MB Civic

Baucus Health Plan Omits Public Insurance Option – The [baucus] legislation under consideration would not require businesses to offer healthcare coverage to their workers and would not contain a public insurance option, despite support for such an option from American voters

22 Health Groups Spent Over $1 Million in Lobbying in 2Q – The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, spent $6.2 million in lobbying expenditures. Pfizer spent $5.6 million, and the American Medical Association spent $3.9 million. Since 1998, the health sector has put $3.4 billion into lobbying efforts, ranking second only to the financial industry

Obesity Medical Costs Balloon to $147 Billion – researchers warned Monday that obesity is a major reason for the nation’s rising health costs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said medical costs of treating obesity-related diseases soared as high as $147 billion last year, or nine percent of all US medical costs
Report: Power Shifts in Plan for Shadow Government – The New York Times reports a shift in authority has given military officials at the White House a bigger operational role in creating a shadow government if the nation’s capital were “decapitated” by a terrorist attack or other calamity

Efforts to Reduce Foreclosures Falls Short – Bank of America is only this month beginning to implement the Obama plan for all at-risk borrowers. Wells Fargo didn’t begin offering some at-risk borrowers loan modifications under the Obama plan until early June. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports government initiatives to stem the country’s mounting foreclosures have also been hampered because banks and other lenders in many cases have more financial incentive to let borrowers lose their homes than to work out settlements

Watchdog Group Calls on ABC to Include Coverage of Single-Payer Option – The media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting and New York-based healthcare advocacy groups are planning to deliver a petition to ABC News today demanding that the TV networks include discussion of a single-payer option in their coverage of the national healthcare debate. President Obama’s former physician, Dr. David Scheiner, signed the petition. ABC News disinvited Dr. Scheiner from its recent town hall meeting on healthcare reform, where he had planned to ask President Obama about single payer
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