First Edition: March 26, 2015
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
High-Deductible Plans Bring Lower Costs Now, But Will They Mean Pricey Consequences?
Got a high-deductible health plan? The kind that doesn’t pay most medical bills until they exceed several thousand dollars? You’re a foot soldier who’s been drafted in the war against high health costs. Companies that switch workers into high-deductible plans can reap enormous savings, consultants will tell you — and not just by making employees pay more. Total costs paid by everybody — employer, employee and insurance company — tend to fall in the first year or rise more slowly when consumers have more at stake at the health-care checkout counter whether or not they’re making medically wise choices. (Hancock, 3/26)
The New York Times:
Increased Military Spending Wins Out After Dueling Budget Votes In House
House Republicans beat back protests from fiscal hawks and narrowly passed a budget that increases war spending but slashes domestic programs and begins to privatize Medicare with a goal of balancing the federal books in nine years. ... That triumph for more military spending was an anomaly in the budget blueprint, which would cut spending $5.5 trillion over the next decade. It also includes parliamentary language, called reconciliation, that orders House committees to draft legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act. Under budget rules, that reconciliation repeal bill cannot be filibustered in the Senate and would need only a majority vote to pass. The budget would turn Medicaid into block grants to the states, cutting health care spending for the poor by $900 billion. (Weisman, 3/25)
Los Angeles Times:
House GOP Approves Budget To Hike Defense, Slash Safety-Net Programs
House Republicans pushed past their internal divisions to approve a budget blueprint Wednesday, putting the new Congress on track to notch a significant achievement once Senate Republicans pass their version by the end of the week. The ambitious but largely symbolic spending proposals adhere to Republican ideas for slashing social safety-net programs and lowering tax rates. ... The House and Senate must reconcile their different versions, which could prove difficult. The House plan overhauls Medicare by creating a voucher-like option for seniors to purchase private health insurance. Senate Republicans have distanced themselves from that approach and did not include it in their budget. (Mascaro, 3/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
House Passes $3.8 Trillion Fiscal 2016 GOP Budget
Passage of the House GOP budget overcomes the first—and likely the highest—hurdle in Republicans’ quest to clear a unified spending blueprint through both chambers of Congress. ... Hard-fought passage of the budget marked a moment of vindication for House Republican leaders, who have suffered a series of embarrassments this year when they were forced to pull GOP bills from the floor and pass legislation with the help of Democrats. (Peterson, 3/25)
The Associated Press:
GOP-Controlled House OKs Balanced Budget Plan
The vote in favor of the plan was 228-199. The blueprint itself is non-binding, but sets Republicans on a path to pass legislation that repeals the health care law, remakes Medicare and overhauls the tax code, in addition to other steps to implement their plan. The GOP-controlled Senate is at work on a slightly different budget plan, with a vote expected by week's end. (3/25)
The Washington Post:
How Boehner Got A Much-Needed Win On The Budget
The Senate is working toward passing its own budget plan later in the week. It has begun voting on a heap of amendments, a process that could keep lawmakers at work late Thursday into Friday morning. Once both chambers pass a budget, they will have to hash out the differences in a conference. If they reach a compromise, it would pave the way for a simple majority vote in the Senate on repealing President Obama's signature health-care law under a process known as reconciliation. The Price budget calls for repealing the law. While Obama would be certain to veto such legislation if it ever made it to his desk, it would be a vehicle for conservatives to register their lingering frustration with the law without facing a filibuster. (Sullivan, 3/25)
Politico:
House Approves GOP Budget Blueprint
After two weeks of backroom negotiations with fiscal conservatives and defense hawks, the House approved a spending blueprint that would balance the budget in a decade, transform Medicare and Medicaid, prevent tax increases and repeal Obamacare. ... With only 188 members, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and her fellow Democrats had little hope of derailing the GOP resolution once Boehner was able to pacify both defense and fiscal hawks. But it didn’t stop Democrats from trying. Pelosi was especially critical of Republican plans to hold another vote to repeal Obamacare, noting there is no way for such an effort to succeed while Obama sits in the Oval Office. (Bresnahan, Sherman and Bade, 3/25)
The Associated Press:
Senate Up Next After House Passes Bold Conservative Budget
The Senate is up next after House Republicans pushed through a boldly conservative budget eliminating deficits over the next decade by cutting deeply into Medicaid, food stamps and welfare, and repealing the president’s health care law. ... Both plans squeezed trillions by undoing so-called Obamacare and cutting Medicaid and other programs, but there were differences. House Republicans would convert Medicare into a voucher-like program, while Senate Republicans, eyeing the 2016 campaign in which they must defend their newly won majority, omitted such an approach. (Werner and Espo, 3/26)
The New York Times:
House Leaders Confident Of Passing Medicare Bill
Leaders of both parties in the House expressed confidence on Wednesday that their chamber would soon approve sweeping changes in Medicare, even though the Congressional Budget Office released figures showing that the bill could add more than $140 billion to federal budget deficits in the coming decade. ... The measure has drawn support from many diverse organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and liberal groups like Families USA, the Center for American Progress and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (Pear and Steinhauer, 3/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
Passage Of ‘Doc Fix’ Bill Edges Closer
Lawmakers on Wednesday closed in on passage of a measure to permanently replace an 18-year-old formula for reimbursing doctors for Medicare patients, as support in the House swelled ahead of a vote Thursday and resistance faded among Senate Democrats. The speed with which the package advanced marks a doubly rare moment for this Congress, as it involves a bipartisan agreement and the most contentious of subjects: a change to an entitlement program. ... The House package also would provide two years of funding for a program that provides health insurance to children from low-income families. (Hughes, 3/25)
Los Angeles Times:
Overhaul Of Medicare Payments To Doctors Heads For Bipartisan House Passage
President Obama also endorsed the compromise. "I've got my pen ready to sign a good, bipartisan bill, which would be really exciting," he said at a White House event Wednesday with national healthcare leaders. "I love when Congress passes bipartisan bills that I can sign." (Levey, 3/25)
NPR:
Is Capitol Hill Ready To Rest Its Near-Annual 'Doc Fix' Exercise?
Doctors who treat Medicare patients will face a huge cut, 21 percent, if Congress doesn't act by the end of the month. This isn't a new problem. While Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill agree that the formula that pays doctors who treat Medicare patients has long been broken, over the years they've been unable to pass more than temporary patches. But the leaders of the House from both parties have come up with a plan that they think can fix a problem that has bedeviled Congress since 1997. On Thursday, it goes to the House floor for a vote. (Summers, 3/26)
Politico:
Senate Democratic Opposition To Medicare Pay Bill Softening
President Barack Obama put pressure on Democrats on Wednesday when he said he looks forward to signing a “good bipartisan bill” to change the Medicare formula and permanently put an end to the “doc fixes” that Congress has passed for years. ... Senate Democrats had two big objections. They wanted to double the House’s two-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and they didn’t want to include Hyde Amendment abortion restrictions to the bill’s funding for community health centers. Also, the Senate was not involved in the negotiations, which has frustrated Democrats. Senate Republicans are much more supportive, but some have expressed concern that the package is not fully paid for. (Haberkorn, 3/26)
The New York Times:
Obama Praises Affordable Care Act On Its 5th Birthday
President Obama marked the fifth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act by mocking the law’s longtime critics as wrong about their predictions that its passage would doom America’s health care system. In an event at the White House on Wednesday, Mr. Obama said the law had decreased the ranks of the uninsured by a third, having enabled 16 million people to sign up for health coverage through the government marketplaces. (Shear, 3/25)
The Washington Post:
Obama Mocks GOP On Fifth Anniversary Of Affordable Care Act
President Obama delivered a staunch defense of the Affordable Care Act on the week of its fifth anniversary Wednesday as he continues his bid to frame the health care law as a success in the face of legal and political challenges from Republicans. ... More than 16 million people who were previously uninsured now have medical coverage under the law, which is generally viewed as the president's signature legislative achievement. But the law, passed by Congress in 2010, is facing a Supreme Court ruling this spring that could wipe out subsidies for millions of them. The administration has not announced a backup if the court rules portions of the law unconstitutional. (Nakamura, 3/25)
USA Today:
Obama Touts, GOP Attacks 5-Year-Old Health Care Law
President Obama's health care law is 5 years old, and so is the political debate surrounding it. Obama again praised the law Wednesday for insuring more people, reducing costs and saving lives, while Republicans continued to cite rising insurance prices and canceled policies for many. "In a lot of ways, it's working better than many of us, including me, anticipated," Obama said during an event at the White House. (Jackson, 3/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
Obama Promotes Health-Care Payments Based On Outcome, Not Volume
Paying doctors, hospitals and other providers for improved care rather than treatment volume will benefit patients and lower U.S. health-care spending, President Barack Obama said Wednesday. As the Affordable Care Act reaches milestones in expanding coverage—nearly 11.7 million people had signed up through late February—the Obama administration is turning its focus to revamping the way providers and health systems are paid. (Armour, 3/25)
Politico:
Ted Cruz ‘Still Weighing Options’ On Obamacare
Sen. Ted Cruz hasn’t made a final decision on whether he will sign up for Obamacare but will make up his mind “in the coming days,” a spokesman said Wednesday. Rick Tyler, national spokesman for the Texas Republican’s newly-launched presidential campaign, also defended Cruz against charges of hypocrisy for suggesting that he might enroll in Affordable Care Act health exchanges. (Topaz, 3/25)
The New York Times:
Amid Affordable Care Act Fight, A Health Center Program Struggles To Stay Alive
Dr. Savita Gopal, a 27-year-old resident physician at the Family Health Center of Harlem, sat in front of a computer last Thursday, peppering Jacob Doble, a 10-year-old from Harlem, with questions for 20 minutes. ... Dr. Gopal’s residency is supposed to last three years, but its future is uncertain. Her training is paid for by a provision of the Affordable Care Act called the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program, which is up for renewal this year. The program has allocated $230 million nationwide over five years to try to tackle a worsening shortage of primary care physicians and draw eager young doctors to places where they are sorely needed. (Slotnik, 3/25)
Los Angeles Times:
Medi-Cal Rolls Could Swell Under Obama's Deportation Relief Plan
President Obama's executive actions on immigration, which have sparked a fierce political backlash nationwide, could also provide an unlikely boost for another of his goals: increasing health insurance signups. Immigrants living in the U.S. without permission can't enroll in Obamacare, but an unusual policy in California allows those granted temporary relief from deportation to sign up for Medi-Cal. That means up to half a million more Californians could apply for the state's low-income health program, according to data released Wednesday by UC Berkeley and UCLA. (Karlamangla, 3/25)
The Associated Press:
Paid To Sleep: NY Cracks Down On Napping Workers
By day, Tanya Lemon was a 35-year-old single mother who took care of her four children. By night, she worked 12-hour shifts as a nurse at a state group home in suburban Syracuse, paid to watch over vulnerable residents as they slept. That's also when she got her own sleep, prosecutors say — a routine that led to felony charges when Dennis Dattalo, a 25-year-old disabled man who couldn't speak, ran low on oxygen while on her watch and later died. The case has brought renewed attention in New York to the problem of fatigue among health care workers — and in particular highlights the low-paid nurses, aides and others who care for vulnerable people at night, when sleeping can all too often become part of the job. (Virtanen, 3/26)
The Washington Post:
Indiana Is Battling The Worst HIV Outbreak In Its History
The HIV epidemic that now grips Austin, Ind., seemed to come out of nowhere. Since the first diagnosis in mid-December, the number of infected there and in the surrounding region has skyrocketed — 26 by the beginning of March, 72 as of this Wednesday. It’s the worst HIV outbreak in state history, and has local and federal officials scrambling to stem the spread of the disease. (Kaplan, 3/26)
The Associated Press:
Arizona Legislature OKs Abortion Medication Requirement
Arizona lawmakers approved legislation that requires abortion providers to tell women they can reverse the effects of a drug-induced abortion and bars women from buying any health care plan through the federal marketplace that includes abortion coverage. (3/26)
The Associated Press:
New York Assembly Set To Vote Again For Abortion Rights
The state Assembly is set to pass legislation to codify in New York the abortion rights established by the U.S. Supreme Court, moving it separately this year from a group of bills intended to ensure other women's rights in the workplace and courts. (3/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
California Lawmakers View Right-To-Die Video Left By Brittany Maynard
California lawmakers pursuing right-to-die legislation on Wednesday aired a posthumous video of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old San Francisco Bay Area woman with brain cancer whose move to Oregon to legally end her life last year drew wide attention. In the video, Ms. Maynard, who ended her life on Nov. 1, appeals to state legislators, and lawmakers elsewhere, to pass laws that allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with the assistance of doctors. Ms. Maynard said in the video she was “heartbroken” to have to leave behind “my home, my community and my friends in California” to take advantage of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. (Lazo, 3/25)