Paige Winfield Cunningham
Articles by Paige Winfield Cunningham
Medicare premiums to rise next year
Medicare premiums for most seniors will rise slightly next year after a three-year freeze that was pegged to stagnant Social Security benefits. Published October 27, 2011
States struggle to pay for Medicaid
Infused with billions of extra Medicaid dollars from President Obama's economic stimulus package, states have largely burned through the aid and are scrounging for a way to support programs bloated by the sluggish economy. Published October 27, 2011
House Dems want to fix the suspended part of the health care law
Democrats are digging in their heels over a recently suspended part of President Obama's health care law, saying they want to fix the flailing long-term care program instead of repealing it, as Republicans have proposed. Published October 26, 2011
Bottom-line issues stall GOP efforts to pull back health law
Republicans scored historic gains in last year's elections in part on their pledge to scrap the new health care law — but their passion for repeal has dimmed in the face of a split Congress and the difficulties of untangling the complex legislation. Published October 25, 2011
Paul would ax five agencies, hits focus on Romney’s lawn
Touting his own jobs plan to eliminate five Cabinet agencies and cut a trillion dollars from the budget, presidential candidate Ron Paul complained of trivial infighting between his GOP rivals at a time when the nation faces monumental challenges he thinks would be solved by a virtual government upheaval. Published October 23, 2011
Social Security benefits to increase in 2012
Seniors will receive a 3.6 percent Social Security cost-of-living increase next year, the first since 2009, signaling that consumer prices are rebounding even as the economy remains sluggish and unemployment is high. Published October 19, 2011
Obama fights for embattled CLASS law
President Obama is clinging fiercely to a key part of his new health care law, with the White House on Monday saying he opposes efforts to repeal the CLASS Act — even though his administration said Friday it would suspend the new entitlement indefinitely. Published October 17, 2011
Long-term care stripped from Obama’s health care law
The Obama administration, admitting that a key part of its health care law is unworkable, has abandoned the long-term care provision for the elderly and infirm in its health care law because it could not certify that the program would ever pay for itself. Published October 14, 2011
House bars funds for abortions
Embracing legislation that nearly derailed the health care law last year, the House approved tougher restrictions on federally funded abortions in a move that pleased the GOP's pro-life base but met vigorous opposition from President Obama and Senate Democrats. Published October 13, 2011
House GOP revives abortion issue, irks Obama
After a six-month respite from fights over federal funding of abortion, House Republicans are revisiting the battle with a bill aimed at severing all ties between President Obama's health care law and insuring, performing or obtaining abortions. Published October 12, 2011
Warren shows fundraising savvy in Massachusetts race
In the first indication of her fundraising prowess, Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren dwarfed a Democratic rival and brought in double the sum raised by incumbent Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Published October 11, 2011
Supercommittee deadline looms this week
House and Senate committees must submit their deficit-slashing ideas to the supercommittee by the end of the week, giving the 12 members a little more than a month to consider them before the Thanksgiving deadline to agree on a deficit-reduction plan. Published October 11, 2011
Reid wants vote this week on millionaires tax
In a plan that convinced more Senate Democrats to fund President Obama's jobs bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid is calling for a vote this week on a new tax targeting millionaires. Published October 10, 2011
Medicine panel considers health costs
Weighing in on the types of services Americans will be guaranteed under the new health care law, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) panel told the Obama administration it should consider whether certain services are too expensive to be defined as essential benefits insurers must offer. Published October 7, 2011
Beefcake battle kicks off race for Brown’s Massachusetts Senate seat
It didn't take long for Massachusetts GOP Sen. Scott P. Brown's past as a naked centerfold in Cosmopolitan magazine to emerge as an issue in his likely re-election bout against Democrat Elizabeth Warren, President Obama's former top consumer-finance adviser. Published October 6, 2011
GOP eyeing upset in West Virginia governor race
The Republican wave that has swept into governors' mansions of neighboring states has yet to reach West Virginia, but the GOP hopes that will change when a political newcomer tries to unseat the acting Democratic governor in a special election Tuesday. Published October 2, 2011
White House asks Supreme Court to hear health care case
Showing confidence in its legal case, the Obama administration Wednesday unexpectedly asked the Supreme Court for an expedited hearing of the sole appeals court ruling that found the centerpiece of President Obama's sweeping health care law to be unconstitutional. Published September 28, 2011
PhRMA president calls Obama policy ‘wrongheaded’
The chief spokesman for pharmaceutical manufacturers says President Obama has stuck two thorns in the industry's side at a time marked by uncertainty as lawmakers contemplate cutting health care programs and battles over the new health care law wind their way through the courts. Published September 27, 2011
Government won’t seek appeal on health care ruling
Signaling it wants a speedy hearing by the Supreme Court, the Obama administration decided not to ask a federal appeals court in Atlanta to review a ruling that struck down the centerpiece of President Obama's new health care law. Published September 26, 2011
Obama Medicare reforms on margins
President Obama proposed enough health care savings in his debt plan last week to delay Medicare's looming insolvency by three years, but stopped short of the major reforms all sides say are needed to shore up the program for the long term — and mostly ignored the changes his own deficit commission suggested last year. Published September 25, 2011