Health Care, Medicare | featured news

President Barack Obama, two years into a presidency that increased spending to prime a weak economy, is turning his attention to the nation's crushing debt and trying to counter a Republican anti-deficit plan with a framework of his own that tackles politically sensitive health care programs while also increasing taxes....

A Republican plan for the 2012 budget would cut more than $4 trillion over the next decade, more than even the president s debt commission proposed, with spending caps as well as changes in the Medicare and Medicaid health programs, its principal author said Sunday.

Employers and even some younger people would pay more for health insurance if lawmakers raise the eligibility age for Medicare, a study to be released Tuesday concludes....

Hundreds of federal agents fanned out Wednesday morning across Southern California to serve warrants in a coast-to-coast crackdown on healthcare fraud.

President Obama will use a “recess appointment” to name Dr. Donald M. Berwick to run Medicare and Medicaid.

After a week of partisan wrangling, the Senate on Friday passed legislation to spare doctors a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments looming for months. But the last-ditch effort came too late.

President Barack Obama is asking Republican lawmakers to approve billions of dollars in new spending to avert a scheduled 21 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients ...

Same-sex partners must get the same privileges granted heterosexual couples in hospitals that get Medicare or Medicaid funds, he says in a memo.

President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals in the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners that they do to married heterosexual couples.

The increase means that monthly premiums would top $100 for the first time — a stark indication of the rise in costs that is driving the debate on health care reform.

Signaling a fading chance for compromise, a leading Republican negotiator on health care legislation on Saturday criticized Democratic legislative proposals as budget-busters that would reroute Medicare spending and restrict medical choices.