Republicans are seizing on this week's recommendations for fewer Pap smears and mammograms to fuel concern about government-rationed medical care — and to try to chip away support by women for President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul.

A crucial first Senate vote on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in a rare Saturday night session looms as a test of Democratic unity and the president's prestige.

If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has his way, his chamber will vote Saturday to proceed with debate on its version of the health care bill.

President Barack Obama's health reform faces a landmark first test in the US Senate Saturday as Democratic leaders strive to lock down support for a vote that would allow them to launch a formal floor debate on the proposal.

Suitably opaque, Section 2006 takes up only a few dozen lines in a sweeping health care bill that runs to 2,074 pages and mentions neither Sen. Mary Landrieu nor her state of Louisiana.

As a health reform bill endorsed by President Obama marches toward its first Senate floor vote on Saturday, his opponents stepped up efforts to define the legislation as big-government ambition run amok that will interfere with intimate medical decisions and threaten the pocketbooks of average...

Traditional Senate decorum yielded to brass-knuckle politicking Friday in the health care debate as top Democrats sought to close party ranks before a key procedural vote this weekend.

Democrats in the US Senate strove to lock down support to prevail in a landmark first test vote of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, remaking the US health care system.

President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate strove to lock down support to prevail in a landmark first test vote on his top domestic priority, remaking the US health care system.

Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of three wavering Democrats, said Friday that he would vote to start debate on a giant health care bill.