Pressure in Washington mounting to move forward on health care reform — MedCity Morning Read, July 14, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With divisions among congressional Democrats threatening to stall health care reform, President Obama moved aggressively Monday to shore up support, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Obama met with senior Democratic lawmakers and labor leaders at the White House, stressing that now is the time to overhaul health care, the L.A. Times said. Today, the president travels to Michigan, where bankruptcies among two of the nation’s automakers are draining the state economy of jobs and health care coverage, leading to job cuts at hospitals.

Events are pushing Obama and other leaders to a crucial decision, the Times says: when and how to plunge into the specifics of the sensitive negotiations. Specifically, how do we pay health overhaul, and do we need a government-run health insurance plan as an alternative to (competition for) private insurance?

So Obama is pushing back, the New York Times said. He urged Democratic lawmakers to to stick to his legislative timetable — he wants the House and Senate to pass bills before the August recess. Appearing in the Rose Garden, Obama portrayed himself as a kind of sheriff who’s back in town after a week away.

“I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone,” Obama said, according to the N.Y. Times. “We are going to get this done. Inaction is not an option. And for those naysayers and cynics who think that this is not going to happen, don’t bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen, because the American people desperately need it.”

House Democrats plan to unveil their legislation today, and three committees plan to start work on the bill this week or early next, the N.Y. Times said. But in the Senate, where work has been underway for weeks, the process has slowed. There, the health committee continues to vote on amendments to its bill, while members of the Finance Committee struggle to figure out how to pay the $1 trillion price tag for reform over 10 years.

More stories worth a read:

• Physician groups support comparative effectiveness provisions in proposed legislation (EurekaAlert!)
• Generic Pharmaceutical Association calls Senate HELP Committee disappointing for countless patients (PRNewswire)
• Hold the Mayo (InsureBlog)
• Health insurance on your own: what to do to get the best coverage (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
• DexCom elects Dr. Eric Topol to its board (TradingMarkets.com)
• Researchers identify individuals at risk for developing colon cancer (EurekaAlert!)
• Study assesses cancer risk from coronary artery screening (Wall Street Journal Health blog)
• Cornerstone Therapeutics signs definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire commercial rights to the antibiotic Factive (PRNewswire)
• Interstate competition for primary care doctors (Healthcare Entrepreneur blog)
• Health & Human Services Secretary Sebelius highlights Michigan’s MHA Keystone Center in inaugural health care ‘success story’ report (PRNewswire)
• British girl’s heart heals itself after transplant (Associated Press/Boston Globe)
• Dayton-area hospitals fare well in readmission rates (Dayton Business Journal)
• CEO spotlight: Q&A with Jane Keller of Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital (Becker’s Hospital Review)
• U.S. to spend another $1 billion on flu vaccine (Reuters)
• Medtronic, Covidien issue recalls (MassDevice)

[Photo credit: By Ed Brown, as Edbrown05, on 05-04-2005; posted at Wikipedia Commons]