WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) – Eric Cantor pulls no punches
about what Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will
do to “Obamacare” if the Supreme Court leaves any of President
Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law intact.

“We’re going to take a bill to the floor that calls for the
total repeal of Obamacare,” the House majority leader said in a
nationally televised press conference this month.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The biggest U.S. network of nonprofit health facilities formally asked the Obama administration on Friday not to require Roman Catholic-affiliated institutions including hospitals to provide employees with health coverage for contraceptives.

The Catholic Health Association of the United States, which initially welcomed White House efforts to find compromise with Catholic authorities on the contraceptives issue, said administration proposals have not satisfied its concerns about emergency contraceptives that could interfere with a fertilized egg.

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) – A congressional agency on
Friday recommended making traditional Medicare beneficiaries pay
more money upfront for medical services as a way to insulate the
popular government program from ever-rising healthcare costs.

A report by the nonpartisan Medicare Payment Advisory
Commission, or Medpac, recommended a new 20 percent charge for
the 90 percent of Medicare beneficiaries who buy supplemental
insurance to cover medical costs that Medicare Part A and Part B
do not cover.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The annual growth rate for U.S. healthcare spending will hover near historic lows in 2013 and rise at a modest pace for much of the next decade, even if the Supreme Court allows the expansion of coverage to millions more Americans to proceed, a government report said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said healthcare spending will rise about 4 percent a year between now and 2014, when President Barack Obama’s reform law takes full effect and provides coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans.

WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) – The annual growth rate for
U.S. healthcare spending will hover near historic lows in 2013
and rise at a modest pace for much of the next decade, even if
the Supreme Court allows the expansion of coverage to millions
more Americans to proceed, a government report said on T ues day.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said
healthcare spending will rise about 4 percent a year between now
and 2014, when President Barack Obama’s reform law takes full
effect and provides coverage to more than 30 million uninsured
Americans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff said on Monday that Edwards Lifesciences Corp’s Sapien heart valve met its primary safety and effectiveness goals in research, but expressed caution about the risk of stroke and aortic leakage.

The FDA released a staff review document that found “no significant difference in mortality” up to one year, between aortic stenosis patients who received the Sapien valve and a control group that had aortic valve replacement through open-heart surgery.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Texan Sam Lovett had no health insurance in August 2010 when an emergency hospital stay brought the news from his doctors that his liver was failing and he could die within less than a year without a transplant.

The small distribution center where he worked did not provide health insurance. Lovett, 43, who lives near Comfort, Texas, was not able to buy private coverage on his own because of his already bad health. Though he had the resources to cover routine medical bills, he now needed a $400,000 organ transplant and no doctor or clinic would take him without insurance.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – About one-third of American women believe there is a broad effort under way to limit their access to reproductive services including contraception, family planning and abortion, according a poll released on Thursday.

After months of election-year culture wars over Planned Parenthood, abortion and President Barack Obama’s policy on contraceptives, researchers said 42 percent of women have felt strongly enough to take some sort of action including trying to influence another’s opinions or donating money.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The cost of healthcare services is expected to rise 7.5 percent in 2013, more than three times the projected rates for inflation and economic growth, according to an industry research report released on Thursday.

But premiums for large employer-sponsored health plans could increase by only 5.5 percent as a result of company wellness programs and a growing trend toward plans that impose higher insurance costs on workers, said the report by the professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PwC.

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) – The cost of U.S. healthcare
services is expected to rise 7.5 percent in 2013, more than
three times the projected rates for U.S. inflation and economic
growth, according to an industry research report released on
Thursday.

But premiums for large employer-sponsored health plans could
increase by only 5.5 percent as a result of company wellness
programs and a growing trend toward plans that impose higher
insurance costs on workers, said the report by the professional
services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PwC.