Democrats’ strategy for merging health care reform bills began to unravel under growing attacks Wednesday, including unexpected criticism from Colorado’s two Democratic senators.

Final negotiations on merging the bills began in earnest Wednesday as congressional leaders spent more than eight hours behind closed doors at the White House using a process that bypasses a formal conference committee and cuts out Republican participation.

They dug into a series of sticky issues that separate the two versions of the bill passed by the House and the Senate — including abortion, access to health insurance by illegal immigrants, and how to pay for the sweeping legislation, which will insure an estimated 37 million Americans over the next decade.

» Continue reading “Colorado’s 2 senators criticize closed-door talks on health care reform”

Paul Farmer’s “This I Believe” recording from NPR with photos taken at Partners In Health sites around the world. Learn more about PIH’s work at www.pih.org.

From the war in Iraq to the space station, government programs almost always end up costing much more than they were supposed to. They also usually end up doing more than they were supposed to. Would ObamaCare be any different? Some say ObamaCare would lead to death panels, even euthanasia classes. Now supporters of President Obama’s health care overhaul are fighting back against such charges. And the president himself warns: “If you misrepresent what’s in this plan, we will call you out …

Republican governors are not alone in being concerned about what the proposed health care legislation might mean for their already overstrained budgets: Democrats share the same worries.         “We’ve got concerns,” Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware said in an interview Wednesday, hours before getting elected as the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. “And we’re doing our best to communicate them. We understand the need to get something done, and we’re supportive of getting something done. But we want to make sure it’s done in a way that state budgets are not negatively impacted.”

» Continue reading “Democratic Governors Voice Concern Over Health Care Bill”

they will negotiate the final bill from the house and the senate behind closed doors

An audience member yells “liar” at Obama during his speech to Congress. Obama also took a personal swipe at Sarah Palin during his speech.

I’m a former Obama supporter. I’m just totally fed up with reversal after reversal and lie after lie from President Obama on health care.

Make no mistake about it. Health care reform is coming. But what’s the best way to fix our health care system, which is an inefficient, complicated mess of private actors, third-party payers, public subsidies, and innumerable state and federal regulations? Should we place our faith in the government or in the free market? ObamaCare supporters argue that the answer lies in more government—more subsidies, more regulations, a law mandating individuals buy health-insurance coverage and, of …

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