Selected stories from the daily newsletter CQ HealthBeat from the week of April 27, 2009. Provided as a service under rights licensed by The Commonwealth Fund. The full-text version of this newsletter can be accessed via the DC Policy Updates box on the Fund's Web site,
www.commonwealthfund.org.
As President Obama marked his first 100 days in office, Congress adopted a fiscal 2010 budget resolution that sets the stage for action on his top legislative priorities. Read more »
The Senate filled the remaining vacancy in President Obama's Cabinet, voting to confirm Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services Secretary. Read more »
Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced that he is switching parties and will campaign as a Democrat in 2010, a decision that could bolster his re-election prospects and would move the Democrats closer to a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. Read more »
Mandating a public plan as part of the health care overhaul will create a "nuclear minefield" that will destroy the collegiality that so far has marked this year's debate, a public plan opponent warned at a forum. Watch a webcast on the public insurance option. Read more »
Congressional Democrats appear increasingly determined to create a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers as part of a health care overhaul, despite warnings by Republicans, business groups, and insurers that doing so would mean the end of employer-sponsored health insurance. Read more »
What's a big obstacle to getting a health care overhaul bill out of the Senate? The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), according to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus. Read more »