Diana Manos
President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to schedule a vote on healthcare reform.
The Senate adjourned early for the weekend without repealing or delaying the 21 percent Medicare physician pay cut that is expected to begin on March 3.
The federal government's latest report has healthcare rising to 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Economists warn this is unsustainable, and Congress has agreed.
President Barack Obama had hoped to pass healthcare reform by the end of 2009, but the last major action Congress has taken on the effort came on Christmas Eve when the Senate passed it's overhaul package by the slimmest possible margin.
President Barack Obama has requested a $3.8 trillion federal budget for fiscal year 2011 that includes $81.3 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services – a $1.7 billion increase over what Congress approved in fiscal year 2010.
At a White House healthcare summit held Thursday, President Barack Obama urged Republican congressional leaders to consider working on several areas of common interest in the healthcare reform package, giving them a rough 6-week deadline before Democrats may consider using alternative measures to pass the plan.
Congressional leaders joined President Barack Obama today at the White House to launch an all-day televised bipartisan discussion on the deadlocked healthcare reform legislation.
Health plans are taking the heat this week with Sen. Charles Grassley's (R-Iowa) demand for an explanation for Wellmark's rate hike in Iowa and the American Medical Association's new report showing health plans face too little competition nationwide.
As Congressional leaders prepare for Thursday's White House summit on healthcare reform, President Barack Obama has released his own version of a healthcare reform plan.
The American College of Physicians said doctors will struggle to provide care without a permanent fix for the flawed Medicare physician payment system.