Obama faces staunch resistance in Washington over his efforts to reform health insurance and drive down medical costs

• Congress Passes Final Health-Bill Changes

  In a final act to a year-long drama, the House voted 220-207 with no Republican support for revisions to the plan that Obama signed

• Obama Signs Landmark Health-Care Legislation

  President Barack Obama signed into law a sweeping rewrite of U.S. health-care policy that will touch one-sixth of the economy

• Health-Care Overhaul Adds Millions of Drug, Insurer Customers

  Expanding coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans means more sales for companies like Pfizer and UnitedHealth Group

• New Health Taxes Help Obama 'Spread the Wealth'

  High-income investors will pay higher Medicare taxes and tax breaks for out-of-pocket medical deductions will be cut

• House Passes Obama's Health Care Bill

  After reaching a deal on abortion restrictions, House Democratic leaders push through the most far-reaching health legislation in more than four decades

• Six Votes Short on Health, Democrats Scramble

  U.S. House Democrats picked up fresh support for a likely showdown vote this weekend

• Pelosi Says Democrats Will Have Votes for Health Bill

  As Democrats waited for a key cost estimate, the House Speaker vowed the votes will be lined up to pass the Senate plan

• Health Bill to Cost $904 Billion, Cut Deficit

  Obama's legislation to overhaul the U.S. health-care system will cost $940 billion over 10 years and cut the federal deficit, budget experts said

• Sen. Graham Criticizes Obama's 'Arrogance' on Health Care

  The South Carolina Republican said the President's single-minded pursuit of a health bill threatened other national priorities

• Limbaugh Embraces Costa Rica's Socialized Medicine

  In threatening to flee to Costa Rica for health care if Obama's plan passes, the talk-radio king embraced a system where 98% of the population is covered and private insurance is rare

• Obama Highlights Uninsured in Push for Health Bill

  The President pressured Congressional Democrats to back an overhaul of the U.S. health-care system on a trip to Ohio

• Obama Faces Democratic Friction Over Health Plan

  As the President plans to announce a way forward, some House Democrats resist reconciliation

• Obama Health Summit Clears Way to Party-Line Vote

  Republicans urged the President to start over; Democrats vowed to press on with or without them

• WellPoint, Aetna Records Sought for California Probe

  The state's attorney general says insurers may have broken the law in boosting premiums and denying medical claims

• Obama Endorses New Wealth Taxes, More Drugmaker Fees

  In a bid to take control of legislation from deadlocked legislators, the President also would scale back a tax on high-end health benefits

• Tauzin to Step Down from Drug Group

  The pharmaceutical industry's lead lobbyist pays a price for his health-care deal with the White House

• Health Reform Is Dead. Let's Go Shopping

  Thriving insurers and hospital chains may start to gobble up competitors weakened by the recession

• Health Care: Rx for MBA Job Blues

  Health care is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal job picture for b-school grads, and reform, if it happens, has the potential to make it brighter still

• Obama Won't 'Walk Away' From Health Overhaul

  The President vows to fight on as Democratic Party leaders try to figure out how to revive stalled legislation

• Take Your Meds, Exercise, and Spend Billions

  Washington wants to pump big money into so-called disease management, though there's scant evidence that it works

• Massachusetts Vote Threatens Obama Agenda

  The calls for change that swept Barack Obama into office a year ago now are threatening his legislative plans in Congress

• Democrats Willing to Scale Back Health Bill

  Congressional leaders signaled they are open to a less ambitious health care overhaul in light of the Senate defeat in Massachusetts

• Hospitals: Radical Cost Surgery

  A hospital that slashes costs—and delivers high-quality care as it innovates? Yes, it exists

• Senate Has Edge in Final Health-Care Bill

  The biggest issues facing Congress as it shapes final legislation are taxes, abortion, and whether to include a public insurance option

• The Coming U.S. Doctor Shortage

  Health-care reform will mean 30 million more patients—and bigger crowds in waiting rooms

• A Hole in Health-Care Reform

  Overbilling by medical-equipment suppliers, device makers, and drug companies has cost taxpayers billions. New legislation will do little to stem the tide

• Senate Democrats to Drop Public Plan

  Instead, they would establish a program similar to the U.S. government employee-insurance system with companies providing coverage under federal oversight

• Steady Drop in Cancer Deaths Gives Experts Hope

  Less smoking, earlier detection, and improved treatments are credited for gains against lung, colon, prostate, and breast cancer

• Unions, Business Oppose Tax on 'Cadillac' Care

  A proposal to tax high-premium health care brings together strange bedfellows: labor and business

• Health Care: GE Gets Radical

  It's offering only high-deductible, consumer-directed plans. That will save millions but may damage morale

• Why Drugmakers Don't Twitter

  The FDA has so far failed to craft rules clarifying how companies can participate in online discussions

• 'Bo-Tax' for Health-Care Reform?

  Plastic surgeons shriek as Democrats consider an excise tax on elective cosmetic procedures to raise funds for health reform

• How the Health Care Bill Could Hurt Renewable Power

  BW's John Carey writes that an obscure tax provision in the House version of the health care bill could complicate a federal solar-power credit

• 10 Ways to Cut Health-Care Costs Right Now

  Employers and hospitals don't have to wait for Congress to address inefficiencies and waste

• Slide Show: How Hospitals Can Cut Costs

  Cutting expenses can bring better health care, too

• Video: Why Wait for Health-Care Reform?

  BusinessWeek's Catherine Arnst tells John A. Byrne that health reform needs a broader and more ambitious effort than what Washington proposes

• America's Greatest Health Threat: Obesity

  The U.S. has made huge strides in treating cancer, smoking, and other critical illnesses, but obesity is reaching crisis proportions

• Slide Show: The Healthiest and Sickest States of 2009

  A new report ranks America's health state-by-state. Is your state in the pink or heading for intensive care?

• Health-Care Reform's Hidden Taxes

  Why a lot of health reform's costs could be borne by the middle class, despite Obama's pledges

• Ask Your Doctor If This Ad Is Right for You

  The drug industry is spending billions on TV ads, but they may be scaring consumers away

• The Pitfalls of Direct-to-Consumer Ads

  A study suggests patients either aren't asking for an advertised drug by name, or they're asking about its scary side effects, says BW's Arlene Weintraub

• US Health System Lags on Access, Quality

  BW's Cathy Arnst says Americans are more likely to lack medical access because of insurance, despite spending twice as much on health care as other nations

• Pelosi Moves House Closer to the Middle

  BW's Jane Sasseen explains why the House Speaker backed away from an aggressive public insurance option. A vote is expected by Nov. 11

• Slide Show: America's Medical Bill Keeps Climbing

  The U.S. spent an estimated $2.4 trillion on health care in 2008, about 16.5% of gross domestic product and a 6% increase from a year earlier. Medical care prices are rising faster than overall inflation, and the burden on consumers continues to grow

• Behind Harry Reid's Bid for a Public Option

  What prompted the Senate Majority leader's drive to push for an "opt-out" public option plan? Labor unions want at least that much

• Who Picks Up the Tab for Health Reform

  Insurers and taxpayers are likely to pay big chunks of the $900 billion bill to overhaul the nation's health-care system. Doctors will feel the least pain

• Tough Love, Lower Health Costs

  A UnitedHealthcare plan offers incentives to employees who strictly control their diabetes

• Political Risk Shadows Health-Insurance Stocks

  Health insurers like UnitedHealth Group are doing well, yet their stocks have been terrible investments. Blame Washington's health-care reform debate

• Reviving an Old Threat in Health-Insurance Battle

  President Obama and some Democrats want to repeal the federal antitrust exemption for insurers. That may not be easy—or effective

• Obama Attacks Health Insurers

  After harsh comments in his weekly address, it's clear the President no longer wants to make nice with health insurers, says BW's Cathy Arnst

• Health-Care Reform: The Mandate Debate

  Experts say the only way to cover the uninsured is to require them to buy insurance or pay a fine. But how much should a penalty be?

• Health Care: What Comes Next

  The Senate Finance bill, while not pleasing everyone, is probably close to what might finally emerge as reform of U.S. health care

• Poll: Will the Final Health-Care Bill Have a Public Option?

  Tell us, will the final health-care bill have a public option?

• How Small Business Feels About Health-Care Reform

  Small business lobbyists are for no preexisting conditions clauses—and most oppose a public option

• Insurance Industry Flips, Bashes Health Bill

  A trade group says a Senate reform proposal would boost health-care costs more than if no legislation passes, says BW's Cathy Arnst

• Health-Insurance Forms Also Need Reform

  Insurance jargon confuses an already stressful process. Companies are trying to switch to simpler language, where "formulary" becomes "drug list"

• Health Costs: Steeper Still

  Workers will bear a greater share of soaring premiums in 2010, but employers take a hit, too

• Video: Towers Perrin's 2010 Benefits Survey

  Towers Perrin Managing Director Dave Guilmette on why employee health-care costs will rise in 2010, what this means for employees, and how companies are trying to rein in those costs.

• Billions Wasted on Health Care

  The IOM concludes that $810 billion is wasted each and every year. Here's how it breaks down

• Small Employers Struggle to Offer Health Insurance

  Faced with skyrocketing premiums, only 43% of small businesses still offer health coverage, compared with 96% of companies with at least 50 employees

• Trimming Health-Care Costs Without Reforming the System

  A Kaiser Permanente study shows patients can ward off heart attacks and slash medical expenses with a simple generic drug regimen

• Why Business Fears the Public Option

  Executives contend that it will lead health-care providers to charge patients in private plans higher rates

• Medicaid Enrollment Up 5.4%, Highest Increase in Six Years

  High unemployment caused Medicaid enrollments to rise an average of 5.4% in fiscal 2009, and spending on the program to rise 7.6%

• Poll: Do You Use a Medical Flex Spending Account?

  The health care bill being considered by the Senate Finance Committee would limit to $2,000 a year tax-free contributions to flexible spending accounts. Do you currently contribute to a medical FSA?

• Unleash Your Inner Lobbyist

  Using wiki-like editing technology, citizens are being given a chance to mark up the pending health-care legislation, says BW's Theo Francis

• Clash over Wheelchairs in Health-Care Reform

  Budget cutters looking at Medicare want to reduce spending for motorized wheelchairs. Not so fast, say manufacturers and vendors

• The Truth About Malpractice Lawsuits

  Doctors say the suits send health-care costs soaring, but studies show reforms would have little effect

• Baucus Health-Care Bill Draws Little Support

  The least expensive congressional health-reform bill lacks a "public option" and would be funded largely through industry fees

• Poll: Health-Care Reform by Year's End?

  Will a health-care reform bill be enacted by the end of 2009?

• Skyrocketing Employer Health-Insurance Premiums

  The Business Roundtable bolsters its argument for health-care reform with a study that predicts rapidly accelerating costs for businesses—and employees

• The Time for Bickering Is Over

  The President vows to push through health-care reform that won't add to the deficit and might include a government-run insurance plan

• Obama and Health Care: Time to Hit 'Reset'

  In his speech, the President must be clear about his reform priorities and why they're vital even to those who have insurance

• Kennedy: Health Care Loses a Champion

  As Obama's health-care proposals founder in partisan rancor, Ted Kennedy's ability to work across the aisle is already being missed

• Health-Care Cooperatives: Fig Leaf or Fix?

  With Obama softening his stance on a public insurance option in the face of stiff opposition, health-care co-ops emerge as an untested alternative

• Obama, Treasury: Losing Health Care Is Common

  A Treasury study finds that 41% of Americans under 65 can expect to go without health insurance for six months or more

• Health Care Reform Studies Focus on Cost

  Two recent studies suggest that the cost of doing nothing is much greater than the House's current reform bill, with or without a public option

• Comparative Effectiveness Research: Questioning Savings

  The method for determining treatment wouldn't reduce spending and improve patient health, one study says, because not all practitioners would embrace it

• Deficits Could Hurt Obama on Health Care, Energy

  A revised White House budget estimate projects the cumulative deficit over the next decade could hit $9 trillion, nearly $2 trillion more than its May estimate

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