At the beginning of 2007, the expectation was that the new Democratic-led Congress and President Bush would make some headway on healthcare for the uninsured and rising medical costs that are squeezing the middle class. Instead, the reached a stalemate. The failure to act underscores how hard the healthcare problem is to deal with.
Legislative leaders in California have announced that more taxes would be needed to fill a projected $14-billion budget gap next year, and the state Senate president said any healthcare overhaul will have to wait.
Officials of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta have filed a certificate of need with the state to construct a $43 million building downtown. The costs will be covered by private donations, and Children's Healthcare has already raised $34 million toward the project.
The Chicago Plan Commission has favored a plan from Children's Memorial Hospital's plan to build a 22-story hospital crowned with a heliport. Plans for the $1 billion hospital, which would replace Children's aging Lincoln Park location, still must clear the City Council's zoning panel as well as the full city council.
A state panel has approved a range of changes for next year for the rapidly growing subsidized health insurance program in Massachusetts. The changes will probably cut payments to doctors and hospitals, reduce choices for patients, and possibly increase how much patients have to pay.
Maryland's largest insurer of doctors will return to the state $84 million it has collected through a taxpayer-financed subsidy program to help pay malpractice premiums, according to state regulators. the three-year-old subsidy program is being curtailed because a spike in malpractice awards has flattened out, said Gov. Martin O'Malley.