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Happy Monday Morning! Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the impact of Standard & Poor’s downgrade on the challenge ahead for ‘super committee’ when it tries to take on entitlement spending.

: S & P Downgrade Seen As Adding Urgency To Debt-Cutting Panel
The downgrade of the United States government’s credit rating by Standard & Poor’s is almost sure to increase pressure on a new Congressional “super committee” to mute ideological disagreements and recommend a package of deficit-reduction measures far exceeding its original goal of at least $1.5 trillion, lawmakers said Sunday (Pear, 8/7).

: More Spending Cuts On The Way: The Big Issues
Congressional Democrats successfully opposed cuts to Medicare benefits, but lawmakers didn’t completely shield the program. Although there will be no initial reductions, there would be an automatic 2 percent cut to providers if the new joint committee cannot agree on a new deficit reduction package. The joint committee can include Medicare changes in its package (8/6).

For more headlines …

: U.S. Debt Drama Is Far From Over (Letter From Washington)
Whatever the merits of the downgrade decision, it was made easier by the phoniness of the deficit deal approved by Congress, which calls for $900 billion of spending cuts, one-third from defense. The agreement doesn’t touch the two drivers of chronic deficits: out-of-control spending on entitlements, especially health care, and insufficient revenue. The super committee is being created to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the budget over the next decade or, if it fails, automatically trigger reductions from both defense and nondefense expenses. It is likely this bipartisan panel will split over whether to include revenue increases and cutbacks in entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security (Hunt, 8/7).

: Medicare Costs For Hospice Up 70%
Medicare costs for hospice care have increased more than in any other health care sector as for-profit companies continue to gain a larger share of the end-of-life medical market, government records show (Kennedy, 8/7).

: Employment Report Shows Health Care Added 31,300 Jobs
The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected last month. And the health-care industry showed particular strength, with 31,300 new jobs — higher than the average monthly increase seen in 2007, before the recession hit (Hobson, 8/5).

: Religious Groups Object To Covering Birth Control
They defied the bishops to support President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Now Catholic hospitals are dismayed the law may force them to cover birth control free of charge to their employees. A provision in the law expanded preventive health-care benefits for women, and the administration said last week that must include birth control with no copays (Alonso-Zaldivar, 8/7).

: Tim Pawlenty Changed Tune On Health Care
Health care reform is supposed to be former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s Achilles heel in the Republican primary, and it may very well turn out to be. But one dynamic that’s helped Romney so far is that some of his highest-profile critics on health care — from former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) — have in the past had positive things to say about elements of both the Massachusetts health care law and the Affordable Care Act, including the individual mandate (Burns, 8/7).

also tracked weekend health policy headlines, including reports about a new round of and the impact might have on the ‘super committee’s view of entitlement programs.