News & Comment

President Obama will bypass Congress and appoint Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a health policy expert, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the White House said Tuesday. read more »

Of all the hot-mike incidents in recent memory, the one involving a candidate for the post of Georgia insurance commissioner probably isn't going to break any YouTube records. But to understand the state-level ground war raging over the new Affordable Care Act, this unguarded moment of accidental honesty is as instructive as any.

The Obama administration and some state governments will begin accepting applications Thursday for new insurance programs designed to cover people who have been denied insurance because they have preexisting medical conditions. read more »

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) took aim at his own party's policy ideas when he took to the podium to speak before a group of moderate Republicans on Wednesday. read more »

As Congress continues to squabble over whether to provide additional Medicaid dollars to cash-strapped states, a dozen governors used the July 1 state budget deadline to make their case for the money. Their argument: Without $25 billion in additional aid, states’ fiscal health and the nation’s fragile economic recovery could be in jeopardy. read more »

Florida senatorial candidate Marco Rubio, once a strong advocate for repealing the entire health care law and replacing it with “real reforms,” is now telling reporters that he would not repeal the law’s pre-existing conditions exclusions and the provisions that allow children to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26. From National Review’s Jim Geraghty:

Health insurance companies should not use the new heath care reform law as an “opportunity to enact unjustifiable rate increases,” President Obama warned today at a White House ceremony marking the 90-day anniversary of signing the landmark bill, which he termed “a true patient’s bill of rights.”

President Barack Obama unveiled a package of consumer benefits Tuesday to build support for his health care overhaul within a divided nation and warned Republicans about trying to repeal his landmark law. "We're not going back," said a defiant president.

The two parties have wrangled over the bill for over eight weeks, with Republicans balking at the cost of the package. The Senate failed to move forward on a version of the bill last week that cost $118 billion and added approximately $60 billion to the deficit.

President Obama, whose vilification of insurers helped push a landmark health care overhaul through Congress, plans to sternly warn industry executives at a White House meeting on Tuesday against imposing hefty rate increases in anticipation of tightening regulation under the new law, administration officials said Monday.