Paige Winfield Cunningham

‘Salvage work’ may await Obama on health care law

No matter how the Supreme Court rules on President Obama's health care law this month, major insurers have promised they'll still cover children up to age 26 and pay for preventative services without charging co-pays — but there's no telling the fate of hundreds of other provisions in the imperiled overhaul. Published June 14, 2012

Report predicts rising health costs under Obama law

The U.S. will spend slightly more on health care over the next decade than it would have had President Obama's Affordable Care Act not passed, according to a new estimate released Tuesday by the federal government. Published June 12, 2012

Mo. Senate candidates leave recent hostility behind in GOP debate

The Republican primary for Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill's seat has grown increasingly hostile in recent weeks, but the three candidates barely attacked one another at a debate Monday night near St. Louis. Published June 12, 2012

GOP releases memo on deal with drug firms

House Republicans last week released their second investigative memo detailing how the White House worked with the nation's drug companies to sell President Obama's health care law, arguing the deals he struck violate his campaign pledges of transparency. Published June 8, 2012

House vote pulls plug on medical-device tax

House Republicans took another swipe at the financing for President Obama's health care law on Thursday, voting to repeal two more pieces of the landmark legislation — including a tax on medical-device makers that was intended to help pay for the act. Published June 7, 2012

Democrats face choice on health care details

House Republicans hope to force Democrats into a choice Thursday between repealing a tax on oxygen tanks, X-ray machines and other medical equipment that could cost jobs in their district, or letting some Americans keep excess subsidies to be doled out under President Obama's health-care law. Published June 6, 2012

McMahon wrestles establishment for GOP Senate nomination prize

Establishment Republicans in Washington are rallying around former Rep. Christopher Shays in his bid to become the party's Senate nominee in Connecticut this fall, arguing that he is the party's best chance to seize the seat of retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman. Published June 4, 2012

Threats, deals got drug companies on board with Obama

Top administration officials cut backroom deals with the nation's top drug companies to win support for President Obama's health care overhaul, threatening them with steeper taxes if they resisted and promising a better financial deal for the industry if they acquiesced, according to internal documents released Thursday by House Republicans. Published May 31, 2012

GOP vows to repeal tax on sales of medical devices

House Republicans are vowing to repeal a tax on makers of medical devices by supporting a bill from a GOP lawmaker, and they expect at least a few Democrats to join them in their latest effort to poke holes in President Obama's health care law. Published May 30, 2012

Abortion funding fight could complicate defense spending legislation

Senate lawmakers have opened the door to a fight over military-funded abortions, voting in committee to expand abortion coverage for servicewomen to cases of rape or incest as part of a major military spending bill expected to hit the chamber next month. Published May 29, 2012

Senate wants patients to buy American meds

More than a decade after the first skirmishes over allowing American consumers to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, the issue is still a loser — and by wider margins than ever. Published May 24, 2012

Secret Service prostitute scandal reveals pattern, senators contend

The director of the Secret Service told Congress on Wednesday that the recent Colombian prostitution scandal was a one-time occurrence, but deeply skeptical lawmakers said he is in denial and the evidence points to a larger pattern of misconduct within the agency charged with protecting the president. Published May 23, 2012

Visa changes aimed at skilled workers

Most Americans are deeply skeptical of expanding immigration, especially in the middle of an economic slump — but a bipartisan group of senators said Tuesday that high-skilled immigrants could provide just the kind of spark the economy needs to help pull it out of a prolonged rut. Published May 22, 2012

Catholic leaders take aim at Obama contraception plan

Catholic Church leaders escalated their fight Monday against President Obama's health care plan, as dozens of the U.S. church's biggest archdioceses, universities and other institutions filed a torrent of lawsuits demanding the law's contraception mandate be struck down as violating constitutional protections of religious liberty. Published May 21, 2012

Archdioceses, Catholic schools sue over Obama contraception plan

The archdioceses of New York, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis and the University of Notre Dame filed lawsuits over President Obama's contraception mandate Monday, along with dozens of other Catholic dioceses, schools and charities in a major legal challenge to a key part of Mr. Obama's health care overhaul law. Published May 21, 2012

Coburn urges parties to return convention funds

Sen. Tom Coburn on Thursday urged both national parties to voluntarily return millions of taxpayer dollars they received to fund their nominating conventions, saying Democrats and the GOP should show leadership in reducing the federal deficit. Published May 17, 2012

State Republicans wary of health care law

Republican governors and GOP-dominated state legislatures were united in opposing President Obama's health care law, but now that it's in place, they are far more divided over how far to go in complying with it, especially with the U.S. Supreme Court poised to rule on the law's constitutionality. Published May 17, 2012