Discord on healthcare dulls luster of new pacts

As the Obama administration hopes to boost its healthcare reform effort with financial concessions from the hospital and pharmaceutical industries, it is instead confronting deep dissension from the Democratic ranks and possible defections among key constituencies. There are several other warning signs for the administration as it pushes health reform, including a slipping timetable in the Senate, internal division in the hospital industry and mounting tensions between AARP and the pharmaceutical industry.