CHROMOSOME TAX: North Carolina is one of nearly 40 states that still allow health insurance companies to consistently charge women more than men for the same coverage. The practice, known as gender differentiation, could be banned under nearly all of the health overhaul bills now being considered in Congress. (N&O)

TAXING DECISION: Lawmakers next month start a series of meetings on changing how North Carolina taxes. While there is broad agreement among legislators that the state's tax system needs an overhaul, it is less clear how quickly any such rewrite could happen and whether it could earn bipartisan support. (News & Record)

HIRE EDUCATION: North Carolina's public universities have filled hundreds of jobs in recent years without a formal search and without advertising the openings. (Citizen-Times)

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, is warning that Democrats will try to sneak health care reform through Congress.

It's the political equivalent of slipping a 747 through a toll booth, but Foxx told 1240 3WC, "Hometown Christian Radio," in Wilkesboro that she thinks Democrats will put health care reform inside another piece of legislation that lawmakers would find difficult to oppose.

"They'll put a bad thing with a good thing," Foxx said, "and I've talked about this before. Sometimes you get bills that are 50 percent good and 50 percent bad. So you have to decide is it better to vote yes and say, 'I voted for the good even though the bad came along,' or do you vote no and say, 'I couldn't vote for the good because there was so much bad?'"

Hear the full audio clip at this link.

Several local ministers will hold a service outside the Raleigh office of Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan Tuesday at noon to urge her to support proposals before Congress to overhaul the nation's health care system.

"Whenever people are suffering and dying due to lack-of or denial-of insurance, people of faith must speak out," said the Rev. Tom Rhodes of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Raleigh. "The religious community must do its part to make sure that Senator Hagan and other elected officials understand that health reform is an urgent moral imperative."

The service will include the presentation of hands signed by congregants, Rob Christensen reports. Several ministers, including the Rev. Nancy Petty of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church and the Rev. Denise Long of Umstead Park United Church of Christ are expected to participate. A spokeswoman said 25 or more people were expected.

Hagan, a moderate, has been the subject of extensive lobbying by both sides of the issue. Although she has voiced support for Democratic-backed health care legislation she has also been keeping her options open as to what sort of legislation she might support.

The health-care debate attracts such intense interest that more than 250 people were turned away Wednesday night from a forum held on the Central Carolina Community College campus in Lillington.

Part of a series of town hall meetings sponsored by the State Employees Association of North Carolina to build public support for President Barrack Obama's proposal to change health care in America, Wednesday's meeting overflowed its location after U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat, announced he would be participating, Rob Christensen reports.

Those who made it inside seemed roughly equally divided on the issue. There were some scattered laughs and hoots, but the meeting was far more sedate than the contentious forum held Tuesday night in Rocky Mount by U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield.

The Lillington crowd's concerns generally involved whether the nation could afford a major health care program when it already is in debt, how Obama's proposal would affect small businesses, and why the proposal was so complex that it was difficult for a nonprofessional to understand. (N&O)

Supporters of proposed health care changes have begun running TV ads in the district of Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge.

The Main Street Alliance, a coalition of small busienss groups, and the National Education Association, began running an ad thanking Etheridge for his support for health care legislation, Rob Christensen reports. 

“Our employees are like family,” said small business owner Dan Sherry in the 30-second ad, “ but right now we can’t afford to provide them with health insurance.”

Sherry, who owns Kennedy’s Creative Awards, a family engraving business in Waukegan, Ill., has been uninsured for three years. He has been unable to get new insurance because of a pre-existing condition, high cholesterol.

A similar ad is being run in the districts of Reps. Leonard Boswell of Iowa, Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire, Harry Teague of New Mexico, Charlie Wilson of Ohio, Tom Perriello of Virginia and Mark Schauer of Michigan. The ads are scheduled to run through August 18th.

Congressman Bob Etheridge will be joining the State Employees Association of North Carolina town hall meeting on health care tonight in Lillington.

Things could get a little lively because some organizations opposed to President Barack Obama’s proposed changes in health care are urging their members to attend the town hall meeting at Central Carolina Community College Multipurpose Building, Rob Christensen reports.

Congressman David Price is scheduled to attend a SEANC town hall meeting on Thursday in Durham at N.C. Central University’s Miller Morgan Building. SEANC is holding a series of town hall meetings across the state designed to build public support for the president’s proposals.

Update: The location for tonight's meeting with Price has been changed to B.N Duke Auditorium, 1801 Fayetteville St., Durham.

The White House is encouraging North Carolinians to read a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on how the administration's health care reform would benefit the state.

The online report is part of a White House effort to promote the reform proposals. Yesterday the White House debuted a new web site dedicated to "debunking the misinformation and baseless smears" about the administration's proposals, as the press office described it.

The White House yesterday also issued a fact sheet on the current health care system.

With the critics of President Barack Obama’s health care proposals having finished their bus tour, supporters of the president’s plan will begin theirs.

Beginning tonight in Greenville, the State Employees Association of North Carolina will host a series of town meetings on health insurance reform across the state, Rob Christensen reports.

“State employees are concerned about health care,” SEANC executive director Dana Cope in a statement. “Many of them can’t afford to cover their spouses or children on the State Health Plan, adding to the growing number of uninsured North Carolinians.”

The tour by SEANC comes after the “Hands Off My Health Care” bus tour ended Saturday in Raleigh with a rally of 1,000 people. It was sponsored by the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group.

More after the jump.

   Comments (1)

For 15 years, pharmacists at a Durham nonprofit have helped older, low-income people take the right prescription drugs, in the right amounts at the right times.

But the job of Senior PharmAssist doesn't end there. The agency also works to keep clients from taking prescription drugs in ways that can actually harm or kill them -- through bad interactions with other drugs, food or medical conditions.

Sounds pretty basic, but such precautions on a national scale could save more than $20 billion annually in unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency care, according to one estimate. That's the reason some advocates and health professionals say national health-care reform should include approaches like that of Senior PharmAssist, which coordinates clients' care with doctors and social workers. (N&O)

A woman who described herself as an average American, now unemployed but a former employee for a large company, said most Americans may want health reform but they're scared of change.

She asked President Barack Obama: What would be the cost impact to the average American who needs health care?

The president responded by saying he couldn't guarantee that average Americans' health insurance premiums would automatically be cut in half. "What I can guarantee is that your costs will be lower than if we don't have health reform...I think we can start bending the curve on our costs."

Obama said reform would give people more security in their health insurance if they lose a job or change jobs. And, he added, small businesses would be in a better position to provide coverage to their employees.

"Bottom line is your costs almost certainly will not go up, and they very well could go down, depending on what kind of insurance you have now," he said.

Paying for health care reform, and covering more Americans, will cost money, he conceded.

He said his idea is to reduce itemized deductions for people earning more than $250,000. But there are other ideas on the table. "The one thing I've said is, we're not going to have middle class folks bear that burden. They can't afford it right now."