WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Current government rules do too little to protect the privacy of people’s personal health information and also hinder the use of health data in medical research, a panel of experts reported on Wednesday.
A committee of the Institute of Medicine, which provides advice to U.S. policymakers, urged Congress to take an entirely new approach to protecting personal health data in research.
Federal standards for protecting privacy Read the rest of this entry »

Nov. 17, 2008 – 1:02 p.m.
to take office next year or for the 111th Congress to convene, Senate Democratic leaders this week are escalating discussions about an ambitious overhaul of the health care system.
, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee, and
, D-Mass., who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, plan to meet Tuesday to discuss how to craft an overhaul that would fall under the jurisdiction of both committees. Read the rest of this entry »

Team Kennedy Aligns Congress, Health Lobbyists Behind Overhaul
Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) — Senator
, battling a
deadly brain tumor, is pushing ahead on a plan to overhaul the
U.S. health-care system, ordering meetings with interest groups
and negotiating with colleagues to ready a proposal that
can act on after taking office.
Kennedy, 76, had surgery for his
in June, and has
since been treated with chemotherapy and radiation. While the
type of Read the rest of this entry »

for coverage, regardless of health status, the Associated Press reports. But insurers also favor a requirement for all Americans to have health insurance. Requiring health insurance for all is needed, according to industry analysts, because mandatory inclusion of both healthy and sick people would allow insurers to distribute risk over a larger group of people. Two health insurance trade organizations—
that each called for coverage of those Read the rest of this entry »

Obama wants to overhaul health care; can he do it?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Now for the hard part. Even if the national credit card is maxed out and partisanship remains the rule for Washington’s political tribes, President Barack Obama and Congress are plunging ahead with a health care overhaul.
This week, Obama will start the dialogue on how to increase coverage, restrain costs and improve quality.
Whether a bill can get through Congress and Read the rest of this entry »

CHICAGO (Reuters) – An analysis of proposals to overhaul U.S. health care by President-elect Barack Obama and members of Congress suggests it is possible to insure all Americans without significantly raising total health spending.
Some 46 million Americans, or about 15 percent of the population, have no health insurance. While Americans pay more per person for care than any other industrialized country, many studies show they have poorer health, Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (AP) — An ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy is trying to lay the groundwork for a breakthrough on health care reform next year, though many believe the enormous undertaking has been made even more difficult by the troubled economy.
Kennedy, aides say, has held several video conferences with lawmakers and staff in recent months as he fights from home to overcome brain cancer. His staff has held more than a dozen meetings in recent weeks Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (AP) — An ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy is trying to lay the groundwork for a breakthrough on health care reform next year, though many believe the enormous undertaking has been made even more difficult by the troubled economy.
Kennedy, aides say, has held several video conferences with lawmakers and staff in recent months as he fights from home to overcome brain cancer. His staff has held more than a dozen meetings in recent weeks Read the rest of this entry »

If Gov. Kathleen Sebelius becomes President Barack Obama’s secretary of health and human services, she’ll be running into the toughest thicket of American politics — national health-care reform.
Is she tough enough to break through?
Her record in Kansas suggests that despite several attempts to broaden health insurance coverage, especially for children, she fell short primarily because of Republican opposition.
Members of Congress Read the rest of this entry »

CHICAGO (Reuters) – An analysis of proposals to overhaul U.S. health care by President-elect Barack Obama and members of Congress suggests it is possible to insure all Americans without significantly raising total health spending.
Some 46 million Americans, or about 15 percent of the population, have no health insurance. While Americans pay more per person for care than any other industrialized country, many studies show they have poorer health, Read the rest of this entry »