January 16, 2005

New Gingrich, former House speaker, has become broker of ideas and influence in field of health care policy, particularly conservative notion of applying principles of 'ownership society' to medicine through health savings accounts and consumer-directed health care; idea is to give individuals tax breaks to assume responsibility for paying more of their own medical costs and to rely less on government and insurers; believes market forces will bring more options, lower prices and higher quality to health care; another focus of his, one on which he often works with liberals, is to increase investment in health information technology in order to reduce medical errors and improve efficiency; photos (L)

College basketball results summarized (S)

Roger Cohen article contends that war against terrorism will remain central focus during Pres Bush's second term; maintains that how Bush conducts it, and especially outcome in Iraq, will probably prove to be pivotal to his legacy; holds that to concentrate on Islamic terrorism to exclusion of all else would probably hurt Bush in rest of world; asserts that countries look to US for virtually everything, but they resent fact that they are obliged to do so; drawing; photo (M)

Lisa Belkin column on professional women who continue to show up for work, even while ailing or injured; cites Gov M Jodi Rell of Connecticut, who addressed opening session of State Legislature even though she was still recovering from mastectomy she had for breast cancer nine days before; suggests there is thin line between mettle and martyrdom; drawing (M) (Life's Work column)

Pres Bush drafts employees of Social Security Administration to publicize problems of Social Security and convince public that private accounts are needed as part of solution; some employees object, questioning accuracy of recent statements and saying money from Social Security trust fund should not be used for advocacy (M)