Young Adults Will Pay Steep Price for Health Reform

Fallback measure would cover 15M uninsured

(NEWSER) - The White House has a less ambitious health care plan waiting in the wings if today's health care summit fails to win enough support for sweeping change. The scaled-back plan would provide health insurance to some 15 million Americans, about half the number the larger bill would cover, for a quarter of the comprehensive bill's $950 billion 10-year cost, officials tell the Wall Street Journal. More»

New preventive health rules require insurers to cover cost

(NEWSER) - Women can say goodbye to co-pays on birth control: Health insurance companies will soon have to cover the cost themselves, the Obama administration says. It’s part of expanded preventive care for women , including coverage of breast pumps, “well woman” physicals, and STD counseling, the AP reports. Insurance firms will likely raise premiums a small amount to handle the cost. Religious institutions may opt out of birth control coverage under the new rules, many of which won't take effect until Jan. 1, 2013. More»

System 'takes lives and breaks apart families'

(NEWSER) - Despite screeches that a government-run health care program will bump people into an early grave, "it’s a good bet that our existing dysfunctional health system knocks off far more people than an army of ‘death panels’ could, even if they did exist," writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. The current system allows 18,000 “unnecessary deaths” yearly among the uninsured, a study found. That's one person every half hour. More»

Keep plans private, creating gov't care 'by proxy'

(NEWSER) - Amid “widespread national revulsion,” Obamacare as it stands “is dead,” but the Democrats can revive it if they’re willing to make some key concessions, writes Charles Krauthammer—a nonpracticing physician in addition to pundit—in the Washington Post. What they must do:

1. Dump the public option.
2. Forget about “any reference to end-of-life counseling.”
3. Don’t let government decide what procedures are best.
4. Don’t treat the overhaul as a cost-cutting measure.

(NEWSER) - President Obama brought his case for health reform to talk radio today, telling a largely conservative audience that a public option is only a small part of his goal and expressing skepticism that any deal with Republicans is possible. On the public option, "what we've said is we think that's a good idea,” Obama told Michael Smerconish's call-in show, broadcast from the White House. “We haven't said that's the only aspect," reports the Washington Post. More»