Arizona on Thursday became the first state to eliminate its Children's Health Insurance Program when Gov. Jan Brewer signed an austere budget that will leave nearly 47,000 low-income children without coverage.

Pushing toward a Sunday vote that could transform the nation's health-insurance system, House leaders announced a $940 billion compromise Thursday that would extend coverage to the vast majority of Americans, cut billions of dollars from Medicare, and impose new taxes on the wealthy and the well-insured.

Democrats can point to extensive precedent for the "deeming" maneuver they might use to pass their health-care overhaul, but Republicans—and some legal scholars—say the tactic has never been employed for such a major piece of legislation, and may be unconstitutional to boot.

It's the biggest "doughnut hole" of them all: Members of the middle class are losing their health insurance faster than any other income group, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The yearlong legislative fight over health care is drawing to a frenzied close as a multimillion-dollar wave of advertising that rivals the ferocity of a presidential campaign takes aim at about 40 House Democrats whose votes will help determine the fate of President Obama's top domestic priority.

In a backlash against President Obama's health care legislation that stretches from Virginia to California, lawmakers in more than two-thirds of the states are scrambling to undercut the bill before it even passes Congress.

It took lawmakers a year to shape President Barack Obama's health care bill.

If healthcare is not reformed, uninsured Americans could pay twice as much for health insurance in 10 years, a U.S. foundation says.

Democratic leaders said Thursday that they were increasingly inclined to release a final health-care bill that could accomplish two of President Obama's top domestic priorities: guaranteeing coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans and vastly expanding federal aid for college students.

Top Democrats say they are resolving disputes over President Barack Obama's health overhaul plan, but they face decisions on subsidizing coverage and are still hunting votes to push the vast package through Congress.