First Edition: January 22, 2010

Jan 22 2010

Today's news highlights the continued efforts by Democrats to plot a new health reform strategy.

KHN Column: A Smaller, Bipartisan Health Care Bill: Where To Start In his latest Kaiser Health News column, Robert Laszewski writes: "I've heard many people say it won't be possible to pass a bipartisan health care bill in today's poisoned environment. But we will ultimately have real health care reform in this country for a very simple reason: We have no choice and both Democrats and Republicans understand that. More importantly, the American people know it" (Kaiser Health News).

A New Search For Consensus On Health Care Bill
Even as Speaker Nancy Pelosi affirmed her commitment to pass far-reaching health care legislation this year, members of Congress and health policy experts began Thursday to deal with the reality that a smaller bill would have a better chance (The New York Times).

Democrats Are Urged To Preserve Broad Healthcare Overhaul Even as congressional Democrats began examining ways to scale back their far-reaching health legislation, a wave of consumer groups, patient advocates and doctors on Thursday called on Democrats not to abandon the comprehensive health overhaul they've worked so long to pass (Los Angeles Times).

Pelosi: House Won't Pass Senate Bill To Save Health-Care Reform As Democrats continued to grapple with the consequences of their loss in Massachusetts, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday eliminated the most obvious avenue for completing health-care reform, saying the House will not embrace the version of the legislation already approved by the Senate (The Washington Post).

Obama Health Plan In Doubt As Dems Reject Fast Fix Though reeling from a political body blow, House Democrats rejected the quickest fix to their health care dilemma Thursday and signaled that any agreement on President Barack Obama's signature issue will come slowly, if at all (The Associated Press).

Health Care Overhaul May Be Mortally Wounded The House is not about to pass the Senate's version of the health overhaul bill. The election of Republican Scott Brown to the Massachusetts Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy pretty much puts a fork in a massive bill that's been nearly a year in the making (NPR).

Dems Weigh Whether Health Bills 'Are Dead' As they try to pick up the pieces of their scorched health care legislation, Democrats in Congress are focusing first on the most popular ideas, from expanding patients' rights to making insurance coverage more affordable (USA Today).

Dem Health Care Talks Collapsing Health care reform teetered on the brink of collapse Thursday as House and Senate leaders struggled to coalesce around a strategy to rescue the plan, in the face of growing pessimism among lawmakers that the president's top priority can survive (Politico).

With Scott Brown's Election, Healthcare Ball Now In Pelosi's Court Two days after the Massachusetts miracle that gave Republicans their 41st vote in the Senate, Democrats are in intense negotiations - mainly within their own ranks - over how to move forward on healthcare reform (The Christian Science Monitor).

Analysis: Paring Back Health Care Not So Easy Trimming back the 2,000-page, trillion-dollar Democratic health care bills to the parts that average folks understand and like may not be as simple as it sounds (The Associated Press/The Washington Post).

Some House Dems Warming To Idea Of Scaled-Back Healthcare Reform There is growing consensus in the House Democratic Caucus that comprehensive healthcare legislation is dead and the only option is to pass a series of piecemeal measures (The Hill).

Insurers Now Focus Of Democrats' Health Talks Congressional Democrats said they were focusing on toughening regulations on the health-insurance industry in a bid to assemble a scaled-down, more populist health-care bill after the party's defeat in Massachusetts (The Wall Street Journal).

If Bills Fail, A Quandary For Insurers With the possible collapse of the Congressional health care effort, health insurers might seem to have reason to celebrate. The legislation threatened to remake much of their business, with the prospect of burdensome government regulation and less profit from selling coverage to individuals and small businesses (The New York Times).

Poll: Regroup On Health Care, Most Say
A majority of Americans say President Obama and congressional Democrats should suspend work on the health care bill that has been on the verge of passage and consider alternatives that would draw more Republican support, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds (USA Today).

California Democrats Revive Universal Health Plan Democrats in California revived a bill on Thursday that would create a single-payer, universal health care system in the state (The New York Times).

Sign up to receive this list of First Edition headlines via email. Check out all of Kaiser Health News' email options including First Edition and Breaking News alerts on our Subscriptions page.