Health Care News Jan. 17 - 21

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News
FRIDAY
Repeal 'onerous' IRS rule: Lawmakers
Now that House Republicans have had their token show-vote on the health care law, Congress is turning its attention to one small provision that everyone agrees should be repealed.
HHS Announces Grants for Insurance Exchanges
Despite repeal of the health care overhaul passing the House earlier this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is pushing forward with making grants available to states to get health insurance exchanges up and running.
House Republicans Plan Their Own Health Bills
Less than 24 hours after voting to repeal the new health care law, House Republicans said Thursday that they would pass discrete bills to achieve some of the same goals, but with more restraint in the use of federal power.
Democrats Keep Pushing Overhaul's Benefits
Senate Democrats and the Obama administration continued touting early benefits rolled out under the health care law today, two days after the Republican-led House voted to repeal the statute.

THURSDAY
GOP Has Tools to Force Senate Vote on Repeal
While the health care repeal that the House passed Wednesday has little chance of passage in the Senate, Republicans will probably succeed in eventually forcing a vote on the measure -- albeit with at least a 60-vote threshold.

WEDNESDAY
Taxpayer Calculator: Health Care Repeal
In order to expand coverage, the bill expands eligibility for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Slightly more than half of the individuals to be insured (16 million) will come from this group. The CBO estimates that it will cost $434 billion over ten years to cover the new enrollees. What's your share?
House set to vote on health care repeal
The House of Representatives plans to vote Wednesday on whether to repeal President Barack Obama's controversial health care overhaul, a priority for the House's new Republican majority.
Small Business Group Urges Repeal on Health-Care Overhaul
SBE Council delivered a Key Vote letter to every member of the U.S. House, which urges a vote in favor of H.R. 2.  Following the vote on H.R. 2, which is expected to pass, SBE Council will then begin working with Republicans and Democrats on an alternative reform framework that will bring more choice, affordability and innovation to our nation's health care system.
Republicans Already Moving Past Health Repeal
Even before today's vote on repealing the health care reform law, House Republicans were moving on.
The Health Care Numbers Fight that Won't Die
House Republicans insist their math is better than official budget estimates.

TUESDAY
UK Government Plans Major Health Care Reform
British government plans major health care overhaul, but critics say changes could cause chaos.
With House set to debate healthcare, government finds up to half of Americans under 65 have preexisting conditions
As many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have medical problems that are red flags for health insurers, according to an analysis that marks the government's first attempt to quantify the number of people at risk of being rejected by insurance companies or paying more for coverage.
Democrats rip GOP health care repeal push
Top Democrats tore into the Republican effort to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul Tuesday, warning that such a move would be catastrophic to small businesses and unfair to millions of Americans depending on the reform to guarantee coverage.
Repeal vote is just Republicans' first step on health care
The real work begins immediately afterward, with Republicans using every legislative and political tool at their disposal to wage a two-year campaign against the overhaul. And there won’t be anything subtle about this slow-drip strategy as Republicans aim to erode public confidence in the law and, they hope, make it so politically unpalatable that even some Democrats turn against it.

Economist Comments
FRIDAY
The Republic Has Spoken on Health Care
"The real story is that a majority of states now want out. Twenty six out of 50 states have joined the lawsuit to repeal the linchpin that holds ObamaCare together: the insurance mandate. And when the majority of states in a republic want something changed, chances are it will be changed.

THURSDAY
The Repeal Vote
An historic repudiation of an entitlement that is only 10 months old.
NHS reform a necessity, says Lansley
A wholesale restructuring of the National Health Service is “a necessity, not an option”, Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, said on Wednesday as he published the biggest bill in the 62-year history of the NHS.
The GOP's Health-Care Offensive Has Just Begun
The longer this issue is around, the worse it's likely to be for Democrats.
Getting the Right Kind of Health Reform
It's time supporters of this law stop playing with smoke and mirrors. They need to accept the fact Americans don't won’t this massive law anymore --and maybe after that happens--we might actually get health-care reform.

WEDNESDAY
The Coming Doctor Shortage
We can't insure 32 million more people and cut funding to train doctors by $60 billion.
Doctor Is Already Feeling the Fateful Effects of Obamacare
Dr. Martha Boone is no ordinary urologist. For more than a year she has led a grassroots campaign against Obamacare — and for good reason. Boone’s livelihood depends on it.

TUESDAY
Sebelius Says Repeal Fiscally Irresponsible
The nation’s top health official said today that a GOP-led effort to repeal the new health care law runs counter to a pledge of fiscal responsibility and has reinvigorated proponents of health care reform
Defund 'Obamacare': The next step
This legislation would validate the strategy for repeal that I have been advancing since the day the law was signed. It will also set the stage for the next component of my repeal strategy: the inclusion of language in every appropriations bill to prevent federal funds from being used to implement or enforce any of Obamacare's provisions.

Blogs
FRIDAY
Government Health Care in 1798
1798: Congress passes the Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen. It provides health services to members of the merchant marine and funds a loose network of hospitals through the Marine Hospital Fund. The MHF is plagued by cost overruns, administrative mismanagement, and rationing of care. Some leaders oppose the new federal subsidies as an abuse of state sovereignty.
Where Are the Sick People Who Can’t Get Insurance?
A report recently released by the Department of Health and Human Services states that if the GOP succeeds at repealing Obamacare, “1 in 2 non-elderly Americans could be denied coverage or charged more due to a pre-existing condition.” Yet, as John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis noted, “The Medicare program chief actuary predicted last spring that 375,000 would sign up for the new risk pool insurance in 2010. But by the end of November, only 8,000 had done so.”
Talk of Replacing ObamaCare Is a Bit Premature
Now that a bipartisan coalition in the House has voted to repeal ObamaCare, an even larger bipartisan coalition has approved a Republican resolution directing four House committees to “replace” that ill-fated law.  House Resolution 9 instructs the committees to “propos[e] changes to existing law” with the following goals:

THURSDAY
House Vote to Repeal ObamaCare Is More than Mere Symbolism
he House vote to repeal ObamaCare is just the latest sign that ObamaCare goes too far, that it creates a more intrusive government than the American people are willing to accept.
New Jersey Practice Struggles With Health Care Changes
For the past 10 years, Joseph and Victoria Schwartz have owned a small endocrinology clinic in Englewood, N.J. Lately they’ve faced their share of challenges — some a result of Obamacare, the health care law that faces a crucial repeal vote in the House this week.
Economy Will Suffer If Obamacare Stands
Geithner is right that Congress should act to improve the economy, but leaving Obamacare in place would do the opposite. Repeal of Obamacare is the only way to restore economic prosperity in the United States, according to the 200 economists who signed a letter addressed to House and Senate leadership in support of overturning the new health law.
HHS Report on Obamacare’s Preexisting Conditions Impact: Say What???
"The report implies that without Obamacare’s prohibition on insurers applying preexisting-condition exclusions, nearly half of the entire U.S. population would be at risk of being denied health insurance because they already have a preexisting medical condition. The report’s “findings” are misleading and wildly inaccurate.

WEDNESDAY
Where are All the Sick People Who Can't Get Insurance?
HHS says that millions of people--about half the country, in fact--either has, or has a loved one with, a condition that could cause them to have difficulty securing insurance.
Why Don't Big Firms Fire the Sick?
The simplest answer is that employers rarely succumb to the temptation to fire the sick because they want to protect their reputations.  Firms offer health insurance packages to attract workers.  If workers expect to lose their jobs if they ever contract a serious illness, it's going to be hard to recruit workers in the first place.
Number of States Challenging the Constitutionality of Obamacare Rises to 28
Counting the separate lawsuits filed by Virginia and (in the near future) Oklahoma, there is now a total of 28 states suing the federal government over this issue.
ObamaCare, Round 2
The basic problem is too much government in the health care arena. It’s anything today but a market. Those approaches that have reintroduce market forces — like health savings accounts — have worked quite well.
Health Care’s Dueling Economists — Again
During the initial health-care debate, the White House and Congressional Republicans issued dueling letters from economists supporting and decrying the overhaul.
ObamaCare’s Medicaid Mandate Imposes Staggering Costs on States
ObamaCare requires each state to open its Medicaid program to all legal residents earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.  Supporters estimate this mandate will cost state governments little: the Kaiser Family Foundation’s worst-case-scenario estimates suggest that state Medicaid spending would rise by just 1.2 percent in New York and 5.1 percent in Texas between 2014 and 2019.
Five Myths about New Health Care Law
"As Congress moves closer to a vote on whether to repeal the new health care law, we can expect another onslaught of claims and counterclaims. Therefore, as the debate gets under way, it is worth considering the facts behind some of the most common claims you will hear.

TUESDAY
How to Repeal Obamacare in the Senate
If Senators don’t take two procedural steps this week, they will make it virtually impossible to ever get a vote on the House-passed full repeal bill this Congress.
List of 27 States Suing Over Obamacare
Last March, Virginia and Florida (joined by 12 other states) filed suit against Obamacare, challenging its constitutionality. Since that time, many other states have joined in, recognizing the threat posed by the legislation to both the Constitution and their own state budgets. As we reported on Friday, more than half of all states are now suing over Obamacare.

Reports
FRIDAY
Obamacare and Medicare Advantage Cuts: Undermining Seniors’ Coverage Options
Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are private insurance options available to Medicare beneficiaries. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)[1] cuts deeply into the projected payments to MA plans. Millions of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in MA plans, or who would have been enrolled if not for the cuts, will experience very substantial reductions in the value of health care services provided to them by the Medicare program.

THURSDAY
Obamacare and Medicaid: Expanding a Broken Entitlement and Busting State Budgets
Roughly half of the anticipated gains in insurance coverage from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) are achieved through a massive expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal–state health insurance program for the poor.
Obamacare and the Employer Mandate: Cutting Jobs and Wages
One of the central goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was to increase the number of individuals with health insurance coverage. To encourage employers to offer coverage, the new law creates a tax penalty on firms with more than 50 workers that fail to provide “adequate” coverage for their employees. The result is government intrusion into voluntary arrangements made between employer and employee.
Obamacare and the CLASS Act: Creating a Long-Term Care Entitlement Burden
CLASS reduces the deficit in the short run because the government collects premiums for five years (2012–2016) but pays no benefits. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that premium payments into CLASS will exceed benefit payments out of CLASS only until 2030; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that this will happen in 2025.

WEDNESDAY
Obamacare and Federal Health Exchanges: Undermining State Flexibility
With enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), states “shall” establish a health insurance exchange in accordance with federal rules and guidelines. If a state chooses not to establish an exchange, the federal government will step in and set up such an exchange for that state.
Obamacare and the Individual Mandate: Violating Personal Liberty and Federalism
The congressional mandate on American citizens to purchase health insurance is unprecedented. It is one of the most controversial provisions of the new law, setting off a record number of state lawsuits and launching a large number of state legislative countermeasures.
Obamacare and the Independent Payment Advisory Board: Falling Short of Real Medicare Reform
Beginning on January 15, 2014, the board is authorized to make its first recommendations to reduce the per capita growth rate in Medicare spending in accordance with spending targets set in the statute.The board is also to give priority to recommendations that extend the solvency of the program.
Obamacare and the Hidden Public Option: Crowding Out Private Coverage
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the federal government, through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), is legally required to sponsor at least two national health insurance plans beginning in 2014. These OPM-sponsored plans would automatically be eligible to compete against private health insurance offered in the new health insurance exchanges to be established in every state.