Obama's christmas gift - Health Care reform gets through the Senate

President Obama got his Christmas gift a little early as the Senate voted through the health care legislation in it's third and final procedural 'test run'

- Republican senators sought to frame the bill as a tarnished product of backroom deals, with some going so far as to declare it illegal. Despite strong opposition in the Senate and from a large part of the American citizens - Democrats were able to scrape together the 60 votes needed to "win" the vote, while not a single Republican supported the bill.
With final approval of the bill all but certain, Republicans on Wednesday focused on diminishing it in the eyes of the public. In particular, GOP senators questioned a deal struck by Sen. Ben Nelson (Nebraska) - who agreed to support the legislation in part because a provision was added exempting his state from paying part of the cost of expanding the Medicaid program. 

Health Care reform may have been defeated by the Drug Companies

Senators may have been paid off

Nobody on Capitol Hill takes kindly to a spreadsheet that lines up their campaign contributions with their floor votes. But that's what Maplight.org, a nonprofit database operation, has just done, producing a mashup with the tally from the Senate's vote Monday on drug importation and 6 1/2 years of campaign finance data. 

SENATOR	PARTY	PHARMA. $$	VOTE
Max Baucus, MT	Democrat	$261,020	NO
Richard Burr, NC	Republican	$301,898	NO
Orrin Hatch, UT	Republican	$262,950	NO
Joe Lieberman, CT	Independant	$199,540	NO
Mitch McConnell, KY	Republican	$225,900	YES
Arlen Specter, PA	Democrat	$353,550	YES

Studies show that Physicians are happy with Medicare

Physicians may not be enamored of Medicare, but they like it much better than private insurance plans

according to a survey by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).
The association’s Payer Performance Study of more than 1,700 group practices showed that physician groups ranked Medicare Part B well ahead of six of the largest private insurance companies in terms of overall satisfaction, based on data released at the MGMA’s annual meeting.

The survey asked participants, all of whom were MGMA members, to rank seven of the largest payers--Medicare Part B, UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Coventry, and Anthem--on parameters including payer communications, provider credentialing, contract negotiation, payment processing, systems transparency, and overall satisfaction.

Medicare led the pack with a mean aggregate satisfaction score of 3.59 on a 6-point scale (1 = totally dissatisfied, 6 = completely satisfied). Aetna took second place with a score of 3.14.

The big loser? UnitedHealthcare, with a score of 2.45.