Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP Debates Strategy On Health Law
The Hill: McConnell Pressed To Repeal Obamacare With Budget Move
Conservatives in Washington are adamant that Senate Republicans should pass a full repeal of the healthcare law next year, even it if means a certain veto from President Obama. With Senate Democrats likely to filibuster any stand-alone repeal bill, conservatives say incoming Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should use a procedural maneuver known as reconciliation to muscle through a bill with 51 votes. (Shabad, 11/10)
NBC News: Here To Stay: Why The New Republican Congress Can't Gut Obamacare
Republicans may have promised to repeal or at least do a big makeover of Obamacare now that they control both the House and the Senate, but most experts believe it’s lip service only. (Fox, 11/8)
Bloomberg: Republicans To Chip At Obamacare By Refining Work Hours
Newly empowered Republicans say they can’t repeal Obamacare and plan to chip away at the law piece by piece, starting with redefining full-time work in a way that could affect health coverage for 1 million people. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday said they want to rewrite the Affordable Care Act so employers could avoid providing health coverage to workers who put in less than 40 hours a week -- up from the law’s current 30-hour threshold. (Dorning and Woellert, 11/7)
The Washington Post: How Killing The Medical Device Tax Became One Of Washington’s Top Priorities
Within days of the Republican Party regaining control of the Senate, a host of policy issues has quickly risen to the top of Washington's priorities list: trade, corporate tax reform, the Keystone pipeline. And then there's the medical device tax. The tax, passed as part of the Affordable Care Act, plays a marginal role in the health-care overhaul, but the push to repeal it has attracted millions of dollars of lobbying, as well as high-profile supporters on the Hill, from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). (Millman, 11/7)
The Hill: Right Debates How To Govern
With Republicans set to assume control of Congress for the first time in eight years, GOP leaders must decide which policies to push forward, and whether some bigger goals should be pushed to the side. Those taking the “don’t govern” approach argue measures to give Obama “fast-track” trade authority, tackle patent “trolls” or to repeal the healthcare law’s tax on certain medical devices are small-bore goals that should be swept aside in favor of more sweeping measures, such as repealing the individual mandate in ObamaCare. “Passing all of the Washington lobbyists’ wish-list items is not going to get Republicans through 2016,” said Matt Kibbe, president of the Tea-Party group FreedomWorks, which has frequently criticized GOP leaders. Kibbe urged leaders to tackle the individual mandate and reign in so-called “risk corridors” in the healthcare law that conservatives deride as bailouts for insurance companies. He also wants to see Congress vote on an alternative to the healthcare law, something Republicans failed to do this past election cycle. (Wong, 11/9)
The New York Times: With Fear of Being Sidelined, Tea Party Sees The Republican Rise As New Threat
As most Republicans were taking a victory lap the morning after the elections, a group of conservatives huddled anxiously in a conference room not far from Capitol Hill and agreed that now is the time for confrontation, not compromise and conciliation. Despite Republicans’ ascension to Senate control and an expanded House majority, many conservatives from the party’s activist wing fear that congressional leaders are already being too timid with President Obama. They do not want to hear that government shutdowns are off the table or that repealing the Affordable Care Act is impossible — two things Republican leaders have said in recent days. (Peters, 11/8)
