Now that both the Senate and the House have passed health reform bills, what can we expect next? As you chat with friends and family over the holiday, do you know what is in these bills and what might emerge in the final version?

The Senators and Representatives won't be...

Breaking news on Saturday December 19: The "Manager's Amendment" is now online and the Senate is apparently going to have 60 votes to pass the bill by Christmas Eve. You can read the new changes at: Manager's Amendment.

At this point in the legislative process, let's pay some...

This week there is yet another attempt to introduce a "public option" into health care that could pass the Senate. It's not really a public option. It's not really new. But it just might do the job. It's essentially an expansion of an established program, the

You may feel daunted by the number of pages in these health reform bills, not to mention the legislative language that is often impossible to decipher. But here are some important provisions in the new Senate Health Care bill that you should know about. The White House Blog...

Many bloggers have explained what the Stupak-Pitts amendment to the House health reform bill could mean for abortion rights in this country. Women in Congress are assuring us that this amendment will not survive the Senate bill, and we trust that they are correct. But as...

Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, Betsy McCaughey, well known for her distortion of health reform in 1993 as well as recently, made the following points about the health reform bill, HR 3962, which is being debated and voted on as I write this. As usual,...

BREAKING NEWS! SURGEON GENERAL DR. REGINA BENJAMIN CONFIRMED BY SENATE ON VOICE VOTE THURSDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 29TH! YAY!

We had been asking for weeks now, why don't we have a Surgeon General? Rachel Maddow started up the quest again on her show on Monday night,...

We don't have a Surgeon General, but we have a potential flu pandemic facing us. The President nominated Dr. Regina Benjamin in early July to be the Surgeon General. The Senate HELP committee unanimously approved her earlier this month. Her nomination is being delayed by Republicans over...

This month hundreds of thousands of American families will face the decision about where mom (or dad) should live. The time will have come that mom or dad cannot live alone safely. And woe is the family member who has to deliver that message.

In the best case scenario, the...

Friday night a week ago on Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill made some strong assertions about the H1N1 vaccine without any evidence to back up his opinions. He was wrong then and he was wrong again Friday night. He reiterated his unsupported opinions on the last episode of his...

Friday night a week ago on Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill made some strong assertions about the H1N1 vaccine. He was WRONG then and he was wrong again tonight. He reiterated his unsupported opinions again tonight on the last episode of his show for this season. Clearly, Maher is...

Today there were two crowds fired up and ready to go about health reform. One crowd was in Washington D.C. and the other was in Minneapolis at the Target Center. But although there were thousands of citizens at each place, the tone could not have been more...

President Obama will address a joint session of Congress next Wednesday night (September 9th) and make his case for health reform. What do you want him to say?

All the media are saying this is high wire, high risk speech-making for the president. And perhaps it is....

Listening to the people at the Town Halls shouting about getting their country back, made me realize that I want my country back too. The country that put aside racial bias and fear and elected our first African-American President, Barack Obama. But what I want more than anything is...

UPDATE: I have just listened to Obama's Town Hall in Montana. It is much more respectful than the one I attended. But the cameras keep focusing on a guy in a baseball cap who is shaking his head "no" every time Obama says something. So clearly this person is having...

This week I received a mass email that exhorted the recipients to pray for our country because of the disaster surely to befall on us if health care reform is passed. It is very important for all of us to understand what health reform is about because being able to...

The latest idiocy to come out of the media is the accusation that President Obama's nominee for Surgeon General is "too fat". She may be a size 18 or even 20, opines the not so skinny themselves broadcasters and commenters on Fox News.

Hold on a moment,...

Too often the public gets a bad rap for failing to understand that you can't always get what you want -- in health care. But a study released this past week by the Center for Healthcare Decisions reveals a much savvier understanding that there is a big difference being...

And it's confusing. And people's eyes glaze over when you talk about it.

But listen up. The next five or six months will have a huge impact on the health care you receive in your lifetime. So, boring or not -- time to pay attention.

There are several...

I was just thinking about Henrietta Hughes the other day as I passed a man on a street corner holding a sign that said, "Every little bit helps". As you may remember, Henrietta was the woman who raised her hand at President Obama's Florida town hall a few months ago...