healthcare

Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson says he will use his key centrist vote to support a debate on the health care reform bill.

But the Nebraska senator said Friday that his support of a procedural motion to allow debate does not mean he will vote for the overall bill.

Nelson says having a debate on health care reform will allow for an opportunity to improve the bill and make sure Nebraskans' concerns are heard.

Nebraska's other U.S. senator, Republican Mike Johanns, has opposed the Democrats' health care reform plan, saying the legislation would make health care more expensive and could jeopardize Medicare...

More Americans continue to oppose the health care reform legislation than support it, according to a Fox News poll released Friday. In addition, half favor banning the use of federal funds for abortions.

By 51 percent to 35 percent, the public opposes the reform legislation being considered right now by Congress. Last month, a majority opposed the health care legislation by a similar 54-35 percent (October 13-14, 2009).

While a majority of Democrats favor the reforms (65 percent), some 17 percent are opposed and another 18 percent are unsure. Most Republicans (82 percent) and a majority of independents (61 percent) oppose the legislation...

A healthcare policy expert says there are details in the Senate healthcare bill that will frighten everyone.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has unveiled his more than 2,000-page healthcare bill with an estimated price tag of $849 billion. However, as Grace Marie Turner of the Galen Institute points out, one of the reasons the bill was scored under President Obama's $900 billion cost goal is because no one gets any benefit from the program until 2014.

"So they start collecting taxes and fees now, and...the first ten years of full implementation of this bill is $2.5 trillion, and that's only the beginning," Turner explains. "So this does not in any way...meet President Obama's budget specification. And there are all sorts of tricks that they have pulled in this bill to try to pretend that it's deficit-neutral"...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin early Friday morning greeted news that renewed guidelines scale back screenings for cervical cancer by asking if bureaucratic panels were already rationing care.

“The recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists comes on the heels of another recommendation to limit breast cancer screenings with mammograms. There are many questions unanswered for me, but one which immediately comes to mind is whether costs have anything to do with these recommendations,” Palin wrote in a post on her Facebook page.

“The current health care debate elicits great concern because of its introduction of socialized medicine in America and the inevitable rationed care,” she continued...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- As Congress remains embroiled in a massive debate over whether to force Americans to pay for abortions through the new government-run health care programs, a new CNN poll finds 61 percent oppose government funding abortions with public dollars.

The poll found six in ten Americans favor a ban on using federal funds for abortions, such as the Stupak amendment recently added to the health care bill in the House.

The new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released today shows 61 percent oppose taxpayer funding of abortions while just 37 percent are supportive...

A healthcare policy analyst says new mammography guidelines proposed by a government task force would be a setback for early breast cancer detection.

A government panel of doctors and scientists recommended Monday that women in their forties should not have annual mammograms and older women should reduce their use of the screening device. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded that early and frequent breast cancer screenings often lead to false alarms and unneeded biopsies without substantially improving women's odds of survival...

Washington (AP) - After months of maneuvering, the Senate stands at the brink of a historic battle over health care with President Barack Obama and his allies on one side and Republicans, outnumbered but unflinching, on the other.

"Now it's America's turn, and this will not be a short debate," Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, warned after Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled long-awaited legislation Wednesday night to extend coverage to 30 million more Americans and force insurance companies to take all comers.

"Higher premiums, tax increases and Medicare cuts to pay for more government. The American people know that is not reform," McConnell said...

Joseph Stubbs, President of the American College of Physicians -- the second largest doctors' group in the country -- confirms that "the supply of doctors just won't be there" for the 30 million new patients Barack Obama wants to cover. Noting that the doctor shortage is "already a catastrophic crisis," Stubbs said that underserved areas in the U.S. currently need almost 17,000 new primary care physicians even before Obama's proposals are enacted.

In the meantime, according to Bloomberg News, a 2009 survey by Merritt Hawkins and Associates, a recruiting and research firm in Irving, Texas, found that "the average waiting time to see a family-medicine doctor in Boston ... is 63 days, the most among the 15 cities" surveyed. By comparison, in Miami, it was only seven days...

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she expects the Senate to pass an overhaul of U.S. health care next month and President Barack Obama prefers taxing high-end medical plans to help pay for the revamp.

“The hope is there will be 60 votes mid-December to pass bills in Senate” before House and Senate leaders get to work on merging their legislation in a conference committee, Sebelius said today at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council conference in Washington. She didn’t say when she thought final legislation would reach President Obama...

(CNSNews.com) – A provision in the recently passed House health care reform bill (H.R. 3962) creates a grant program to reward groups that promote contraceptive use among teens.

Known as the "Healthy Teen Initiative to Prevent Teen Pregnancy," the bill’s provision creates a federal grant program that would use taxpayer dollars to fund “evidence based” programs that aim to reduce teen pregnancies.

“Amounts received by a State under this section shall be used to conduct or support evidence-based education programs (directly or through grants or contracts to public or private nonprofit entities, including schools and community-based and faith-based organizations) to reduce teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases,” the bill reads...