Cover the Uninsured Weekly News Digest - Week of October 12, 2009

Wellness Incentives Could Create Health-Care Loophole
Get in shape or pay a price.
(Source: Washington Post, David S. Hilzenrath, 10/16/2009)

Scenario: U.S. Healthcare Reform Reaches New Stage
Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are negotiating ways to merge five healthcare bills into a single measure in each chamber that will rein in costs, regulate insurers and expand coverage.
(Source: Reuters, John Whitesides, 10/15/2009)

Congress Is Split on Effort to Tax Costly Health Plans
A proposed tax on high-cost, or “Cadillac,” health insurance plans has touched off a fierce clash between the Senate and the House as they wrestle over how to pay for legislation that would provide health benefits to millions of uninsured Americans.
(Source: New York Times, David M. Herszenhorn and Robert Pear, 10/13/2009)

Senate Committee Passes Healthcare Bill
President Barack Obama said on Tuesday’s Senate committee vote for a centrist $829bn healthcare bill brought the US closer to his goal of achieving universal healthcare reform but warned Democrats “not to pat ourselves on the back” given the long road ahead.
(Source: Financial Times, Anna Fifield and Ed Luce in Washington, 10/14/2009)

Snowe Suggests Scenario For Government-Run Option
Sen. Olympia Snowe, the only Republican to support the Finance Committee's health care bill, said Wednesday she could foresee a government-run plan that would "kick in" if private insurers failed to live up to expectations.
(Source: Associated Press, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/14/2009) 

After a Key Vote, Health Care Now Turns to Harry Reid
Now that the last of the five congressional committees with jurisdiction over health care, Max Baucus' Senate Finance Committee, has passed its much anticipated reform bill, it falls to majority leader Harry Reid to cobble together something that can pass the Senate.
(Source: TIME magazine.com, Jay Newton-Small, 10/14/2009)

Democrats Fire Back at Health Industry
Days after the insurance lobby began an aggressive campaign against a Senate plan to overhaul the nation's health-care system, senior Democrats fired back, threatening Wednesday to revoke the industry's long-standing antitrust exemption.
(Source: Washington Post, Lori Montgomery and David S. Hilzenrath, 10/15/2009)

White House Team Joins Talks on Health Care Bill
A delegation of senior White House officials met on Wednesday at the Capitol with the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and the chairmen of the Finance and health committees, as Democrats turned their full attention to merging competing versions of the comprehensive health care legislation.
(Source: New York Times, David M. Herszenhorn and Robert Pear, 10/15/2009)