Challenges With New Health Care Insurance

Written by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

Posted by Connie Yee

WASHINGTON (AP) — Now for the hard part.
Even if the national credit card is maxed out and partisanship remains the rule for Washington's political tribes, President Barack Obama and Congress are plunging ahead with a health care overhaul.

This week, Obama will start the dialogue on how to increase coverage, restrain costs and improve quality.

Whether a bill can get through Congress and to Obama this year is uncertain. For half a century, the track record on health care has been one of missed opportunities, spectacular failures and hard-won incremental gains.

Obama plans to stress the need for major changes in his address to Congress on Tuesday, administration officials say. He quickly will follow up with a budget that includes a commitment to expand coverage for the uninsured. A White House summit on health care is being planned in coming weeks.

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Is Your Health Insurance Covered By The Stimulus Bill?

Posted by Connie Yee
Written by Noam N. Levey

WASHINGTON — John Peeler, an unemployed computer technician in South Carolina, may soon get health insurance for his wife and three children. Four months after being laid off, he is one of the lucky jobless Americans who could receive thousands of dollars in government subsidies from the new stimulus plan.

Susan McKowen, a 62-year-old breast cancer survivor from Illinois, is not so fortunate. Though she, too, lost her job in the current economic crisis, she won't be getting help with health insurance under the new law.

When President Barack Obama and his allies pulled together the $787 billion bill that passed Congress on Friday, they talked of helping workers like Peeler, McKowen and others rapidly swelling the ranks of America's 46 million uninsured.

But in the scramble to pass a bill, lawmakers made changes that left out millions of middle-class Americans who have lost their jobs and are struggling to fill a prescription or pay for a visit to the doctor.

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