Democrats are facing the reality that continuing their ambitious politically risky bills and having nothing to show for it could result in disaster in November elections. Congressional leaders say they have no clear viable solution to pass the existing health-care reform bills at the present time.  See AP article

AP By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies are conceding for the first time that they may have to accept a less ambitious health overhaul bill than the massive one they’ve struggled for a year to assemble.
Shorn by Massachusetts voters of their pivotal 60th Senate vote and much of their political momentum, the White House and congressional leaders are considering a more modest version of Obama’s top legislative priority. It could focus on curbing insurance company practices like denying coverage to sick people and on helping low-earning people and small businesses afford coverage, officials said. Click Here

Flexible spending accounts, or FSAs, are near to Frank McCree’s heart — and heartburn. As director of outpatient services for Carolinas Health System in Charlotte, North Carolina, McCree oversaw the acceptance of FSA purchases for seven retail pharmacies and a mail-order pharmacy serving 40,000 employees and their dependents. And he took the heat when employee FSA debit-card purchases were denied at the system’s own mail-order pharmacy. “We worked with the vendor that set up the FSA program at our retail pharmacies, so we assumed that everything would be fine with the mail-order program,” McCree told Drug Topics. “Instead, our employee transactions were being denied. That’s a recipe for heartburn.”
McCree has plenty of company. Independent and small chain pharmacies nationwide are seeing FSA card transactions declined. Long-time patients are being pushed out of independent pharmacies and into chains.  click here

House Dems largely reject idea of passing Senate health care bill

From Dana Bash and Deirdre Walsh, CNN