WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is having difficulty implementing expansive new rules to improve food safety, nearly two years after President Barack Obama signed the standards into law, because of a lack of funding.

FDA chief Margaret Hamburg predicted on Monday that her agency “very soon” will issue new regulations needed to enforce the Food Safety Modernization Act, a sweeping piece of legislation enacted to upgrade the security of the U.S. food supply after a deadly salmonella outbreak in 2009.

WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration said it is having difficulty implementing
expansive new rules to improve food safety, nearly two years
after President Barack Obama signed the standards into law,
because of a lack of funding.

FDA chief Margaret Hamburg predicted on Monday that her
agency “very soon” will issue new regulations needed to enforce
the Food Safety Modernization Act, a sweeping piece of
legislation enacted to upgrade the security of the U.S. food
supply after a deadly salmonella outbreak in 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some 1.3 million more Americans had health insurance in 2011, as healthcare reform helped blunt a decade-long decline in private coverage and government safety nets expanded to cover growing numbers of the poor, elderly and disabled.

Census Bureau data released on Wednesday showed that the number of uninsured shrank to 48.6 million people from 50 million in 2010, leaving 15.7 percent of the U.S. population without the most reliable means to pay for doctors, hospitals and life-saving procedures including cancer screenings.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. health insurance premiums have climbed faster than wages and inflation this year, and look poised to accelerate in 2013, adding to voter concerns about soaring healthcare costs ahead of national elections in November.

A study released on Tuesday showed that premiums for employer-sponsored health plans, which cover about 149 million Americans, grew a modest 4 percent to $15,745 in 2012. It was a substantially slower rate of growth than in past years, including 2011, when premiums jumped 9 percent.

WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) – U.S. health insurance
premiums have climbed faster than wages and inflation this year,
and look poised to accelerate in 2013, adding to voter concerns
about soaring healthcare costs ahead of national elections in
November.

A study released on Tuesday showed that premiums for
employer-sponsored health plans, which cover about 149 million
Americans, grew a modest 4 percent to $15,745 in 2012. It was a
substantially slower rate of growth than in past years,
including 2011, when premiums jumped 9 percent.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to turn Medicare into a voucher system and President Barack Obama hopes that fact alone will help him win votes among senior citizens and baby boomers.

But health policy experts, including two analysts who first floated the idea of Medicare vouchers 17 years ago, say no such plan is likely to become legislation – let alone law – until after the next presidential election in 2016.

WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Republican presidential
nominee Mitt Romney on Sunday denounced last year’s bipartisan
debt-ceiling deal that helped avert an unprecedented U.S.
government debt default even though one of its backers was his
running mate, Paul Ryan.

Without mentioning Ryan by name, Romney called the agreement
between the White House and top congressional Republicans “a big
mistake,” citing potential big defense spending cuts that could
come as part of the deal.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday tried to turn Bill Clinton’s rousing Democratic convention speech into a liability for President Barack Obama, calling it “eerily anti-Obama.”

Gingrich, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination that went to Mitt Romney, argued that Clinton’s efforts to remind voters about the economic heyday of his two terms in office could be seen to undermine Obama, who is struggling to reignite the economy and job growth.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the largest private employer, endorsed a new Democratic proposal for controlling healthcare spending that would seek to keep the rising cost of medical services in line with wage growth.

The giant retailer said on Thursday that the plan co-authored by former Obama and Clinton administration officials contained “innovative methods” that could help slow healthcare spending and improve the quality of healthcare delivery.

1 (Reuters) – Democrats and Republicans
agree that the next U.S. president will have to contend with
rising healthcare costs that pose a growing, destabilizing
burden for families, employers and government budgets.

But two articles published in the New England Journal of
Medicine on Wednesday show how far apart each side stands on the
question of what to do, ahead of a November election showdown
between President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican
nominee Mitt Romney.