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WASHINGTON – It’s an annual ordeal for many seniors living on a budget.

Medicare’s coverage gap for prescription drugs — $3,610 next year — has steadily gotten bigger since the benefit’s inception. But if Democrats have their way on health care overhaul, the dreaded “doughnut hole” will shrink by $500 right away and go away altogether by 2019.

With the elderly worried that Medicare cuts in the health care bill will put the quality of their own care in jeopardy, Democrats belatedly are scrambling to convince them otherwise. Lawmakers are eager to make amends with a pivotal political constituency ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

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WASHINGTON – A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurance companies place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer.

Adding to the confusion, the language is tucked away in a clause of the bill captioned “No lifetime or annual limits.” Advocates for patients say it fails to deliver on that promise.

“The primary purpose of insurance is to protect people against catastrophic loss,” said Stephen Finan, a policy expert with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “If you put a limit on benefits, by definition it’s going to affect people who are dealing with catastrophic loss.”

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While 13 states permit the limited sale of marijuana for medical use, and polls show a steady increase in the number of Americans who favor legalization, federal law still bans the cultivation, sale or possession of marijuana. In fact, the feds still classify marijuana as a Schedule I drug, one that has no “currently accepted medical use” in the U.S. (Watch a video on medical-marijuana home delivery.)

But supporters of legalization may have been handed their most convincing factor yet: the bummer economy. Advocates say that if state or local governments could collect a tax on even a fraction of pot sales, it would help rescue cash-strapped communities.

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WASHINGTON – The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama’s health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations involving key lawmakers and the White House.

“This new coverage means affordable prices on prescription drugs when Medicare benefits don’t cover the cost of prescriptions,” Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement announcing the accord.

The deal marked a major triumph for Baucus as well as the administration. Obama praised the deal.

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WASHINGTON – Look out Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare. Senators are meeting behind closed doors to consider whether the federal government should jump into the health insurance business.

The government already covers medical care for seniors, disabled people, poor families and many children. But coverage in those programs is restricted to people who meet certain qualifications, including age and income.

The issue now is whether middle-class workers and their families should be offered the choice of joining a government-sponsored plan similar to what they get through their employers.

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WASHINGTON – A health care system overhaul, weak finances in Medicare, lapses in food safety. Those challenges and more await Kathleen Sebelius as President Barack Obama’s health secretary.

Gaining confirmation from the Senate would be the Kansas governor’s first hurdle. She has clashed with abortion opponents in the state, and they may try to carry the fight to Washington.