President Barack Obama named two women this week to lead his effort to overhaul the nation's healthcare system. One of them, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, began preparing for confirmation hearings. But the other woman, Nancy-Ann DeParle, can begin work right away, without outside review of her abilities or opinions. That is because DeParle holds the newly created post of "health czar"—one of several new "czar" positions that are within the White House and require no Senate review. Now, with the number of czars growing, some lawmakers and outside experts fear that Obama is concentrating too much policymaking and power within the White House—and also setting up the potential for conflict among his many advisers.
President Obama will convene a healthcare summit at the White House that he hopes will lay the groundwork for a major overhaul of the nation's healthcare system later this year. About 120 participants will attend the forum, which will feature small-group discussions, like the "fiscal responsibility" summit held last week.
Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has raised a flag over the Obama administration's plan to partly fund health reform by lowering tax deductions for the wealthiest Americans. The Senate Finance Committee is going to be at the center of any health-reform plan that makes its way through Congress. Baucus said he's especially concerned about capping deductions at a lower rate.
Some new low-cost services have popped up on the Internet with the aim of providing basic healthcare consultations more cheaply and easily. The services are the next step in "telehealth," or the delivery of healthcare through the telephone, Web, or other telecommunications technologies. The new services offer the convenience of online consultations, but they still have their drawbacks.
Assisted suicide becomes legal in Washington on March 5, but dozens of hospitals are not expected to participate. Washington's law is essentially identical to the one in Oregon, the only other state that allows doctors to prescribe lethal medications. The law allows terminally ill patients who are 18 or older, and who have been found mentally competent, to self-administer lethal drugs under the prescription of a doctor. An opt-out provision for hospitals was included, partly for the sake of healthcare providers affiliated with religious groups, though many nonreligious hospitals have also invoked it.
The U.S. recession is dragging down almost every industry in almost every part of the country and businesses do not expect conditions to improve until late this year at the earliest, according to a Federal Reserve report. The Fed's "beige book," a compilation of anecdotal reports from businesses around the country published eight times a year, underlined how difficult it has become to find bright spots in the economy. Healthcare providers reported fewer patients in many parts of the country, as people declined elective procedures, the report found.