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: Democrats To Attack Republicans For Pushing Medicare Cuts
The Democratic Party will begin a campaign on Wednesday to attack Republican lawmakers for pushing cuts to Medicare benefits during the latest round of failed federal deficit talks, a new turn in a drama that not long ago featured top Democrats expressing a willingness to tinker with the popular entitlement program (Wallsten, 11/29).

: GOP Governors Hedge Bets On Insurance Exchanges
Obama administration officials have announced another round of grants to states to help build the insurance marketplaces, called “exchanges,” that will help individuals and small businesses buy health insurances beginning in 2014 (Rovner, 11/29).

For more headlines …

: 7 States Suing To Overturn Health Overhaul Receive Federal Grants To Carry Out Obama’s Law
Federal officials announced Tuesday they are awarding more money to help states carry out President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. So what’s the surprise? Seven states that are suing to overturn the landmark law are also on the list for funding (11/29).

: States Receive Health Care Grants
Hoping to alleviate concerns of states, the Obama administration on Tuesday said it would award nearly $220 million in new federal grants to states to set up exchanges where uninsured Americans may eventually be able to buy medical coverage as part of the federal health care law (Japsen, 11/29).

: Foes Of Health-Care Law Are Among States Receiving Federal Money To Implement It
The announcement by the Obama administration brings the number of states that have received such grants to 29. It also highlights the dual path that many Republican state leaders have been following when it comes to the law — petitioning the Supreme Court to strike it down, even as they ready their states for implementation in the event that the justices uphold the statute (Aizenman, 11/29).

: House Republican Leader Eric Cantor Says Obama’s Medicare Nominee Is ‘Eminently Qualified’
President Barack Obama’s Medicare nominee Tuesday got unexpected support from one of Congress’ Republican stars. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told The Associated Press that Marilyn Tavenner is “eminently qualified” to run Medicare (11/29).

: 12 States Make Progress On Health Insurance Exchanges
The Obama administration announced Tuesday that a dozen more states have crossed the first big threshold in setting up health insurance exchanges – including seven of the Republican states that are suing the administration to overturn the health care law passed last year (Radnofsky, 11/29).

: Study: Even With More Kids In Poverty, Number Of Uninsured Children Fell 14% Over 3 Years
Even with more children living in poverty because of the rough economy, the number of children without health insurance in the U.S. has dropped by 1 million in the past three years, according to a report released Tuesday by Georgetown University (11/29).

: The Fact Checker: Michele Bachmann’s Claim That She Never Said ‘Anything Inaccurate’ During The GOP Debates
The Republican candidates for president have already held at least 10 full-fledged debates, and we have watched them all. Here are a few highlights of Bachmann’s performance [includes various references to ‘Obamacare’] during those sessions (Kessler, 11/29).

: GOP Hopeful Rick Santorum Campaigns With A Seriously Ill Daughter At Home
His is easily the most searing personal narrative offered by any candidate this season. And when he speaks of Bella publicly, it is almost always in conjunction with his top policy goal of dismantling the health-care reform legislation, which he sees as a threat to those like her, “on the margins of life” (Henneberger, 11/29).

: Gingrich And Romney: Same Health Plan, Different Candidate
If Republicans are flocking to Newt Gingrich to get away from Mitt Romney’s health care problems, they could end up with a nominee with … awfully similar health care problems. Or maybe worse: While Romney signed a state mandate into law, Gingrich once went a step further and advocated a federal one (Haberkorn, 11/30).

: High Court To Hear HIV-Positive Pilot’s Privacy Case
The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a case testing whether the federal government is liable for damages when it violates the Privacy Act by disclosing that an individual is HIV-positive. The government does not dispute that it broke the law, but it asserts that the Privacy Act authorizes damage suits only for violations that cause economic harm, not for emotional harm (Totenberg, 11/30).

: Rise In PTSD Cases From Two Wars Strains Military Resources
Ten thousand combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder flooded into VA hospitals every three months this year, pushing the number of patients ill from the disorder above 200,000 and straining resources, Department of Veterans Affairs data to be released today show (Zoroya, 11/29).

: Facing Generic Lipitor Rivals, Pfizer Battles To Protect Its Cash Cow
For the last year, Pfizer has been laying the groundwork to combat the looming competition against Lipitor, forging deals with insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and patients to meet or beat the price of its generic replacements (Wilson, 11/29).

: UnitedHealth Targets Long-Term Double-Digit Earnings Growth
Managed-care company UnitedHealth Group Inc. is targeting long-term earnings growth in a double-digit range, backed by high single-digit sales growth, as it aims to expand its Optum health-care-services business (Kamp, 11/29).