Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
House's Stopgap Measure Includes Funding For Community Health Centers To Woo Democrats
The New York Times: House Pushes Another Stopgap Bill As Government Shutdown Looms
House Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting on Monday night with a plan to pass a temporary spending measure that would fund the government through March 23. The measure would also include full-year funding for the Defense Department — boosting military spending, as President Trump and Republicans are determined to do — and it would include two years of funding for community health centers. But the House’s approach, to combine short-term funding to keep the government open with long-term funding for the military, was long ago rejected by most Senate Democrats, who want to pair an increase in military spending with a similar increase in domestic spending. (Kaplan, 2/5)
CQ: House Republicans Unveil Six-Week Stopgap, Health Care Bill
The House GOP plan would pair short-term funding for domestic and foreign aid programs with a full year of Pentagon appropriations (HR 695). The package also contains a slew of health care provisions, including a two-year extension for community health centers, which have warned in recent months about likely closures that could impact services for millions of low-income beneficiaries. The measure would also provide five-year extensions of rural home health and ground ambulance add-ons under Medicare. The measure also would extend other Medicare reimbursement policies for two years, including the work Geographic Practice Cost Index which would boost reimbursements for the work portion of physicians' fees where labor costs are lower than the national average, according to a GOP summary. (Mejdrich and Krawzak, 2/5)
The Hill: Over 100 House Republicans Call For Health Center Funding
More than 100 House Republicans are calling on Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to quickly reauthorize a pot of money crucial to community health centers, which service millions of the nation’s most vulnerable. In a letter sent Friday, 105 Republicans, led by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), expressed their concern over the fact that long-term funding for community health centers lapsed Sept. 30 — and urged its reauthorization in the “next moving piece of legislation to be signed into law.” (Roubein, 2/5)
The Hill: House To Fund Community Health Centers In Short-Term Spending Bill
The community health centers have been left in limbo for months awaiting an extension of their funding. Both parties generally support the centers, but the debate has been caught up in broader budget battles. Community health centers serve about 27 million people across the country, many of whom are poor or lack insurance. (Sullivan, 2/5)
The Associated Press: House Republicans Working To Plan To Avert Another Shutdown
The negotiations are bipartisan since it takes votes from Democrats to lift the budget caps and advance a follow-up omnibus spending bill, whose overall cost is likely to exceed $1.2 trillion. That means domestic programs get their due, despite the opposition of conservatives. (Taylor, 2/5)
The Washington Post: House Republicans Eye Defense Spending Boost, Complicating Plan To Avoid Second Shutdown
Government funding is set to run out Thursday at midnight, and though there were few fears of another shutdown as lawmakers scrambled Monday, the House maneuver stands to inject new uncertainty into the process. (Werner and DeBonis, 2/5)
Kaiser Health News: Community Health Centers Caught In ‘Washington’s Political Dysfunction’
As lawmakers face another deadline this week for passing legislation to keep the federal government open, one of the outstanding issues is long-term funding for a key health care safety-net program. The Community Health Center program serves 27 million people at almost 10,000 nonprofit clinics nationwide, almost all of which are in low-income rural and urban areas. (Findlay, 2/5)
Houston Chronicle: Access To Health Care In Limbo Ahead Of Possible Government Shutdown
Texas community health officials urged Congress to act this week to reauthorize funding for clinics that serve the state's neediest patients who might not have access to health care otherwise. "We urge Congress to find a sense of urgency around funding community health centers, which have enjoyed bipartisan support for decades," Katy Caldwell, CEO of Legacy Community Health, the state's largest network of clinics, said in a statement Monday. (Deam, 2/5)
