First Edition: November 4, 2010

Today's headlines focus on questions, answers and widespread speculation regarding the next steps for health reform.

Riding An Elevator With Boehner: What Would You Say?
Less than 24 hours after Republicans won control of the House, soon-to-be-speaker John Boehner denounced the new health care law, saying it would "kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country" -- and renewed his vow to try to repeal it. Kaiser Health News asked people around the country to answer the following question: "If you ended up in an elevator with Rep. Boehner, what single thing would you urge him to do about health care in this country? (Kaiser Health News).

Health On The Hill – November 3, 2010
Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey and KFF's Robin Toner Distinguished Fellow Marilyn Werber Serafini spoke with KFF's Jackie Judd about the changing political landscape. With major gains in Congress, in governors' races and in statehouses across the country, Republicans will continue to push for repeal or significant changes to the health care law. President Obama says while he is open to making some modifications, he and Democrats will resist major changes to the measure (Kaiser Health News).Read the transcript.

KHN Column: Health Care Cost Control Is Hard, And Humbling
In his latest Kaiser Health News column, Austin Frakt writes: "Though lots of different approaches to controlling health care costs have been discussed, it's hard to know which of them will really work" (Kaiser Health News).

Promise Of Renewed Battle Over Reach Of Health Care
While Republicans cannot fulfill their campaign promise to repeal the new health care law any time soon, they can lead Congress in a sweeping re-examination of its more unpopular provisions, including new taxes and a requirement for most Americans to carry health insurance (The New York Times).

Republicans Target Health-Care Bill, Government Spending As Obama Acknowledges Election Setback
Leaders of the new Republican majority emerged emboldened Wednesday, promising to slash the size of government and setting their sights on repealing President Obama's signature health-care overhaul (The Washington Post).

GOP Wins Mean Big Change In Focus For Powerful Hill Committees
In addition to repealing President Obama's health-care law, rewriting his Wall Street reforms and blocking scheduled tax hikes for the wealthy, Republicans say they will balance the budget and wipe out a deficit that approached $1.3 trillion last year (The Washington Post).

Repeal Of The Health Care Law? Not So Fast
Republicans regained control of the House on Tuesday in part with a pledge to "repeal and replace" the new health law. But carrying out that campaign promise won't be as easy as making it was (NPR).

Health-Care Reform: After Big GOP Gains, Will It Be Repealed?
Even with a broad and historic majority, House Republicans have formidable roadblocks to delivering on a top campaign promise: to repeal or dismantle comprehensive health-care reform (The Christian Science Monitor).

Health Care Compromise Not New
President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats on Wednesday said they're interested in compromising on the controversial health care reform law. But they've been down this road once before without much success (Politico).

No Clear Path For GOP On Health Care Repeal
Republicans say they'll repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health care law, but tinker and tweak is as far as they're likely to get (The Associated Press).

Health Care Vote Only A part Of Democrats' Vulnerability
In the end, it may have mattered less whether vulnerable Democratic incumbents voted for or against the health care law than that they simply had a D by their names (The New York Times).

Democratic Rout Sparks Debate Over Mandate For Healthcare Reform
President Obama pushed back Wednesday against the notion that his party's midterm rout amounts to a mandate for the GOP to repeal Democrats' healthcare reform law. Republicans, meanwhile, argued the opposite (The Hill's Healthwatch Blog).

WellPoint And Aetna Post Higher Profit In 3rd Quarter
Two of the nation's largest health insurers reported increased profit for the third quarter Wednesday despite falling enrollments, saying reduced healthcare costs helped boost their earnings (Los Angeles Times).

Health Care Costs On The Front Lines
Looking to push his cost-cutting reforms to new realms, Defense Secretary Robert Gates may set his sights on runaway military health care costs - an area that members of Congress have so far been reluctant to tackle (Politico).

Drug Makers See Benefits In GOP Gains
The pharmaceutical industry hopes to hold on to concessions it won from Democrats during their recent brief reign in Congress, while benefiting from antiregulatory sentiment among Republicans who captured the House, industry lobbyists said (The Wall Street Journal).

Feds Surprise Biotech Industry With Gene Patent Rule
The Justice Department is proposing to overturn 30 years of legal precedent by sharply limiting patents on genes. The government surprised just about everyone who follows this issue when it suggested this change of policy in a court filing last week (NPR).

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