Cover the Uninsured Weekly News Digest - Week of October 26, 2009

House Dems Unveil Health Bill, Cheered On by Obama
Cheered by President Barack Obama, House Democrats rolled out landmark legislation Thursday to extend health care to tens of millions who lack coverage, impose sweeping new restrictions on the insurance industry and create a government-run option to compete with private insurers.
(Source: Associated Press, David Espo, 10/30/2009)

Business and Drug Groups Blast Bill; Doctors Are Uneasy
Business groups blasted the House healthcare bill released Thursday, and a key trade association for doctors declined to endorse it.
(Source: The Hill, Jeffrey Young, 10/30/2009)

Senate Healthcare Bill Draws Skeptics, Opponents
A healthcare reform bill with a government-run insurance option faced an uncertain future in the Senate on Tuesday, with many centrist Democrats uncommitted and Senator Joe Lieberman strongly opposed.
(Source: Reuters, Donna Smith and John Whitesides, 10/28/2009)

Public Option Push in Senate Comes With Escape Hatch
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, sided with his party’s liberals on Monday and announced that he would include a government-run insurance plan in health care legislation that he plans to take to the Senate floor within a few weeks.
(Source: New York Times, Robert Pear and David M. Herszenhorn, 10/27/2009)

US Healthcare System Wastes Up To $800 Bln A Year
The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday.
(Source: Reuters, Maggie Fox, 10/26/2009)

Can 'Bundled' Payments Help Slash Health Costs?
An hour into knee replacement surgery--with U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For playing in the background--Yogesh Mittal smiles as he raises the left leg of his patient, 76-year-old Frank Morrow.
(Source: USA Today, Phil Galewitz, 10/26/2009)

If You Build A Coverage Mandate, Will They Come?
People are more likely to buckle their seat belt than follow the speed limit, even though the penalties for speeding are higher.
(Source: Washington Post, Alec MacGillis, 10/26/2009)