Healthcare

Healthcare reform bills are going to start coming out from behind their respective curtains in the days and weeks to come, and the issue will consume the entire summer here in Washington. If two bills pass the House and Senate before Congress begins its August recess — which is currently the plan — we will be able to say we have witnessed a miracle.

How the Democrats plan to pull this off is beyond me and most other Congress-watchers who have witnessed the gridlock and legislative grinding halt that most major initiatives encounter in the marbled halls of the Capitol. President Obama's aggressive push for passing something this year is admirable and likely the only hope healthcare has of becoming a reality at all during his presidency, but what we're seeing nearly halfway through June isn't encouraging. Read more...

By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

The photo-op was too good to be true. Healthcare providers trooped out of the White House and trumpeted their goal of saving $1.7 trillion in costs over the next decade in health spending. Now these drug companies, hospitals, insurance companies, medical device manufacturers, labor unions and doctors have laid out their plans in more detail. Read more...

When the Bush administration first came into office, they perceived that the economy was slowing down, and they pushed for a big tax cut as an antidote to the slowdown.

My old boss agreed on the need for stimulus to the economy, but he didn’t want to pass a big tax cut. He didn’t like the public relations that came with a big tax cut. He correctly saw that the press would be focused only on the numbers, and not on the tax policy. Read more...

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard talks with John Feehery and Chris Kofinis of The Hill's Pundits Blog about where Republicans need to focus their energies in the coming months.

Good news is in short supply these days, or these years. Actually, it it so rare it nearly shocks the system. So yesterday was a big day in this bad new world we find ourselves living in — the healthcare industry has not only come to the reform table, it is (at least) promising to dish up a generous helping of change.

Officials from a coalition of healthcare interests, upon meeting face to face with President Obama, have announced their intention to cut healthcare costs by 1.5 percent in 10 years, a slice that would save roughly $2 trillion, $2,500 for a family of four in the fifth year. Read more...

As Congress mulls what to do on healthcare reform, talk has started to turn to a solution offered by some Democrats that is seen as a way to deal with the problem of the uninsured.

It is called “the public option,” and on its face it looks like a winner.

Basically, the public option is a low-cost health insurance option that would be run by the government, which would compete with private plans and which would give more people access to the insurance. Read more...

There's a word we used to use to describe children born out of wedlock. Since this is a G-rated column I won't use the term. Let's substitute "illegitimate" — though of course, with changing mores, we no longer use either of those beastly pejoratives to describe a circumstance that is commonplace and generally accepted.

No. The times they are a-changin', or more accurately, the times they are shortchangin'.

So now we should use the cleaned-up language to describe the many in the financial and corporate world who have brought us to our knees with their corrupt incompetence. Read more...

After one major false start, the health policy team for the Obama administration is finally in place. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) will head the sprawling Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), while former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) director Nancy-Ann DeParle will lead the newly created office of Health Reform.

The sheer size of HHS, with its plethora of responsibilities, makes it ideally suited for a governor (the last three secretaries were former governors). The secretary has administrative responsibilities for not only two of the biggest entitlement programs (Medicare and Medicaid), but also the National Institutes of Health, with its enormous research budget. Read more...

With Kathleen Sebelius getting named to head the Department of Health and Human Services, healthcare reform becomes the hot topic for Washington pundits.

The president’s budget obnoxiously makes a very small segment of the population pay for just about everybody else in his plan to reform healthcare in this country. That has never happened before. Social Security, Medicare and even Medicaid have had funding from a wide swath of the American people. In fact, most folks believe that the money they pay in from their payroll taxes goes into accounts that they get back in retirement benefits. Doesn’t work exactly like that, but it does encourage wide-based support for the program. Read more...

Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean, a doctor, wants to be Health and Human Services secretary. And with the influence White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has with President Obama — Dean won't make it to the shortlist.

Senior staff writer Alexander Bolton had a great story in our paper this week about how Dean has been sidelined from the list of true contenders to take on HHS due to Democratic "family politics." And The New York Times reported today that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), Obama's good friend, is the most likely pick. Read more...