Tom Howell Jr.

Brief bipartisanship period over Medicare ‘doc fix’ breaks down

Despite a brief burst of bipartisanship, both sides have retrenched in their search for a solution to exploding payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients, with the House GOP planning to put a partisan bill on its chamber floor Friday.

House GOP: Obama administration abandoning ‘individual mandate,’ should surrender to repeal

House Republicans said Thursday that the Obama administration has left a giant loophole in its own individual mandate requiring all Americans to obtain health care coverage, saying a vaguely worded "hardship" exception announced last week will let millions of Americans duck the law.

Where’s Obamacare? — Rural Virginians choose free clinic over government red tape

Many of the hundreds of people gathered on a recent Saturday for a free clinic are exactly the types of people Obamacare is trying to reach — generally poor in pocketbook and in health, who either lack insurance or whose bare-bones policies don't cover vision or dental care.

Obama threatens to veto Medicare-reform bill

President Obama would veto a House bill to scrap the formula used to set Medicare rates, because it pays for the repeal by delaying Obamacare's individual mandate, the White House said Wednesday.

Sebelius sticks to Obamacare sign-up deadline

President Obama’s top health official on Wednesday told Congress flatly that the administration will stick to the March 31 deadline requiring Americans to have health insurance, rejecting House GOP protests that the White House is giving breaks to special interests, but not to average voters.

Sen. Marco Rubio says Dems are angling for single-payer health care: report

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio says Democrats are "secretly and not so secretly" hoping to use Obamacare's missteps as leverage in seeking a single-payer system of government-run health insurance.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad wields big lead over likely Democratic opponent

Sen. Chris Murphy will parlay Obama’s foray into Web comedy into a formal floor speech

First President Obama's humorous Web interview went viral. Now it's a bona fide phenomenon, at least one Democratic senator said.

Obamacare 3 million shy of target — with 19 days left to sign up

More than 4.2 million Americans had selected private health care plans from the Obamacare marketplace through the end of February, though the rate of sign-ups dropped last month and young people still aren't enrolling quickly enough, according to numbers the administration released Tuesday.

President Obama goes ‘Between Two Ferns’ to pitch Obamacare

Hoping to reach a key Obamacare demographic, President Obama took his humorous side to a new level in a sit-down interview with Zach Galifianakis, a comedic actor who hosts the cable-access spoof show on the website Funny or Die.

Obama administration backs off plan to cut prescription-drug program

Congressional Democrats expressed relief and Republican leaders did a victory lap Monday after the Obama administration said it will not implement proposed changes to the Medicare program's prescription-drug benefits.

Prosecutors: Gray had firsthand knowledge of ‘shadow campaign’

Federal prosecutors said in court Monday that D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray knew firsthand of an illicit "shadow campaign" that funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to his 2010 mayoral bid.

Rate of uninsured Americans is dropping: Gallup

The Gallup polling group says the percentage of Americans without health insurance continued to fall in the first quarter of 2014, to nearly 16 percent compared to just over 17 percent at the end of 2013.

Russia should be booted from FIFA World Cup, senators say

Sens. Dan Coats of Indiana and Mark Kirk of Illinois wrote to FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, pleading for him to bar President Vladimir Putin's team from the biggest sporting event in the world this summer.

New tool helps figure Obamacare penalties

As Obamacare takes root, a think tank partnership is offering a new tool to let applicants know just how much they'll have to pony up to the government for lacking health insurance in the coming year.

Tax-prep firms pitch in, cash in on Obamacare

With less than a month left for Americans to enroll in insurance plans under President Obama's health care overhaul, companies like H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service may be the administration's secret weapon in getting people to sign up.

Obama tries to reassure Hispanics on Obamacare

President Obama assured the Hispanic community on Thursday that personal information entered into Obamacare's web system will not be used to root out illegal immigrants for deportation.

Half of uninsured look to Obamacare exchanges for coverage

Roughly half of uninsured adults and almost half of people without employer-based insurance had looked at or planned to check out the Obamacare marketplace to see what it offered, according to a new brief from the Urban Institute.

Another Obamacare deadline moved: Non-compliant plans get 2-year extension

Announcing another change to the president's signature law, the Obama administration said Wednesday that it will let people keep subpar insurance plans through 2016, carving out another exception to Obamacare in a move Republicans said offers further proof that the law is hurting Americans' health and Democrats' election chances this fall.

House votes to delay Obamacare individual mandate

Nearly 30 House Democrats ignored a veto threat by President Obama's and helped the GOP majority pass a bill Wednesday that would let people ignore this year's Obamacare penalty for not having health insurance.