The Dems strategy is that the House would pass the Senate’s version of the bill then both chambers would approve changes under the budget reconciliation process, which could pass the Senate with a simple 51-vote majority

After 7 grueling hours of partisan lecturing it appears that health care reform is either dead, or will be passed with a minimal number of democrats voting and just barely passing the largest social program in the history of the United States.

If the President plans to use the existing House and Senate bills as a starting point for next week’s health care summit with Republican leaders next week, where do you think reform will end up?  According to recent zogby polls the Americans want Congress to start the health care debate over from scratch.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama submitted on Monday a $3.8 trillion federal budget request to Congress for fiscal year 2011. The president said he plans to make healthcare reform – and healthcare IT in particular – a major part of his long-term plans to put America back on track financially.

In keeping with the president’s past support of healthcare IT advancement, this year’s fiscal budget request includes $110 million to strengthen healthcare IT policy coordination and research activities.

Last February, the Administration backed more than $20.6 billion over 10 years to advance healthcare IT adoption in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)  Click here

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