Word: congressed
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...Medicare Commission When Obama began his push for reform, he asked Congress to create an independent commission to regulate Medicare costs. Medicare, which spends more than $450 billion a year, is such a huge health care player that any changes it makes can lead the way for reforms in the private market. As originally envisioned, the new agency would essentially take over Congress's current authority to set Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and other health care providers. It would use a process like the military-base-closing commission, whose recommendations automatically go into effect unless Congress...
...Pilot Projects The legislation in Congress is chock-full of pilot projects designed to test out ideas for lowering costs. But critics contend that such projects work to preserve the status quo. "We don't need pilots. We have enough information," says Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the health policy department at Emory University. "Let's go ahead and get on with this...
...matters will be a prominent election issue. In the intertwined world of this country's dynastic politics, Teodoro and Aquino are related as cousins from different branches of one of the country's wealthiest landowning families. And on paper at least, there could be five Arroyos in the next Congress; there are four in the current one. Even Imelda Marcos, the flamboyant 80-year-old widow of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is running for a seat - a further example of the merry-go-round of Philippine politics...
...things stand, opinion surveys (a far from infallible guide) put senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III in the lead. A low-profile figure during nine years in Congress, the bookish-looking lawmaker was pushed to the limelight just a few months ago after the death of his admired mother Corazon, a former president and symbol of democacy during the anti-Marcos struggle. Some pundits predicted his star would quickly fade, but that hasn't happened. Manuel Villar, a rags-to-riches real estate developer born in Manila's Tondo port area, is placing second. Behind him is ousted former president Joseph...
...elite of moneyed families still dominates the candidates running for Congress and higher local government posts, such as mayors and provincial governors. A parade of celebrities - including boxing champ Manny Pacquiao, running for a congressional seat - are adding the customary glamor. Aquino's sister Kris, a popular television personality, is reported to be energetically rallying her friends in entertainment to publicly support her brother. (Despite his perceived lead, he is not to everyone's taste: one local journalist memorably described him as a "crudely-cut outline of his parents.") (Read "The Meaning and Mythos of Manny Pacquiao...