care. [New York Times, 6/22/2009]
• OPINION: Why We Will Win Back Health Care
  By Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager of Health Care for America Now
  The fight is on. With the president definitively stepping into the ring and bills being introduced and the Congressional Budget Office weighing in, it’s clear that the legislative fight of the century has moved from the preliminaries to the official rounds. [Politico, 6/22/2009]
• OPINION: Momentum Key for Health Care Bill
  By Michael A. Cohen, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation
  Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, the one criticism heard perhaps more than any other from Republicans was about the cult of veneration that had developed around Barack Obama.
  [Politico, 6/22/2009]