While politicians hammer out the details of healthcare reform legislation and debate some of the more “controversial issues” (which I put in quotes because they shouldn’t be as controversial as they are) surrounding healthcare reform, the administration is busy doing things that everyone should be able to happy about.  Of course good news doesn’t draw as many readers as doom and gloom so its easy to miss some of these developments if you’re just clicking through a news website or taking in a bit of CNN, so I’ve highlighted a couple of the recent positive developments after the jump.

Key Senator, White House Strike Deal With Drug Industry for Health Coverage

First up is an article from several weeks ago.  And I apologize for using partisan news sources but I’ve got one from each side of the aisle so I guess it balances out.  Basically, Senator Max Baucus was able to negotiate a deal with the Pharmaceutical industry whereby they will eat some of the cost of drug coverage for seniors on medicare who make less than 80-85,000 per year.  They’re expecting to subsidize about 80 billion dollars worth of care over the course of the next ten years.  Not too shabby.

Biden, Hospital Leaders Announce Pact To Help Cover Uninsured

Next up is an article from today.  Joe Biden announced that the nation’s hospitals had agreed to comp 155 billion dollars worth of medicare and medicaid care over the course of the next ten years.  Nice.

These developments, along with the pledge from leaders of the healthcare industry a few months back (Titans of Healthcare Pledge to Reduce Healthcare Costs) are good news for members of congress as they attempt to draft legislation that is “budget neutral”, they’re good news for the country since healthcare costs are the primary drivers of our dismal deficit projections, and its good news for average Americans, who for some time now have been dealing with healthcare costs that are rising at more than three times the rate of their wages.

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