When makers of heart defibrillators wanted Medicare to vastly expand the types of patients eligible to receive the devices, which can cost upward of $25,000, agency officials were skeptical. It was not clear how many of those patients would actually need a defibrillator, a device that can deliver a life-saving shock to restore a faltering heart to normal rhythm.

Urged on by President Barack Obama, Democratic leaders in the U.S. House hustled Thursday to round up support for a sweeping health care overhaul headed to a close floor vote Saturday.

New York City health officials scrambled to explain themselves Thursday following outraged media reports about bankers who got scarce H1N1 flu vaccines through their employers

In a coup for House Democrats, AARP will endorse sweeping health care overhaul legislation headed for a history-making floor vote, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

House Democrats cleared the way Wednesday for a pivotal floor vote on health care overhaul as early as the weekend, after tweaking their 1,900-page bill to crack down harder on insurance companies.

The health care overhaul bill produced by House Democrats would impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates on major players in the health industry, including insurers, doctors and drugs and medical devices makers.

After months of struggle, House Democrats unveiled sweeping legislation Thursday to extend health care coverage to millions who lack it and create a new option of government-run insurance

Time growing short, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate still face key decisions if they are to achieve President Barack Obama's goal of passing legislation to remake the nation's health care system by year's end.

Swiss drug giant Novartis says it has redeployed 300 workers from other divisions into its vaccines unit to meet what Chairman and CEO Dr. Daniel Vasella calls the "huge demand" for H1N1 shots.

Despite promises by President Barack Obama, more than 70 million Americans who have health insurance through their jobs could be open to higher costs or denials of some coverage under a leading overhaul plan making its way through Congress.

A House committee has voted to strip the health insurance industry of its exemption from federal antitrust laws as senators announced plans to take the same step.

The largest US health insurer said results at its government and services businesses were strong in the third quarter, and its profit rose 13 percent to top Wall Street estimates.

The White House and lawmakers are trying to blend five House and Senate committee versions of health care legislation into a bill that will pass both houses, where near unanimous Republic opposition was expected.

Much work would lie ahead before a bill could arrive on Obama's desk, but action by the Finance Committee would mark a significant advances, capping numerous delays.

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee are cheering the latest estimates on its health care bill, yet Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa told CNBC that such legislation would impose tax hikes on premium payers.