Healthcare winners and losers in the stimulus package

When President Obama and his allies pulled together the $787-billion bill that he is to sign, they talked about helping those rapidly swelling the ranks of America's more than 46 million uninsured. But in the scramble to pass a bill, lawmakers made changes that left out millions of middle-class Americans who have lost their jobs and are struggling to fill a prescription or pay for a visit to the doctor. That reflected a frenzied process in which sometimes arbitrary decisions were made to speed agreements and satisfy an array of political interest groups working to influence the massive bill, according to this article in the Los Angeles Times.