Content about Barack Obama

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Food Safety Modernization Act by a vote of 215-144 to wide industry aplomb.

The bill now only needs President Barack Obama’s signature to become law.

If signed into law, the food safety bill will require biennial registration of all food manufacturing facilities, will provide the Food and Drug Administration with new authority to mandate food recalls and will require companies to develop food safety plans.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT For more than a decade, retail pharmacy advocates have worked to convince every stakeholder in the U.S. healthcare system -- physicians, payers, policy-makers and patients themselves -- that community pharmacists have a lot more to offer the nation’s massive health-and-wellness network than simple medication dispensing and basic counseling. As the health-reform debate reached a crescendo last year, those arguments on behalf of pharmacy’s value found their way into congressional hearings and onto the pages of many newspapers.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Was the massive effort by the White House and congressional Democrats to overhaul the nation’s expensive and confusing healthcare system nothing more than a wasted, year-long effort?

(THE NEWS: NCPA responds to President Obama's State of the Union Address. For the full story, click here)

“We’re already paying for it—it’s just hidden in your premiums.”

That’s what President Barack Obama told attendees of a town hall meeting last month in Green Bay, Wis., one of the stops on his traveling road show to sell his vision for healthcare reform to America.