| Hard choices on 4 big issues stymie health push |
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--(www.FinancialNewsUSA.com)-- 07/01/2009 - Taxes industry news provided by Financial News USA. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Four divisive issues could dash President Barack Obama's hopes of overhauling health care: cost, creating a government-run plan, taxing workers' benefits and penalizing employers that don't offer coverage. These are potential deal-breakers as Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress work to revamp the system to cover the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans and try to check rising medical costs. Even if lawmakers come back from their July Fourth recess charged up to tackle health care, these issues are going to keep simmering for months. A big blowup over any single one could threaten the entire legislation. Covering nearly 50 million Americans won't come cheap. The government would have to subsidize premiums even for some middle-class families. Baucus says he's pared down the cost of his bill to under $1 trillion over 10 years, but across the Capitol, House Democrats aren't yet revealing the price tag for their legislation. There's a reason. [Read the full article] PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona's budget battle is going down to the wire, with an intraparty struggle between the Republican governor and the GOP-led Legislature creating the possibility of a state government shutdown starting Wednesday. Lawmakers struggling to end their annual session were debating what mix of spending cuts and other measures, such as Gov. Jan Brewer's proposal for a sale-tax increase, they should use to close the $3.2 billion shortfall in a state budget that would normally range up to $10 billion. Like many states grappling with budget shortfalls amid the recession, a collapsed housing market and rising unemployment, Arizona has no mechanism in place to cope with the lack of a budget when the new fiscal year starts. It hasn't happened before. More than 20 states have provisions that direct government to shut down without a budget, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. [Read the full article] NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Geron Corp. jumped Tuesday after the biotechnology company said it will collaborate with General Electric Co.'s health unit to make stem cell-based drug discovery tests and products. Geron's stock rose $1.20, or 17.9 percent, to $7.89 in midday trading. Shares have traded between $1.95 and $8.50 over the past 52 weeks. Under the deal, Geron granted GE Healthcare an exclusive license on a portfolio covering the growth and differentiation of human embryonic stem cells. The program will use stem cells as part of the drug development process, which could help detect toxicity problems earlier and better focus potential treatments, the company said. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Geron has been developing stem cell-based therapies for about a decade. In January, it became the first company to receive Food and Drug Administration approval to conduct early stage clinical trials on its stem-cell based therapy, aimed at treating severe spinal cord injuries. [Read the full article] BOSTON (AP) -- Shares of H&R Block Inc. rose Tuesday after the tax preparer's quarterly earnings beat Wall Street expectations, driven largely by cost-cutting. The stock rose $1.33, or 8.5 percent, to $17 in midday trading, its highest level since early April, when shrinking tax return volumes weighed on the stock and sent shares briefly below $14 by mid-May. After markets closed Monday, Kansas City, Mo.-based H&R Block reported a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $706.9 million, or $2.09 per share, for the three months ended April 30. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast a profit of $2.05 per share, on average. Fox-Pitt Kelton analyst Bill Carcache said in a research note that H&R Block managed to beat expectations largely by cutting operating expenses more than expected. H&R Block last month said it was restructuring some of its operations to lower costs and improve responsiveness. [Read the full article] About Financial News USA Financial News USA is a Next Generation Financial Communications firm focused on the distribution of market moving news. Financial News USA has developed leading edge e-publishing tools including programming proprietary RSS feeds and enabling open source press release publishing across its network. Financial News USA has been aggressively expanding its news distribution network by targeting direct feeds to financial news and data providers such as FinancialContent, Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), among others. Financial News USA offers a free news feed available online (www.financialnewsusa.com) to websites and financial services looking for content and for individual investors looking to stay informed on the financial markets. Financial News USA and its affiliates charge each client cash for news distribution and may take an equity position in the companies mentioned herein, please visit the disclaimer at www.financialnewsusa.com. 
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