This weekly installment of "Healthcare Highlights" is brought to you by Morningstar Healthcare Observer. Download your copy of March’s edition, "Orphan Drugs: From Biotech Niche to Pharma Focus," here: http://healthcare.morningstar.com/Newsletter.aspx.

Democrats step up rhetoric against the insurance industry. It was a slow week for health reform news, with final legislative language on the combined House-Senate bill apparently still being negotiated. Led by the White House, Democrats spent the week intensifying their anti-insurance-industry rhetoric. In a new series of ads, the Democrats berated possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for saying on multiple occasions that the insurance industry is not the reason healthcare costs are so high in the U.S. Ironically, when Romney was governor of Massachusetts he signed the state's health reform initiative into law, which was a model for the federal reform currently being debated. While attacking the insurance industry appears to be a potent political tool, we are skeptical that anyone in the Administration seriously believes premium increases are not caused by the underlying rate of health-care spending growth. We also note that complaints about insurance premium increases are inconsistent with the Democrats' insistence that it is wrong for insurance companies to intervene in medical decisions.

Massa resigns in House, Byrd endorses reconciliation in Senate. The Democrats experienced two favorable developments in the Congressional "basic math" category this week. Democratic Representative Eric Massa resigned from his seat on Monday. Massa voted against the health reform bill last time around, and by leaving another House seat vacant, he will reduce the total number of votes the Democrats need to pass the bill by one, to 216. In the Senate, the Democrats got the endorsement of Senator Byrd (D- W. Va.) to use reconciliation to pass a series of changes to the Senate bill. Byrd had a significant hand in establishing the reconciliation rules, and his opposition to the use of reconciliation during Bill Clinton's 1993 health reform effort was one of the factors that killed that bill. While Byrd stated that reconciliation would not be appropriate for the entire Senate bill, he believes that it could be used to make some budget-related changes to the bill to appease House members. Under reconciliation, the Democrats need just 50 votes to pass the bill in the Senate (a tie would be broken by Vice President Biden).

This weekly installment of "Healthcare Highlights" is brought to you by Morningstar Healthcare Observer. Download your copy of March’s edition, "Orphan Drugs: From Biotech Niche to Pharma Focus," here: http://healthcare.morningstar.com/Newsletter.aspx.