A large part of the health care debate is about the numbers. How much will health care legislation cost the federal government? Will you be paying more or less? To help figure out what health care would cost for both the average citizen and the U.S. government, The Takeaway talks to David Herzenhorn, congressional reporter for The New York Times.

President Obama hoped to have his health care reform plan passed before Congress goes on recess in August, but now that seems unlikely. Over the weekend, the Congressional Budget Office reported that they saw no way that health care spending would decrease, forcing the president to spend the rest of the weekend defending the plan. Joining The Takeway is Trudy Lieberman, Director of the Health and Medicine Reporting Program at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.

President Obama is aggressively selling his health care plan to both the American people and the U.S. Congress. On Tuesday the House unveiled its health care reform bill and yesterday the Senate got its plan through committee—by a slim margin. Both plans guarantee insurance for most Americans. But they raise taxes on high-income people while providing subsidies to Americans at moderate-to low income levels. Both plans also penalize employers who do not provide health benefits to workers. For a look at how the president is selling the plan, The Takeaway talks to Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and the president of Lake Research.

Here is one way the plan is being sold—Heartfelt advertising:

While The White House and Congress continue to hash out a plan to reform health care across the country, the people in Miami-Dade County are taking matters into their own hands. County officials and Blue Cross Blue Shield are teaming up to develop a plan for the uninsured. If it's successful, this public-private partnership could be a model for the nation. Joining The Takeaway to discuss this plan is Josh Johnson, reporter and anchor for WLRN, Miami Herald News, who attended the first day of health care sign-ups last night.

As part of our ongoing health care coverage we’ve been talking to medical leaders and thinkers who are working within the system, or hoping to change it. But on the other side of the equation is the consumer. We're joined by Precious Lowe for her thoughts on how she would like to see President Obama and Congress reform health care. Even though she is fully employed, health insurance is something she has to pay for out of pocket.

With all the contentious debate over health care right now, Republicans and Democrats agree on one thing: they want to encourage disease prevention. This stems from the idea that by investing some money up front, you can keep medical costs lower, saving money (and improving quality of life) down the road. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) authored a portion of a health bill focused on prevention and wellness and he sat down with The Takeaway's Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich to discuss his take on health care reform.

Then we turn to Louise Russell. Ms. Russell is a research professor at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her research challenges the idea that preventive medicine lowers the cost of medical care. The money we are investing in prevention may be doing little to improve the nation’s overall health.

Yesterday the Congressional Budget Office passed judgment on one of the key bills overhauling the health insurance system. Here with a look at who might get insurance, who won't and what it'll cost is Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington Correspondent.

President Obama put healthcare front and center yesterday in a talk to doctors. Last year, the U.S. spent $2.4 trillion on healthcare. Some doctors are trying to shrink costs while boosting the quality of care in a method called "micropractices." Joining The Takeaway to talk about this trend is John Wasson. He is a geriatrician and a Professor of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. Also joining the discussion is Dr. Moitri Savard, a Family Physician who runs a micropractice in Queens, New York.

With the healthcare reform debate heating up on Capitol Hill, many politicians and doctors are jumping in to have their say. But what if you're both a doctor and a representative? Joining The Takeaway to discuss his vision for better health care is Congressman Steven Kagen, a Democrat representing Wisconsin and a former practicing physician. In an effort to underscore how broken the U.S. health care system is, Kagen has refused to be insured until there is affordable health care for all.

Today, President Obama goes to Chicago to address the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, and to hear doctors' views about about healthcare reform. Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington Correspondent, takes a look at what the president is likely to hear.

Today President Obama is in Chicago to pitch his healthcare reform agenda to the American Medical Association. But the AMA represents only one-fourth of all physicians. Joining The Takeaway to explain the relationship Obama is hoping to forge with the medical community is Dr. Steffie Woolhandler. She talks about the different constituencies of doctors and how Obama is including or leaving out the voices of those outside the AMA.

Dr. Woolhander is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard and Co-Director of the Harvard Medical School General Internal Medicine Fellowship program. She is also a co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program.

In last week's public address, President Obama addressed the need for healthcare reform. Watch that video below.

In 22 cities around the country, Shriners' Hospitals for Children provide top-of-the-line care to anyone under the age of 18 for absolutely free—they accept no government funding or insurance payments. But the organization's endowment has been devastated by the economic crisis, and the membership is voting in early July on a proposal to close six hospitals. Parents of patients at the threatened hospitals are signing petitions and holding fundraisers to try and save the hospitals. Bob Houden, spokesperson for the Shriners Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, which could be closed, and Laura Marinucci, the parent of a Shriners patient who founded Save our Shriners, join The Takeaway to talk about this potential latest casualty of the recession.

In the U.S. 8,000 African American babies die in their first year of life. Wisconsin tops that list with the highest infant mortality rate for African Americans, particularly in Racine County. State groups are stepping in to try to change that tragic statistic. Joining The Takeaway are Dr. Philip Farrell, Pediatrician and Former Dean of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Dr. Tina Mason, OB/GYN and Program Director at Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee.

The 1980s were an era of heavy rock and hard drugs. The drug of choice? Cocaine. At the time, public health experts predicted a coming generation of "crack babies" — a wave of children who were mentally and physically disabled after having been exposed to crack in the womb. But scientists are finding that despite the rampant drug use, the predicted generation of children never appeared. We are joined by Susan Okie, a New York Times reporter, who has been reporting on this story.

Read Susan Okie's article, The Epidemic That Wasn't in today's New York Times.