Cost of Premiums Under Health Care Reform

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Healthy Choice

President Obama spoke in Ohio Monday about insurance premiums under his health care plan.

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OBAMA: Your employer, it's estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent, which means they could give you a raise.

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Rhonda Keith for the Cincinnati Independent Examiner writes: "Do the math: 100 percent of anything is all of it. If you pay 100 percent less, you don't pay anything at all. Ever go to a 100 percent-off sale? Probably not."

Tough Times

The cancer-stricken woman who has become a centerpiece of President Obama's health care reform push will not lose her home because of mounting medical bills and could qualify for financial aid.

Lyman Sornberger, a top official at the Cleveland Clinic tells Fox News that Natoma Canfield, "may be eligible for state Medicaid ... and/or she will be eligible for charity (care) of some form." The official went on to say even if Canfield does not qualify for either of those, there are other options for her, and that regardless the clinic will not put a lien on her home.

Meanwhile, Republicans say the President's health care plan wouldn't actually help Canfield until 2014.

Open and Shut Case

On a day the Obama administration is patting itself on the back for transparency, a new analysis says the White House is keeping many more secrets than the last administration.

President Obama today recommitted his team to be the most open and transparent ever. But the Associated press writes that major federal agencies have used legal exemptions to deny almost 50 percent more freedom of information requests in the president's first budget year than the Bush administration did in its final budget year.

AP writes: "The prolific use of exemptions is one measure of how far the federal government has yet to go to carry out Obama's promise of openness."

Full-Court Press

And finally, March Madness has spread to the U.S. Senate race in Kentucky. Republican Trey Grayson is airing an ad emphasizing he is a University of Kentucky graduate, while primary opponent Rand Paul went to and roots for — gasp — Duke.

On the Democratic side of the court, Duke grad and Attorney General Jack Conway is refusing a NCAA tournament wager offer from UK graduate and Lieutenant Governor Daniel Mongiardo, calling it part of a lowbrow political attack.

— Fox News Channel's Lanna Britt contributed to this report.