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President Barack Obama in Green Bay, Wis.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama is caught in the middle of a battle among Democrats who are trying to figure out how to pay for health care reform, according to the Washington Post.

Key Democrats are advancing a plan to tax some health care benefits provided by employers. But Obama made a campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class.

Sensitive to voter anxiety about a soaring federal deficit, Obama and congressional leaders have promised to pay for reforming the nation’s health care system without borrowing more money, the Post said. The reform, which would significantly expand the federal government’s role in health care, is expected to cost more than $1 trillion over a decade.

On Saturday, Obama proposed to pay for the expansion of health care by carving another $313 billion out of Medicare and Medicaid – the federal health care programs for the elderly, disabled and poor, according to Reuters:

• $110 billion in new cuts could come from reducing scheduled increases in Medicare payments, budget director Peter Orszag told reporters, Reuters said.
• Hospitals would lose $106 bilion in payments for providing charity care for uninsured patients under the assumption that their ranks would fall as reform kicks in.
• Another $75 billion would come from “better pricing of Medicare drugs,” Orszag said, according to Reuters.
• And $22 billion would come from smaller reforms such as cutting waste, fraud and abuse.

The new cuts are in addition to a $635 billion “down payment” on health care reform that Obama outlined in his budget to Congress earlier this year, Reuters said.

Altogether, the Obama administration is now asking Congress to cut Medicare and Medicaid spending by $600 billion over the next decade, which is more than some Democrats are willing to swallow, according to Reuters.

More stories worth a read:

• Funds cut, so anti-smoking groups fume (Columbus Dispatch)
• Microsoft HealthVault continues to enlarge its footprint (BNET Healthcare)
• Hospitals aren’t immune to recession-induced cuts (Columbus Dispatch)
• Cappelle Inc. secures $17.3 million Series C investment (PRNewswire)
• Lanham (Md.) Hospital fined for not reporting errors (Washington Post)
• Nobel Laureate Mario Capecchi encourages postdocs, and third graders, to ‘dream big’(Xconomy | Seattle)
• State-aid formula cuts short local metal health (Columbus Dispatch)
• Obama vs. Hillary at the American Medical Association (Health Care Blog)
• 5 answers to your recession questions: Tips to keep your practice solvent (American Medical Association)
• Sutter Health’s critics charge medical redlining (San Francisco Business Times)
• Novartis rejects call for vaccine donations (Financial Times)
• Exact to raise $8.2M, signs MAYO Foundation deal (Boston Business Journal)
• Mayo Clinic receives $48 million in grants to study catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (Mayo Clinic news)
• Mayo, doc leave clinic for courtroom (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)
• Chris Jerry, whose daughter Emily died from a pharmacy technician’s mistake, starts foundation to push for national law (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
• Nursing shortage? Not so fast (Wall Street Journal Real Time Economics blog)
• Michigan hospitals suffer GM’s bankruptcy, new Medicare cuts (Kaiser Health News)

[June 11, 2009, White House photo by Chuck Kennedy: President Barack Obama talks about health care reform with a town hall audience in Green Bay, Wis.]