First Edition: May 20, 2010

May 20 2010

Today's news includes the lastest developments regarding the Medicare pay fix and continuing analysis regarding how health reform votes will play into the 2010 electoral landscape.

Democrats Try To Calm Doctors' Lobby On $88.5B Medicare Plan
House Democrats are seeking to assuage doctors worried about looming cuts to Medicare rates.
The effort comes one day after the American Medical Association declared its opposition to a proposed five-year fix to the payment system, which it said only serves to kick the problem down the road. AMA supports repealing the Medicare payment formula (The Hill).

AFL-CIO: Health Care Vote Won't Help In November
A top union political operative offered an assessment of the 2010 landscape that could send a chill through the Democratic Party ranks: the health care bill won't help in November (The Wall Street Journal Washington Wire).

Fact Check: Tax Cut Math Doesn't Add Up For Some
Zach Hoffman was confident his small business would qualify for a new tax cut in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law (The Associated Press).

Disabled Face Hard Choices As States Slash Medicaid
Tandem forces of shrinking state budgets and rising health-care costs have collided and struck a small brick ranch house in this rural town, home to Barbara Hickey (The Wall Street Journal).

SC House To Consider Health Care Cuts; Help Courts
South Carolina would cut spending for cancer screening, AIDS treatment and prevention and prescription drugs to cover a shortfall in state court and police funding under a proposal House members were reviewing Wednesday. A health care advocate said the proposal House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper handed out would leave the state's poor without critical medication, and allow deadly cancers to go undetected (The Associated Press/Washington Post).

Study: Uninsured Don't Go To The ER More Than Insured
A kiss gone awry isn't the typical route that lands a person in the emergency room, but that's just how Maggie Craytor ended up in the University of Virginia Medical Center's emergency department in August (USA Today).

Editorial: Health Care Reform And The Courts
The number of states jointly suing to overturn the new health care reform law on constitutional grounds swelled to 20 last week. It is the latest example of conservatives' determination to thwart reforms that will do enormous good — and the latest reminder that politicians will continue to posture and demagogue the issue through the November elections and beyond (The New York Times).