House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the new reconciliation package she wants the full House of Representatives to pass in a few days includes greater insurance reforms and warned that insurance companies will be “poisoning the well” with “misrepresentations” and “misinterpretations” designed to kill the bill.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is urging Democrats in Washington, D.C., to reconsider the use of the “deem and pass” rule to approve health care reform and is threatening a state suit against any such comprehensive bill.

Noting that Washington, D.C., is “working out their scheme” to pass a health reform bill, the governor of Idaho has signed into law a bill blocking any individual mandate to secure health insurance and give the state the right to sue to protect that freedom.

On the heels of releasing the first of four reports on Pennsylvania’s four Blue Cross Blue Shield plans and possible anti-competitive practices, state regulators face a suit by Highmark for what it calls an “unlawful and unauthorized” examination.

A day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is considering a maneuver to bypass an actual vote to approve comprehensive health care reform, Republicans came out firing.

With the U.S. House Budget Committee forwarding a reconciliation health care reform bill to the entire congressional chamber, one Obama Administration official says a final up-or-down vote is “only days away.”

While the Obama Administration is confident that the coming week will produce the first step in a march to victory on health care reform, at least one Republican is saying the way Democrats are fighting for change is “a political kamikaze mission.”

After a call from President Barack Obama to move health reform forward, Democratic leaders are adding fuel to the fire, saying that order can only be fulfilled through budget reconciliation.

While 34 other states have considered or partially passed legislation to ban any federal mandate to secure health insurance coverage, the Virginia General Assembly has passed a bill that is expected to get the signature of the state’s governor.

As part of a larger unemployment insurance benefits bill, the U.S. Senate approved an extension of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) through Dec. 31.