Bayh's Wife in Deep With Health Industry

...and some of its policy advice echoed ObamaCare

(NEWSER) - More consulting trouble for Newt. Since 2003, a Gingrich-founded think tank has pulled in at least $37 million from the health-care industry—and has called for an insurance mandate reminiscent of President Obama’s. Wellpoint, Blue Cross Blue Shield, AstraZeneca, and other members of the Center for Health Transformation paid as much as $200,000 in yearly dues; in exchange, they got “direct Newt interaction,” or at least so promised the think tank's promotional materials, the Washington Post reports. Gingrich ran the center until he left this year for the campaign trail. More»

Dems should be ashamed of bill, but pass the damn thing

(NEWSER) - The Democrats should hurry up and pass their sorry excuse for a health bill, but they should stop calling it "health care reform," writes Michael Moore. The president and Democratic leaders should apologize to the American people for coming up with a bill that leaves 12 million people still uninsured and leaves the "greedy, private insurance industry" in charge of the plan, Moore writes in the Daily Beast. More»

Compromise looking more distant than ever

(NEWSER) - President Obama's health care summit left pundits from across the spectrum feeling more pessimistic than ever about the chances of crafting a bipartisan agreement on reform.

• "It was a talking-point festival," writes Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal. The Republicans put forth seemingly unconnected statements, and the "boorish" Democrats appealed to sentiment in an effort to win support for a bill that they obviously plan to "bully through Congress."

Ties to pharma, insurers make filibuster threats suspect

(NEWSER) - The threats from Sens. Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh to help filibuster any health reform bill with a public option should come as no surprise to anybody familiar with their family finances, writes Joe Conason. Lieberman's wife Hadassah spent 30 years working in the corporate health sector for pharmaceutical firms and the lobbying firms that represent them, while Bayh's wife Susan has made millions working for Wellpoint, America's biggest health insurer. More»

'The health of each of us depends on the health of the rest of us'

(NEWSER) - The Democrats are in danger of losing the health care reform battle over an argument "that a novice debater would have no trouble putting down," writes Thomas Frank for the Wall Street Journal. Reformers need to directly address the role of government in health care, Frank writes, and demolish the myth that "health insurance is a form of property, a matter of pure personal responsibility" earned by the hard work of individuals, and that those who don't have it "chose a toxic life of fast food and fast morals." More»