Return to the blog »

Headlines! Thursday, July 2

Posted by: Erin Kelly on Jul 02, 2009

Key Senate Democrats Trim Cost of Health Care Bill -AP

Determined to advance President Barack Obama's health care agenda, key Senate Democrats are calling for a government-run insurance option to compete with private plans, as well as a $750-per-worker annual fee on larger companies that do not offer coverage to employees.

 

EXCLUSIVE: The *Real* HELP Bill. And it's much better. -The New Republic

A few weeks ago, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions set off an uproar when it submitted a work-in-progress for scoring by the Congressional Budget Office. The bill was missing major pieces, including a requirement that employers contribute towards the cost of their workers' coverage.

 

A Pitch on Health Care to Virginia and Beyond -The Washington Post

President Obama offered a wonkish defense of his embattled health-care reform effort during an hour-long town hall meeting in Northern Virginia yesterday that featured seven questions, including one sent via Twitter and several from a handpicked audience of supporters.

 

President Pushes Health Plan as an Economic Boom -The New York Times

President Obama returned to the familiar trappings of a political campaign on Wednesday, holding a town-hall-style meeting where he sought to heighten the urgency surrounding the health care debate and dismissed critics who say the issue is too complex to tackle during his first year in office.

 

Will Obama Tax Employer-Provided Benefits? -Time

As lawmakers continue to struggle to find a way to pay for a health reform that could cost $1 trillion or more over the next decade, Barack Obama seems to be opening the door a little wider to an approach that he rejected soundly when John McCain proposed it during last year's presidential campaign: taxing the health benefits that employers provide their workers. "This argument has evolved," he said Wednesday at a town hall meeting on health care in Annandale, Virginia. And it appears that Obama has, too.