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The budget agreement reached by congressional leaders and the White House this week will prevent a sharp increase in Medicare premiums for more than 15 million older Americans and a deep cut in Social Security benefits for nine million disabled workers, but it will not alter the long-term financial outlook for either program, lawmakers and budget experts said Tuesday. (Pear, 10/27)

The budget deal hammered out between the White House and congressional leaders Monday would stave off an unprecedented increase in 2016 Medicare premiums for millions of seniors and prevent a Social Security program for the disabled from becoming insolvent next year. Both are issues that have vexed Congress in recent months. Legislators had wanted to shore up the disability fund before its expected depletion at the end of next year, given the difficulty of addressing entitlements in an election year. The White House achieved its goal of keeping the program solvent and House Republicans won sought-after reforms. (Armour, 10/27)

The two-year budget deal that congressional leaders negotiated with the White House may not be the kind of sweeping accord that House Speaker John A. Boehner and President Obama once tried to hammer out, but its provisions will directly affect the lives of millions of Americans. Senior citizens will be spared a 52% increase in Medicare premiums that would otherwise have taken effect next year. ... And rather than being cut once again, spending will increase at the Pentagon and on domestic programs, including medical research and Head Start preschool programs. That last point, in particular, represents a setback for congressional Republicans, who have campaigned for a steady shrinking of most government functions. (Mascaro, 10/27)

The tentative budget agreement forged by congressional leaders and the Obama administration will ward off a historic spike in Medicare premiums for the coming year, but it will nevertheless require nearly one in three older Americans to pay 17 percent more in monthly premiums for doctors’ visits and other outpatient care. (Goldstein, 10/27)

Without intervention by Congress, roughly 15 million seniors and chronically ill people currently claiming both Medicare and Medicaid coverage would have seen their premiums increase from $104.90 per month to $159.30 for individuals, according to Medicare actuaries. The actuaries also predicted an increase in the annual deductible for Part B of Medicare, from $147 in 2015 to $223 next year. (Pianin, 10/27)

Hospitals could see some Medicare payments reduced as part of a U.S. budget agreement, a change that may reduce the incentive for hospitals to buy more outpatient facilities. The deal, brokered with the Obama administration by outgoing Republican House Speaker John Boehner, lowers payments for care delivered at hospital-owned outpatient centers, but only at newly opened or acquired ones. Hospitals would have to bill for that care under the fee schedule for doctors’ offices or outpatient sites, rather than at the higher levels allowed for care delivered in the hospitals themselves. (Tracer and Lauerman, 10/27)

The pending budget deal would clamp down on a strategy that hospitals have used in recent years to expand their Medicare payments -- physicians' practices newly acquired by hospitals would not quality for higher reimbursements than independent physicians. Many lawmakers and Congress’ advisers on the Medicare program have been concerned about the trend of hospitals acquiring doctors’ practices with an aim of securing higher federal payments. The purchased practices can bill Medicare for routine services through the program's hospital outpatient system, which generally receives more generous rates than independent practices. A routine 15-minute office visit for an elderly person, for example, cost about $72.50 at an independent doctors’ office in 2013, but $123.38 if billed through the hospital outpatient system, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. (Young, 10/27)

Congressional leaders worked Tuesday to marshal support for a sweeping budget and debt deal that offered an end to fiscal fights with President Barack Obama but opened up top Republicans to criticism from conservatives, including GOP presidential hopefuls. ... For Republicans, the deal offered a path for the GOP-controlled Congress to avert blame from a potential default, instead securing at least some policy goals as a condition for raising the borrowing limit. ... The agreement incorporates measures aimed at extending the solvency of the Social Security program used to help support disabled people. The deal also would prevent an expected 52% increase in premiums for roughly 30% of the people enrolled in Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient care such as doctor visits. (Peterson and Timiraos, 10/27)

The deal hit a snag Tuesday night after many Republicans raised questions about whether the $80 billion in spending increases in the legislation would be fully offset by spending cuts and other revenue. Conservatives continued to fight the bill throughout the night, including attempting to kill the bill in a late-night hearing of the House Rules Committee. But Republican leaders worked out last-minute fixes that cleared the way for a Wednesday vote. (Snell, 10/27)

The House is poised to vote on a bipartisan pact charting a two-year budget truce and Republicans are set to nominate Rep. Paul Ryan as the chamber’s new speaker, milestones GOP leaders hope will transform their party’s recent chaos into calm in time for next year’s presidential and congressional campaigns. (Fram, 10/28)

Open enrollment for the health law’s 2016 marketplace plans begins Sunday, and federal officials caution consumers to check out premium prices because in many places they may be higher. But officials are planning to offer new features to make the process faster and smoother for consumers. (Carey, 10/28)

When the latest push to sign up people for insurance under the Affordable Car Act begins, the workers and volunteers charged with helping them enroll would seem to have a relatively low bar to clear, given the modest goals the Obama administration set for 2016. That doesn’t mean they have it easy. (Radnofsky, 10/27)

Federal health officials are predicting little growth in sign-ups as Year Three of open enrollment for the health insurance exchanges begins Monday. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said the administration expects that exchange enrollment nationally will reach about 10 million people by the end of 2016, up from 9.9 million announced in late June of this year. (Miller, 10/27)

Sunday marks the start of the third open enrollment period for insurance under the federal health law. That means the nearly 170,000 Connecticut residents who buy their own health insurance will have a chance to shop for new plans – and many will need to take action to keep the coverage they have. Here’s what you need to know. (Levin Becker, 10/28)

Anthem, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) licensee in Wisconsin, has decided to completely pull out of the health care exchange (individual plans) market place in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties starting January. Anthem is also significantly cutting back on the number of available exchange plans in 34 Wisconsin counties, which include the Fox Valley, according to Scott Larrivee, Public Relations Director at Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Wisconsin. (Schuster, 10/26)

Say you bought health insurance through the federal health exchange, paid the premiums and followed the rules. And then say you start having pain in your hands. Your doctor refers you to a rheumatologist to test for arthritis. But when you search for the specialist, there isn't one there. That happens more often than you'd think. In fact, as many as 14 percent of health plans sold on the federal government's insurance exchange are missing doctors in at least one common specialty from their networks, according to a study published Tuesday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, by researchers at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (Kodjak, 10/27)

Some health insurance plans sold on the Affordable Care Act's federal marketplace may not provide reasonable access to medical specialists, new research suggests. Under the act, also known as Obamacare, the federal marketplace offers subsidized private health insurance to consumers in states that didn't establish their own health insurance exchanges. About one in seven health insurance plans offered on the federal marketplace in 2015 did not provide access to in-network doctors for at least one medical specialty, researchers found. (Seaman, 10/27)

Many health plans sold through the Affordable Care Act in 2015 are so limited they don’t offer patients access to some medical specialists such as endocrinologists, rheumatologists and psychiatrists, a new study suggests. That may be forcing some patients to pay thousands of dollars out of their own pockets for any care provided by these specialists. (Levey, 10/27)

Hospital operator HCA Holdings Inc on Tuesday said more patients are coming through its doors who have lost their health insurance, most likely because they stopped paying for it. The largest U.S. for-profit hospital chain said it admitted more uninsured patients in the third quarter who had previously registered with health insurance, compared with a year ago. They included people who bought coverage from marketplaces set up under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, but then dropped it. (Kelly, 10/27)

The Affordable Care Act brought health insurance to 5.5 million women over the past two years, but many women still tell of unmet health care needs that could pose risks for them or future pregnancies, a new report finds. Researchers from the Urban Institute and the March of Dimes Foundation underscored the ACA’s long-term potential to improve health care for women in their child-bearing years, 18 to 44. The report was released Tuesday. (Gillespie, 10/27)

Jeb Bush unveiled his proposal to overhaul Social Security and Medicare this morning, embracing a politically risky conservative platform as he tries to revive his flagging campaign. Bush’s plan would transform Medicare into a premium support program, adopting one of Rep. Paul Ryan’s most controversial budget ideas to give beneficiaries a set amount of money to purchase either a private insurance plan or traditional Medicare. (Cook, 10/27)

Bush outlined a package of changes to limit the rising costs of Social Security and Medicare, including scaling back retirement benefits for wealthier Americans. ... On Medicare, Mr. Bush proposed a model similar to one offered by Rep. Paul Ryan, (R., Wis.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. He called for a “premium-support” plan that allows Americans to choose private insurance plans or to enroll in traditional Medicare. The government would then contribute a set amount toward the insurance premium. (Timiraos, 10/27)

Bush outlined his proposals on the website Medium.com on Tuesday, the day before the third Republican presidential debate, in Colorado. ... Bush proposes a "Medicare premium support" program to provide seniors with a fixed amount to pay for "guaranteed coverage options" to obtain traditional Medicare or purchase a private health insurance plan. Seniors could also choose a specialized insurance plan that targets medical conditions like diabetes or Alzheimer's. (10/27)

His plan includes a call for “bipartisan Medicare premium support” — a much debated approach championed by Republicans like Representative Paul Ryan in the past — which would allow private health care plans, traditional Medicare and other entities to compete on price and other factors. Seniors’ premium support would be based on the average on those prices, Mr. Bush said, estimating a 6 percent reduction. (Flegenhaimer, 10/27)

For Medicare, Bush... said he would allow seniors to keep their Health Savings Accounts, and he would push for new plan options. Earlier this year, Bush took heat from critics after saying in New Hampshire that he wants "to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something. (Killough, 10/27)

As John Kasich struggles to gain traction in the GOP presidential race, one of his biggest accomplishments as Ohio governor—an expansion of health insurance for the poor—is looming as one of his biggest political liabilities. The issue of expanding Medicaid was raised in the very first question to Mr. Kasich in the first Republican presidential debate in August, and it may re-emerge during Wednesday’s debate in Colorado, where Mr. Kasich is under heavy pressure to deliver a breakout performance. (Hook, 10/27)

Donald Trump dinged fellow presidential candidate Ben Carson on Tuesday for his Medicaid and Medicare proposals, minutes after a national Republican poll came out showing the retired neurosurgeon leading him for the first time. (Gass, 10/27)

This year, Fiorina, as a Republican candidate for president, started regularly telling another powerful, personal story that she said helped harden her antiabortion position. And two weeks ago, the story seems to have acquired two new words: Planned Parenthood. (Phillip, 10/28)

The bipartisan congressional budget deal will be an easy target for the GOP presidential field during Wednesday’s prime-time debate. And GOP leaders are bracing for their carefully crafted work to be treated like a punching bag. ... The deal actually will be good news for the eventual GOP nominee, taking presidential year shutdown and default threats off the table. (Everett, 10/28)

As companies throughout the universe of the health care industry accelerate the pace of consolidation, two of the country’s biggest drugstore chains have agreed to combine to create a new giant. Walgreens Boots Alliance said on Tuesday that it would buy Rite Aid for more than $9.4 billion in cash, significantly bolstering its influence with drug makers and pharmacy benefit managers. (de la Merced and Tabuchi, 10/27)

The companies didn't say whether there would be store closures or layoffs after the deal closes. But they said “decisions will be made over time regarding the integration of the two companies” and that Walgreens “plans to further transform Rite Aid's stores to better meet consumer needs.” (Peltz and Masunaga, 10/27)

The deal, which would unite two of the country’s three biggest drugstore owners, would be likely to draw scrutiny from antitrust regulators, who could demand divestitures in exchange for their approval. It also adds to a blockbuster year for health-care mergers and acquisitions, helping to put 2015 on track to be the busiest year ever for M&A. Including assumed debt, the transaction is valued at $17.2 billion. Rite Aid’s debt totaled $7.4 billion in August. (Mattioli , Siconolfi and Cimilluca, 10/27)

Walgreens said it expects the transaction to close in the second half of 2016 and to boost its earnings per share in the first full year after its completion. Moreover, it sees cost savings of more than $1 billion from buying Rite-Aid, which will initially operate under its existing brand name. (Pierson, Iyer and Cavale, 10/28)

A sharp rise in fees associated with a popular type of drug plan is chipping away at pharmacies’ profits across the U.S. ... These fees, known as DIR for direct and indirect remuneration, are a small piece of the tangle of contracts, rebates and reimbursements involved in the sale of prescription drugs in the U.S., which totaled $374 billion in 2014, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, a research group. (Ziobro, 10/28)

Health insurer Anthem Inc. on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected increase in revenue and earnings in its third quarter, driven in part by strong performance in its government-business segments. On the heels of its latest results, Anthem updated its forecast for annual adjusted earnings to a range of $10.10 to $10.20 per share. Previously the company had expected earnings greater than $10. Anthem added that Medical membership is now expected to be in the range of 38.3 million to 38.5 million. (Minaya, 10/28)

Anthem Inc. (ANTM) on Wednesday reported third-quarter profit of $654.8 million. The Indianapolis-based company said it had profit of $2.43 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and amortization costs, were $2.73 per share. (10/28)

Health insurer Anthem Inc reported a better-than-expected profit in the third quarter as more people enrolled for its government plans, especially Medicaid. Anthem's government business offers Medicare plans for the elderly and Medicaid for lower-income families. (10/28)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said privately held laboratory operator Theranos had been shipping a blood testing device under a wrong classification that exempted the product from regulatory control. The device in question is the company's Capillary Tube Nanotainer, a tiny vial used to collect blood from patients. (10/27)

Novartis AG said Tuesday that third-quarter profit fell 42% from the same period last year, as the Swiss drug company settled claims that it paid rebates to encourage specialty pharmacies to increase prescriptions. The Basel, Switzerland-based pharmaceuticals company said it has agreed to pay $390 million as part of a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department regarding claims that the company induced specialty pharmacies to boost prescriptions for Novartis drugs by paying kickbacks in the form of rebates. (Roland and Letzing, 10/27)

Novartis agreed in principle to pay $390 million to settle U.S. allegations that it used kickbacks to specialty pharmacies to push sales of some drugs, the Swiss company said on Tuesday, hitting third-quarter earnings. The U.S. Department of Justice had sued Novartis in federal court, originally seeking up to $3.35 billion on grounds the world's biggest seller of prescription drugs sought illegally to boost sales of drugs covered by the U.S.-government backed Medicare and Medicaid programs. (Miller, 10/27)

Billionaire hedge-fund manager Larry Robbins once compared his bets on the success of President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul to assembling a jigsaw puzzle. But a new slump for many large drug makers is knocking some of those pieces out of place. (Copeland and Hoffman, 10/27)

Americans from across the political spectrum are worried about the cost of prescription drugs for serious diseases, following weeks of news coverage about companies hiking prices for critical medicines. Keeping drugs for cancer, hepatitis, HIV and other conditions affordable is the top health priority for Democrats, Republicans and independents, according to a poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. (Perrone, 10/28)

There’s been a bipartisan outcry over the rising cost of prescription drugs – for instance, presidential candidates from both parties have identified high drug prices as a major concern. But there’s been far less discussion surrounding government oversight of how those medications are marketed to consumers and doctors. According to a poll released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, almost 90 percent of people surveyed think the Food and Drug Administration should review prescription drug ads before they air – something it currently doesn’t do – to make sure they’re clear and accurate. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) Those findings held true across political affiliations. (Luthra, 10/28)

A watchdog advisory panel, meeting at Harvard Medical School, concluded Tuesday that a new class of powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs did not offer reasonable value to most patients given their high price tags. (Weisman, 10/28)

Anthem Blue Cross of California will refund $8.3 million to 50,000 Californians because of mid-year changes it made to individual customers' annual policies in 2011, according to a class-action lawsuit settlement announced Tuesday. (Seipel, 10/27)

Anthem Blue Cross agreed to end midyear policy changes that raise costs for consumers and to reimburse nearly $8.3 million to about 50,000 customers in California as part of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit announced Tuesday. (Masunaga, 10/27)

Top-ranking Human Services Department officials told legislators Tuesday they will need nearly $1 billion next year for the state’s share of rapidly rising Medicaid costs – described by one key lawmaker as a “runaway train.” Members of a key legislative panel reacted with alarm to the request for an additional $85.2 million, or 8.5 percent, to keep up with skyrocketing enrollment and a looming decrease in the federal matching rate for states like New Mexico that opted to expand their Medicaid programs. (Boyd, 10/28)

Pennsylvania's health agency can suspend Medicaid payments to a mental health clinic operator facing a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it defrauded the government healthcare program, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Monday ruled that Lehigh Valley Community Mental Health Centers, which operates clinics in Allentown, Easton and Bethlehem, was not entitled to a temporary restraining order requiring the state to continue some Medicaid payments. (Pierson, 10/28)

A panel of hospital CEOs, doctors and health-care executives on Tuesday considered changes to Virginia laws regulating medical facilities and services that two federal agencies said curb competition and stifle innovation in the state’s health-care industry. (Portnoy, 10/27)

The most vocal critics of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s handling of the state finances, Republican legislative leaders, will find things harder this month as they shift from commenting on the deficit-plagued budget to balancing it. Sen. Len Fasano and Rep. Themis Klarides will find it particularly difficult to both oppose tax hikes and shield hospitals and social services from cuts if the leaders try to stabilize finances long-term. (Phaneuf, 10/27)

New York law now requires hospitals to let patients designate a family member or unrelated caregiver who will be advised about medical care, transfers to other facilities and medical needs upon discharge. (10/27)

The Florida Department of Health wants Sarasota County to privatize its prenatal care in the next three years. And that has its southern neighbors worried – after all, when Charlotte County privatized health care, residents started leaving the county for care. Charlotte County Commission Chairman Bill Truex walks through a small, squat building that houses a lot of the government functions for the small town of Englewood. He points into a darkened room. (Aboraya, 10/27)

A large share of low-income elderly Californians have opted out of a statewide managed care experiment because they feared losing their doctors and were reluctant to make any changes to their health care, according to survey data released Tuesday by the Field Poll. (Gorman, 10/27)

Yelling at the top of your raspy voice about yeast infections can sure disperse a crowd of Planned Parenthood protesters. Mary Numair found that out Sunday in a spontaneous single-woman counter protest in front of the organization's center in Northeast Portland. As she repeatedly chanted "YEAST IN-FECTIONS," parents and children toting signs declaring "ABORTION IS MURDER" scurried away. (Terry, 10/27)

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Monday that her office has been in touch with Texas officials over state efforts to block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid dollars, but she didn’t indicate whether any federal action would be taken. (Shine, 10/27)

Most states lack a children's hospice, largely because terminal childhood conditions are so unpredictable it stymies insurance coverage. While some health plans pay for hospice care in the last six months of life, it's rarely clear when a young body has only six months left. (Benson, 10/28)

A Peoria, Illinois clinic did not discriminate against a doctor with bipolar disorder by firing him when he failed to return to work from a medical leave immediately after a psychiatrist cleared him to do so. Judge Sara Ellis of the Northern District of Illinois U.S. District Court, sitting on a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel by designation, said the clinic, Proctor Health Care Inc, had made every effort to keep the doctor, Larry Hooper, who had worked there since 2009. (Pierson, 10/28)

Most county health departments no longer offer services to pregnant women. But on Florida’s Space Coast, the opposite is true: The county health department offers 100 percent coverage for pregnant women. Here, 21-year-old Briana Colson has just met with her obstetrician at the Brevard County Health Department. Ten days ago, she gave birth to twins. (Aboraya, 10/27)

A new study from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that aims to promote a high-performing health care system, revealed that about 23 percent of Americans with coverage are considered underinsured up from 12 percent in 2003 since the inception of Obamacare in 2012. That means roughly 31 million Americans who bought health insurance still have trouble affording treatment under their policies, according to the study. (D'Angelo, 10/27)

The budget deal agreed to Monday night by Republican and Democratic leaders is modest by any fiscal measure. But it still counts as a big victory for common sense. ... it will avoid a potentially devastating default on the government’s debt by extending the debt-limit deadline from Nov. 3 until March 2017. It will also help to avert a government shutdown in December by providing federal financing through September 2017. It closes a hole in the Social Security disability fund that threatened severe benefit cuts and prevents an imminent steep increase in out-of-pocket costs for many Medicare beneficiaries. (10/27)

As for the fine print, the use of budget gimmicks to “pay for” the deal is flagrant as usual. The old gang is back together: pension smoothing, spectrum auctions, more IRS audits allegedly to improve tax compliance, selling off barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when oil prices are at modern lows. But Republicans did secure modest entitlement reforms. The deal repeals an ObamaCare mandate for businesses to automatically enroll workers in health benefits, regardless of the cost. It also equalizes the Medicare payment rates for hospital and outpatient care to mitigate losses from providers that game the formula to get paid more for the same services. (10/27)

To be sure, within the bill’s “pay-fors” are modest but real reforms of mandatory spending programs, the most significant of which would be a $3 billion cut to egregious crop insurance subsidies over the next decade. In addition, the bill would tighten procedures for Social Security Disability Insurance, saving about $4 billion over 10 years, while allowing the program to experiment with incentives to get recipients back to work. The bill would also do away with disparities in Medicare reimbursements for doctors depending on whether they work out of hospitals or off-site. (10/27)

Fortunately, many in the GOP are coming to this conclusion. In his last act before stepping down as speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio has negotiated a two-year budget deal with President Obama that would push back the next potential debt-ceiling conflict to March 2017. The deal, expected to be voted on Wednesday in the House, is small in scope. Unlike an unsuccessful attempt in 2011 at a “grand bargain” on taxes and spending, this deal does nothing of consequence to rein in the entitlement programs that are driving federal deficits. (10/27)

Minutes before midnight on Monday, Congress unveiled a bipartisan budget deal that will increase our nation’s debt limit by $1.5 trillion. As part of the deal, lawmakers will bust the budget caps by $80 billion, bail out a bloated disability insurance program and raise revenue through a variety of gimmicks. In other words, Washington is going to spend more of your money to avoid doing its job. (Michael A. Needham, 10/27)

Leaks from the party caucuses and negotiations suggested that the agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling and remove some sequester caps would be paid for by cuts to Social Security disability benefits and Medicare. For the most part, that didn't happen. ... the disability program, which risked running out of reserves sometime next year, was shored up in exactly the way favored by Social Security advocates--by reallocating some of the Social Security payroll tax from the old-age program to disability insurance. ... The deal also will head off a Medicare premium increase of 52% that loomed for about a third of all Medicare beneficiaries--8 million seniors--next year. The increase will be cut to about 14%, raising those person's monthly rates to $120 from $104.90. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/27)

If you buy insurance on the exchanges, your premiums are probably going up. How much will depend on what state you live in. New data released by the government indicate that the lucky citizens of four states will see the price of their two cheapest options fall (by significant amounts, in Indiana and Mississippi). On the other hand, citizens of 19 states, almost 3 million people, will see increases of more than 10 percent, and four states will see increases of more than 25 percent. ... Is this a disaster? Not yet. Insurance was underpriced in the first few years, and now it’s rising toward the market level. What matters is what happens in the future. Is this a one-year blip, as insurers adjust? Or is a 7.5 percent annual hike something we can expect for years to come? (Megan McArdle, 10/27)

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson has a healthcare reform proposal that's a reminder of why business and investment advisers long have made fun of physicians. Because they are experts in medical matters, doctors tend to think they are experts in everything. ... making Medicare and Medicaid voluntary programs would unravel the insurance risk pool in the same way that proposals to make Social Security voluntary would unravel the retirement safety net. (Harris Meyer, 10/27)

For the last few years, Ben Carson has been talking about a very disruptive but simple plan to reform the health care system in the United States: replace Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid with an easy-to-understand universal, cradle-to-grave annual cash allowance for health spending. But last weekend, in a series of interviews, Mr. Carson, who is now narrowly leading in some national polls for the G.O.P. presidential nomination, said he had discarded that idea, and was now presenting a new health plan. It’s less politically toxic, but much less coherent. It is also less likely to lead to the big changes to the health care system he seeks. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 10/27)

On Medicare, Bush takes a page from the policy guidebook Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is best-known for. Bush, like Ryan, advocates a premium support plan (i.e., a defined-contribution plan). He also supports health spending accounts (“Today, seniors may be responsible for co-pays, deductibles and premiums, which can be difficult to afford on a fixed income. Once an individual enrolls in Medicare, he or she cannot save money in a tax-free health savings account, or ‘HSA.’ I will allow seniors to keep their HSAs to help cover out-of-pocket health care spending and have more financial security.”) He also adopts stricter means testing. (Jennifer Rubin, 10/27)

We’ve all seen the drug ads on TV and elsewhere. Drug X will make you feel better and help you take control of your life. But almost every drug seems to have an impossibly long list of potential side effects, including in a small number of cases the scariest ones like cancer or death. A new survey of the public out Wednesday suggests the impact of drug ads may be both good and bad. (Drew Altman, 10/28)

The latest cancer report from the World Health Organization provides persuasive evidence that eating meat can cause cancer, but the risk is very small for most people. (10/29)