Both Supporters and Critics Turn up The Heat on Capitol Hill By JONATHAN KARL As the health care bill enters its final stretch, both supporters and critics of the legislation have turned up the heat. Congressional staffers have been put on notice to expect protests in the corridors of the Capitol today as groups from both sides descend on Washington for this week’s raucous final battle over health care overhaul. A memo to staffers sent Monday told offices to “review their policies regarding demonstrators, as well as applicable office emergency action plans” but said the protestors...

Democrats Need 216 Votes to Pass Health Care Reform Bill By HUMA KHAN After months of negotiations, closed-door meetings and persuasion by President Obama, members of the House of Representatives today will vote on the controversial $940 billion health care bill. House Democrats continue to spar on the provisions in legislation, but the Democratic leadership is confident it will have the 216 votes — a majority of the House’s 431 members — to pass the health care bill today. Read More…

By CHARLES BABINGTON WASHINGTON — House Democrats are predicting that a rare Sunday session will produce one of the most significant legislative triumphs in decades: passage of a historic bill to overhaul the nation’s health care system to provide coverage to millions of people who currently lack it. Republicans resolutely opposed to the bill didn’t concede defeat Saturday, but warned they will make Democrats pay dearly in the fall elections if the fiercely debated measure becomes law. Read More…

By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — One by one, House Democratic fence-sitters began choosing sides Friday, and the long, turbulent struggle over landmark health care legislation tilted unmistakably in President Barack Obama’s direction. In full campaign mode, his voice rising, the president all but claimed victory, declaring to a cheering audience in Virginia, “We are going to fix health care in America.” Read More…

By: JO CIAVAGLIA An influential medical journal says it had nothing to do with a doctor survey that found that almost half of primary care doctors would consider leaving their profession if the Democrat-backed health reform passes. New England Journal of Medicine spokeswoman Jennifer Zeis said Wednesday the journal did not conduct the survey nor did it publish its results as reported by numerous conservative news and opinion sites. Media Matters for America, a Web-based, not-for-profit research and information center dedicated to “comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative...

(Reuters) – Congressional Democrats have unveiled the final changes to a sweeping healthcare overhaul they hope will clear the House of Representatives on Sunday. Democrats are using a two-step process that involves the House approving the Senate-passed version of the bill and passing the proposed final changes. The Senate must act on the changes before President Barack Obama can sign them into law. Here are key provisions of the legislation including the proposed changes. INSURANCE MARKET REFORM Read More…

By GREG HITT And JANET ADAMY WASHINGTON—Democrats made a final sprint toward a weekend vote on their health-care bill, pressuring wavering lawmakers as the Congressional Budget Office put the cost of the legislation at what party leaders see as a politically palatable $940 billion over the next decade. With a handful of votes still in doubt, President Barack Obama canceled a long-planned trip to Asia to stay and lobby lawmakers, fighting for every vote in advance of a showdown on the House floor expected Sunday. Mr. Obama plans to talk up the sweeping overhaul in a midday speech Friday in Virginia,...

Buoyed by a projected CBO score that shows the health care bill saving $138 billion in the next decade while expanding coverage to 32 million uninsured, House leaders are now pulling out all the stops to recruit the final, needed lawmakers behind the legislation. Officials at the White House and in Congress are conveying increased confidence that the 216 votes will be there for passage. “These guys don’t want to be the one who helped defeat the first real chance at health care reform,” one lawmaker told the Huffington Post. But, as things stand now, the party is anywhere between...

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN WASHINGTON — Love it or hate it, one thing that is indisputable about the Democrats’ big health care legislation is that the cost figures are going to come out right where President Obama said he wanted them. When the president finally came forward with an outline of his own proposal, aimed at bridging differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation, he said it would have a 10-year price tag of about $950 billion and would reduce federal deficits over that same time period by more than $100 billion. Read More…

By Janet Hook and Noam N. Levey Reporting from Washington President Obama and Democratic leaders gathered momentum for their sweeping healthcare overhaul Wednesday, picking up support from Democratic factions where defections were most feared: liberals, abortion opponents and backbenchers. Working into the night to put the finishing touches on the legislation, Democratic leaders said they continued to expect the balloting to be a cliffhanger. Read More…