Politics/elections

The Washington Post's fact checker skewers Rick Santorum's "bogus statistics" on euthanasia in the Netherlands. 

The Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org has also weighed in, saying Santorum "grossly mischaracterized" euthanasia practices in the Netherlands.

Kaiser Health News delves into the details of what's covered under the Obama administration's birth control mandate.

Former Medicare chief Don Berwick tells BioCentury This Week the healthcare reform law would "unwind" if the Supreme Court strikes down the individual mandate. Watch the entire interview here.

A U.S. surgeon general report due March 8 will criticize states for cutting anti-smoking programs in tough economic times, The Associated Press reports.

Republicans are ginning up a debate on social issues to distract from the improving economy, the New York senator charged.

House Democrats Thursday used a hearing on the birth control mandate to frame the debate as a women’s health issue.

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney battled over federal health insurance mandates in the Republican presidential debate.

The candidates, after saying they didn't want to talk about it, went on at length attacking Obama on the issue.

Democrats will hold their own hearing this week on contraception, with only one witness — the woman who wasn't allowed to testify before the House Oversight committee last week.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the event, her party's latest effort to capitalize on the controversy surrounding last week's hearing. Images of its all-male witness panel spread quickly online, helping Democrats frame the issue on their terms.

The only witness at Pelosi's hearing will be Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University law student who wasn't allowed to testify last week. 

First lady Michelle Obama is touting the president's health law as part of her honorary chairmanship of the "Women for Obama" reelection campaign, reports Bloomberg.

USA Today examines the likelihood that the Supreme Court will end up delaying its ruling on the healthcare reform law until the individual mandate goes into effect, in 2014. 

More and more hospitals are demanding that patients pay up front for medical care at emergency rooms if they're not suffering from routine illnesses, Kaiser Health News reports.

The Drug Enforcement Administration says CVS Caremark and the drug distributor Cardinal Health ignored high-volume painkiller orders in Florida, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The FDA has agreed to review the safety of inhalable caffeine at the request of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), The Associated Press reports.

Rick Santorum called his benefactor Foster Friess's birth-control statement "a stupid joke" that was "in bad taste," The Associated Press reports.

The chairwoman of a panel that will help decide who has access to federal health funds for 9/11 first responders said cancer should be covered, Bloomberg reports.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than 10,000 drug overdoses have been successfully reversed by the generic drug naloxone. 

What's an ACO, anyway? Watch this WBUR.org cartoon to find out.

Democrats' protest, and the optics of an initial panel consisting only of men, underscored the difficulty Republicans are having.

Republicans are taking hits in Congress and on the campaign trail from the birth control controversy.