Selected stories from the daily newsletter CQ HealthBeat from the week of October 12, 2009. Provided as a service under rights licensed by The Commonwealth Fund. The full-text version of this newsletter is available in the Health Reform section of
commonwealthfund.org.
Republican Olympia J. Snowe of Maine gave critical momentum to a Senate health care overhaul bill as she joined panel Democrats in voting for the Senate Finance Committee's complex health care overhaul. Read more »
Negotiations to meld the Senate's competing health care bills got under way, a process expected to last at least a week. Read more »
Young adults will be able remain on their parents' health insurance policies until they reach the age of 27 under the Democratic health bill being developed in the U.S. House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a press conference.
Read more »
Democrats' war with the health insurance industry escalated in the Senate Judiciary Committee, as senators harshly criticized insurers' domination of markets and vowed to modify federal antitrust exemptions extended to the industry since 1945. Read more »
House leaders assured a group of fiscally conservative Democrats that final legislation to prevent cuts in Medicare payments to physicians would not be brought to the floor unless it is paid for or the deficit-fighting "pay-as-you-go" rule becomes law first. Read more »
The nation's health insurers are fully committed to ending policies that charge women higher premiums or deny them coverage because of their age, gender or "pre-existing conditions" such as pregnancy, the head of the industry's trade association told a Senate committee. Read more »