Colorado can afford to add about 67,500 people to Medicaid and other government insurance next week, thanks to a new state law that requires hospitals to chip in toward the landmark initiative.

Hospitals made their initial payments — and in return, received more state and federal cash to take care of needy patients — this month. The amount each hospital paid was worked out through a complicated formula that left some hospitals in the hole and others millions of dollars ahead of where they were before the new law. ...

... The point of the Health Care Affordability Act, considered Gov. Bill Ritter’s most significant health care reform, is to create a pot of money through hospital fees that would draw matching federal money. The state is using the additional money — expected to reach $1.2 billion annually — to provide more Coloradans with health insurance, as well as pay back hospitals for treating patients who are either uninsured or on Medicaid.

In basic terms, the hospitals that treat the highest number of needy patients will benefit most from the 2009 law.

Denver Health Medical Center, for example, will pay $12.3 million in fees this year but come out $16.5 million ahead after collecting $28.8 million from the state pot and matching federal money, according to state data. The hospital, near downtown Denver, recorded more than 47,000 “Medicaid days” in 2007, a tally of Medicaid patients who stay 24 hours.

Madagascar’s strongman leader, Andry Rajoelina, said Wednesday he is willing to share his government with rival leaders as fresh talks began aimed at ending the country’s political crisis.

Leaders of Madagascar’s rival political factions met Wednesday in a new bid to forge a deal on a unity government to lead the island nation out of the crisis sparked when Rajoelina overthrew former President Marc Ravalomanana in March 2009.

The talks in the South African capital are the latest in a series of meetings between the Ravalomanana and Rajoelina factions and former presidents Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy.

“I am ready to form a government with the other political forces, including the former president and even the other presidents, to head toward elections,” Rajoelina told AFP.

But the former mayor of Madagascar’s capital said he wants to keep his current prime minister until fresh elections can be held.

Prior to final passage of the health care reform bill on Sunday, March 21, the Office of the Actuary had provided senior leaders inside HHS with data that indicated the then-bill would increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on Americans. And that data was not provided to anyone publicly until after the legislation was passed.

Harley-Davidson is worried that its dealer-financed loans to bikers will fall victim to new federal financing regulations. And eBay is concerned about possible restrictions on PayPal, a subsidiary, in moving money in the Internet marketplace.

Far afield from Wall Street, the intense debate over the overhaul of financial regulations by Congress is attracting some unlikely but powerful players. More than 130 companies from the manufacturing, retail and service sectors have retained high-powered lobbyists to weigh in on, and often oppose, the regulatory system being debated this week in Washington, according to an analysis of lobbying records by The New York Times.

Voters split over president’s handling of the economy.

Nearly six in 10 said they’ll instead look for someone new come the fall elections.

Salazar will announce whether the wind farm project off the coast of Cape Cod will see the light of day—or be gone with the wind. His decision will affect thousands of residents, local businesses and tourists who flock to the seashore paradise each summer—and likely determine the fate of other such offshore wind farms in states from New York to Michigan.

The Interpol urged Islamabad to hand over the US detainees who are currently under trial in an anti terror court in Pakistan’s eastern city of Sargodha, a government official told Press TV on the condition of anonymity late Tuesday.

“The Interior Ministry has received the arrest warrants of five American nationals….and a summary has been sent to the Interior Minister Rehman Malik for further processes,” the official said.

The South African government announced Tuesday that President Jacob Zuma would facilitate “a face-to-face meeting” in Pretoria on Wednesday between Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, the president whom he ejected from power a year ago, as well as former presidents Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy.