Senate, Universal Health Care | featured news

Rep. Barney Frank , D-Mass., said he advised President Obama against taking up health care reform following a special election in 2010 that changed Democrats' fortunes in the Senate, saying that he should have instead turned his focus to financial reform.

It's safe to say the word "Obamacare" has a negative connotation, given how it's been thrown around on the Senate floor, in campaign videos, and during GOP debates. But a new campaign called "Thanks Obamacare!" seeks to wrest the term back from conservatives. Run by two progressive Colorado organizations, the website features a top-10 list of good things about the Affordable Care Act, along with a lively video and a handy timeline.

Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller says his family benefited from Medicaid and a state-run health care program for low-income children and pregnant women.Miller previously acknowledged receiving federal farm subsidies for land he owned in Kansas in the 1990s, as well as low-income hunting and fishing licenses for him and his wife in Alaska.As a conservative candidate, he's criticized certain entitlement programs. Sitting Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who's running for re-election as a write-in candidate against him, called Miller a hypocrite.

Two minor violations of reconciliation rules will force the Senate to change the bill and ship it back to the House for final passage.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell promises to do "everything in our power" to oppose the legislation.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote today on a sweeping health care reform bill already passed by the Senate. If the bill is approved, President Obama will sign it into law.

Democrats in the House of Representatives said on Saturday they had secured enough support to pass a sweeping healthcare overhaul and would dump a controversial plan to avoid a direct vote on the Senate bill.

The speaker says the House should pass the Senate's version of the plan and then use 'budget reconciliation' to make changes that some lawmakers want.

As lawmakers take a recess, several Dems ready to give in if it means getting the trillion-dollar bill to Obama quickly.

In an epic struggle settled at dawn, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed health care legislation Thursday, a triumph for President Barack Obama that clears the way for compromise talks with the House on a bill to reduce the ranks of the uninsured and rein in the insurance industry.