Congress, 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.

The public panned it. Republicans obstructed it. Many Democrats fled from it. Even so, the session of Congress now drawing to a close was the most productive in nearly half a century.

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.

A federal judge on Thursday rejected an attempt to stop some key provisions of the new national health-care law, saying Congress has the authority to require people to get insurance by 2014.

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

A Republican congressman from Texas on Monday admitted he shouted “baby killer” from the House floor as Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak defended his change of position on health care legislation.

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

With an overhaul, Congress would be giving the health care industry millions of customers in the next few years.

The hard-fought measure would be a victory for President Obama - and, he says, for the American people. The House of Representatives was poised Sunday to pass a sweeping overhaul of the healthcare system and, in the process, hand President Obama a major political victory on the issue he has made the centerpiece of his domestic agenda.