The Associated Press: House GOP Abruptly Drops Abortion Bill
In an embarrassing setback, House Republicans abruptly decided Wednesday to drop planned debate of a bill criminalizing virtually all late-term abortions after objections from GOP women and other lawmakers left them short of votes. The decision came on the eve of the annual March for Life, when thousands of abortion rights opponents stream to Washington to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. It also came with GOP leaders eager to show unity and an ability by the new Republican-led Congress to govern efficiently. (1/22)

Politico: GOP Stumbles Over Abortion Bill
Republican leadership late Wednesday evening had to completely drop its plans to pass a bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks, and is reverting to old legislation that prohibits taxpayer funding of abortions. The evening switch comes after a revolt from a large swath of female members of Congress, who were concerned about language that said rape victims would not be able to get abortions unless they reported the incident to authorities. (Sherman, 1/21)

The Wall Street Journal: House Republicans Pull Abortion-Ban Bill
House Republican leaders pulled a 20-week abortion ban that had been expected to come up for a vote Thursday after female GOP lawmakers and centrists voiced concerns over its treatment of rape victims, according to House GOP aides. Instead, the House is expected to vote Thursday on a less contentious bill prohibiting federal funding from being used on abortions or health insurance plans that cover abortion. (Peterson, 1/21)

The Washington Post: Abortion Bill Dropped Amid Concerns Of Female GOP Lawmakers
House Republican leaders abruptly dropped plans late Wednesday to vote on an anti-abortion bill amid a revolt by female GOP lawmakers concerned that the legislation's restrictive language would once again spoil the party's chances of broadening its appeal to women and younger voters. In recent days, as many as two dozen Republicans had raised concerns with the "Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" that would ban abortions after the 20th week of a pregnancy. Sponsors said that exceptions would be allowed for a woman who is raped, but she could only get the abortion after reporting the rape to law enforcement. (O'Keefe, 1/21)

Fox News: House GOP Drops Controversial Abortion Bill Ahead Of Roe v. Wade Anniversary
House Republicans on Wednesday dropped a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, ending legislation that at one time seemed certain to pass but fell victim to inter-party disputes over concerns that the law would alienate women voters. (1/21)

In other related news -

The Washington Post: Under Pope Francis, American Catholics See The ‘Pro-Life’ Label As Broader Than Abortion
This week, as tens of thousands of abortion opponents gather in Washington for Thursday’s March for Life — the world’s largest anti-abortion event — and many related side conferences and meetings, longtime activists say there are more groups seeking to pull into the “pro-life” brand topics ranging from the death penalty to human trafficking. Last weekend, the five dioceses in Southern California held their first “One Life” event, a march and fair timed to this week’s anniversary of Roe vs. Wade and highlighting not only abortion but homelessness, foster care and elderly rights. More than 10,000 people came to the event in Los Angeles. (Boorstein, 1/22)

Kaiser Health News: Next Goal For Abortion-Rights Backers: Reducing Stigma
“The new Congress is introducing anti-women’s health bills at the rate of one per day,” she said. The House is expected to vote on a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy on the day of the Roe v Wade anniversary. But in addition to fighting legislative efforts, abortion rights backers hope to change the public view of abortion, much as gays and lesbians have done of homosexuality in recent years. Having more women talk about their experiences, they say, will help underscore the statistic that an estimated one in every three American women will have an abortion during their reproductive lifetime. (Rovner, 1/21)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Inside An Abortion Clinic: Private Choices In Public Debate
Last year, 15 states enacted 26 abortion restrictions, adding to the 205 laws that passed between 2011 and 2013, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which researches reproductive health issues. In St. Paul Thursday, thousands of abortion opponents will return to the Capitol for their annual call for similar restrictions in Minnesota, if not an outright ban. (Brooks, 1/21)

Reuters: New Senate Bill Would Overturn Obamacare's Individual Mandate
Leading Republican senators on Wednesday introduced a bill to repeal one of Obamacare's most unpopular provisions -- the individual mandate that requires most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Lamar Alexander, who heads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced the three-paragraph bill titled, the American Liberty Restoration Act, with backing from 20 other Republican co-sponsors. (Morgan, 1/22)

News organizations also continued to examine how President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech was playing on Capitol Hill.

The Fiscal Times: Obama Renews Health Care Fight With Republicans
In his sixth State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama touted the achievements of his signature health care law – including expanded health coverage for 10 million Americans and the slowdown of health care spending growth to the lowest rate in over 50 years. (Ehley, 1/21)

The New York Times: Talk Of Wealth Gap Prods The G.O.P. To Refocus
With the economy finally on more solid ground, even leading Republicans, on Capitol Hill and on the nascent 2016 presidential campaign front, are tempering complaints about overall economic growth and refocusing on the more intractable problem of income inequality. ... But such “reform conservatism” has a long way to go before being accepted by the dominant players in Republican circles. Mr. Obama is not just pursuing “the wrong policies,” Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio said Wednesday. ... “There’s a better way,” he said. “We need to fix our broken tax code, balance our budget, replace the broken health care law with solutions that lower cost and protect jobs.” (Weisman and Parker, 1/21)

Modern Healthcare: Predictable Fault Lines Emerge As Perennial Doc-Fix Debate Begins
There's only one outstanding issue left to resolve before Congress can pass a permanent “doc fix”: how to cover the roughly $140 billion price tag. Last year, that nagging detail derailed a much celebrated bipartisan, bicameral deal to permanently do away with Medicare's widely loathed sustainable growth-rate formula for paying doctors. That resulted in a 17th consecutive patch that expires at the end of March. If Congress doesn't take action, doctors will face a 21.2% cut in payments for treating Medicare patients, an outcome that's viewed as untenable by both Democrats and Republicans. (Demko, 1/21)

The Washington Post's Wonkblog: Millions Of Children Could Soon Lose Their Health Insurance If Congress Doesn’t Act
For all the handwringing about what the new Republican-controlled Congress could do to Obamacare, another health insurance program could be dropped entirely if lawmakers don't take action this year: the Children's Health Insurance Program. The program covers an estimated 8 million children in low- and middle-income families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. Funding is set to expire in September, and it's not clear yet if the new Congress will extend CHIP or scale it back. Those who get dropped will probably have to go on to the new health insurance exchanges for coverage, but one estimate found as many as 2.7 million children could still lose health insurance if CHIP goes away this year. (Millman, 1/21)

CQ Healthbeat: Senate Panel Fast-Tracks Approval Of Vets Suicide Bill
A Senate committee wasted no time Wednesday advancing veterans suicide-prevention legislation that stalled in the Senate last month despite overwhelming support. The measure would require annual third-party evaluations of Veterans Affairs Department mental health and suicide-prevention programs and promote collaboration between the VA and non-profit mental health organizations to stem the epidemic of veteran suicides. (O'Brien, 1/21)

The Associated Press: Government Closer To Goal Of 9.1M Enrolled Under Health Law
The Obama administration is moving closer to its goal of 9.1 million people signed up for private coverage under the president's health care law. The Health and Human Services Department says at least 400,000 people signed up last week. That brought total enrollment in the 37 states served by HealthCare.gov to more than 7.1 million. (1/21)

Georgia Health News: With A Month To Go, Exchange Enrollment High
Federal officials announced Wednesday that Georgia’s signup total for the insurance exchange reached 425,927 as of Jan. 16. That’s an increase of more than 25,000 from the week before. The state’s current enrollment greatly surpasses last year’s total of 316,543. It also indicates that the final number of Georgia enrollees may be near the half-million mark at the end of the open enrollment period Feb. 15. (Miller, 1/21)

The Denver Post: GOP Lawmakers Target Executive Bonuses At Colorado Health Exchange
Upset about lofty pay for executives at Colorado's troubled health insurance exchange, Republican lawmakers Wednesday advanced a measure to strip Connect for Health's authority to issue bonuses. The measure won approval by a 3-2 vote along partisan lines in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, one of the early signs of how the chamber's shift to GOP control is making a difference. (Frank, 1/21)

The Associated Press: Colorado Closer To Ordering New Health Exchange Review
Colorado lawmakers changed course Wednesday and moved toward giving the state's health insurance exchange its deepest review yet. A Senate committee's two Democrats joined its three Republicans to support an expanded audit for Connect For Health Colorado, the state-run marketplace for selling health insurance under the federal health care law. (Wyatt, 1/21)

Meanwhile, Arkansas' 'private-option' Medicaid expansion faces its next litmus test -

Politico Pro: Arkansas Governor To Reveal Medicaid Expansion Decision
Months of behind-the-scenes talks about the Arkansas “private option” Medicaid expansion will burst into the open Thursday morning when Gov. Asa Hutchinson issues his verdict on the program. Virtually no one expects the state’s expansion to continue unchanged — or for Hutchinson’s decision to be the last word. But those who want to keep the program and those who’d like to see it end both say the new Republican governor will give outsize momentum to the side he chooses. (Wheaton, 1/21)

California Healthline: Examining The Questions Surrounding King v. Burwell
[T]he Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on March 4 as part of its process to determine whether subsidies are legal to help U.S. residents purchase coverage through the federal exchange. While the answer to that question seems straightforward, there are many complicated issues involved in King v. Burwell. (Wilson, 1/21)

Earlier KHN coverage: If High Court Strikes Federal Exchange Subsidies, Health Law Could Unravel (Rovner, 12/2)

The Associated Press: Issue On Appeal: Did Health Care Reform Rules Hurt Senator?
Lawyers for U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson sought on Wednesday to revive the Wisconsin Republican's challenge to the federal health care overhaul, arguing before an appellate panel that he was indeed harmed by executive rules associated with the legislation. (Tarm, 1/21)

Bloomberg: Obamacare Pays For Insurers Who Fought It As Stocks Rise
U.S. health insurers that waged a campaign against Obamacare hit an all-time high on the stock market Wednesday after UnitedHealth Group Inc. said it would add hundreds of thousands of new customers because of the law. (Armstrong and Bloomfield, 1/21)

Reuters: UnitedHealth Profit Beats Estimate As Govt. Sector Grows
UnitedHealth Group Inc, the largest U.S. health insurer, on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit as it added new customers in government-paid plans and its Optum pharmacy management business hit record revenue. Profit in its health insurance business, which includes commercial and government customers, was helped by medical costs that the company described as being "well controlled," and decreased inpatient hospital use per person in 2014. (1/21)

The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealth’s Profits Better Than Expected
UnitedHealth, like its fellow health insurers, has sought to contain costs related to medical care, particularly as expensive, high-profile treatments for hepatitis C and cancer enter the market. Meanwhile, the company has benefited from growth in its government-sponsored plans as well as its health-services arm. (Wilde Mathews and Calia, 1/21)

The Associated Press: UnitedHealth Earnings Rise 6 Pct, Top Wall St. Expectations
The Minneapolis-based insurer said Wednesday that it expects stronger enrollment growth from Medicare Advantage plans, a key product that had been pinched by funding cuts in recent years. It also has already gained more than 400,000 customers through its expanded presence on the health care overhaul’s public insurance exchanges, and operating earnings from its Optum segment, which runs several businesses outside health insurance, climbed more than 50 percent. (1/21)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: UnitedHealth Fourth-Quarter Earnings Top Estimates
Shares of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. closed at a record high Wednesday after a better-than-expected earnings report and an upbeat commentary for growth in 2015. The nation’s largest health insurer reported promising enrollment trends during the fourth quarter, particularly in government programs, and only moderate growth in medical costs. (Snowbeck, 1/21)

NPR/Propublica: Senator 'Astounded' That Nonprofit Hospitals Sue Poorest Patients
NPR and ProPublica have been reporting about nonprofit hospitals that seize the wages of lower income and working-class patients. Now, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says hospitals could be breaking the law by suing these patients and docking their pay. And he wants some answers. NPR and ProPublica looked across six states, and in each, we found nonprofit hospitals suing hundreds of their patients. One hospital in particular jumped out — Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph, Mo. Thousands of patients a year are getting their paychecks docked by the hospital and its debt collection arm. (Arnold and Kiel, 1/22)

Kaiser Health News: 1,700 Hospitals Win Quality Bonuses From Medicare, But Most Will Never Collect
Medicare is giving bonuses to a majority of hospitals that it graded on quality, but many of those rewards will be wiped out by penalties the government has issued for other shortcomings, federal data show. As required by the 2010 health law, the government is taking performance into account when paying hospitals, one of the biggest changes in Medicare’s 50-year-history. This year 1,700 hospitals – 55 percent of those graded – earned higher payments for providing comparatively good care in the federal government’s most comprehensive review of quality. The government measured criteria such as patient satisfaction, lower death rates and how much patients cost Medicare. This incentive program, known as value-based purchasing, led to penalties for 1,360 hospitals. (Rau, 1/22)

The Texas Tribune: Few Hospitals Reap Bonuses For Performance
Because they did a relatively good job keeping patients happy and alive, among other measures, a slim majority of Texas hospitals have earned cash bonuses under a federal program that rewards high performance by hospitals that receive Medicare reimbursements. (Walters and Daniel, 1/22)

CQ Healthbeat: Nursing Groups Appeal For More Training Funds
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is pushing Congress to increase funding for the training of nurses as the health care workforce evolves into a more team-based approach that will allow some nurses to perform tasks that have been done by physicians. (Adams, 1/21)

The Hill: Analysis: Nurse Practitioners Doubled In Ten Years
The number of U.S. nurse practitioners nearly doubled over the last 10 years, rising from roughly 106,000 in 2004 to 205,000 as of Dec. 31, the profession's trade group said Wednesday. More than 15,000 people graduated from nurse practitioner programs between 2012 and 2013, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) also reported. (Viebeck, 1/21)

The Hill: Docs Urge Big Changes To Health Records Program
A coalition of 35 medical societies is urging federal regulators to make major changes to the Meaningful Use electronic health records (EHR) program. Led by the American Medical Association, the coalition wrote Wednesday to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology arguing that Meaningful Use could harm patients if allowed to continue in its current state. (Viebeck, 1/21)

Reuters: U.S. Insurance Study Charts Huge Price Gaps For Hip, Knee Surgery
Hip and knee replacements, two of the fastest-growing U.S. medical procedures, are subject to huge - and apparently random - price variations within the same geographical areas, a new insurance industry study said on Wednesday. The study by Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurers adds to the evidence of massive disparities between what different hospitals and medical practices charge in the world's most expensive healthcare system. (Morgan, 1/21)

The Washington Post's Wonkblog: A Knee Replacement Surgery Could Cost $17k Or $61k. And That’s In The Same City.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, whose member organizations cover about one in three Americans, for the first time on Wednesday released prices that its insurers are charged by health-care providers. The group's report cover prices for knee and hip replacement surgeries, which are among the fastest growing procedures in the country. (Millman, 1/21)

Politico Pro: Study Finds ‘Extreme’ Variation In Surgery Costs
A hip replacement at one hospital in Boston costs more than four times what it does at another facility in the city, an extreme example of the wild variation that’s seen in the cost of medical procedures nationwide, a new study finds. (Norman, 1/21)

Elsewhere, high cancer drug prices are examined, and Americans count health care as their biggest expense --

The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot: High Prices For Cancer Drugs Are Set At Launch: ‘It’s Where The Action Is’
There is little question that rising prices for medicines – including many cancer treatments – is a flashpoint in the growing controversy over health care costs. But just how much have the prices for new cancer drugs been rising in recent years? A new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that, of 58 cancer drugs that were approved by the FDA between 1995 and 2013, the launch prices increased by 10% a year, or an average of about $8,500, when adjusted for inflation and a formula for determining survival benefits. (Silverman, 1/21)

The Fiscal TImes: Americans Rank Health Care as Top Financial Burden
It’s been nearly five years since the Affordable Care Act was passed expanding coverage to more than 10 million Americans. Despite the law’s handful of provisions aimed at curbing medical costs, Americans still rank health care as the top financial problem plaguing their bottom lines. (Ehley, 1/21)

Los Angeles Times: 67 Confirmed Cases Of Measles In California-Centered Outbreak
There are now 67 confirmed cases of measles in an outbreak centered in California, health officials said. The California Department of Public Health said there are now 59 cases in the state – 42 that have been directly linked to being at Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park in December. Some people visited Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park while infectious in January. (Xia and Lin, 1/21)

The Washington Post: Disneyland Measles Outbreak Strikes In Anti-Vaccination Hotbed Of California
Now the measles that started at Disney has put California’s Orange County, a hotbed of the anti-immunization movement, at the center of the worst measles outbreak in the state in 15 years, with 62 confirmed cases statewide since December, according to the Los Angeles Times. Additional cases that originated in California have spread to four other states and Mexico. The total infected is up to 70, including five Disney employees who have since returned to work. About a quarter of those who got sick had to be hospitalized. (Barbash, 1/22)

The New York Times: Measles Cases Linked To Disneyland Rise, And Debate Over Vaccinations Intensifies
A measles outbreak that began at Disneyland is spreading across California and beyond, prompting health officials to move aggressively to contain it — including by barring unvaccinated students from going to school in Orange County. The outbreak has increased concerns that a longstanding movement against childhood vaccinations has created a surge in a disease that was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. (Nagourney and Goodnough, 1/21)

Stateline: With Federal Policy Change, More Money For School-based Health Services
A recent federal policy reversal, long-sought by states and health care advocates, could enable schools to take a lead role in managing chronic childhood diseases and result in the hiring of many more school nurses. The change, announced quietly and unexpectedly last month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will allow public schools to receive Medicaid money for health services they provide to eligible students for the first time since 1997. (1/22)

North Carolina Health News: Emerging Progress On State's Mental Health Crisis System
According to advocates and officials at a meeting in Raleigh this week, North Carolina’s network of help for people in mental health crisis is improving. (Hoban, 1/22)

WBUR: Welcome, Attorney General Healey. What Are You Going To Do About Partners?
Maura Healey will inherit several thorny issues Wednesday as she becomes the next state attorney general. Near the top of her list: the agreement that would let Partners HealthCare acquire at least three more hospitals in exchange for some limits on price and staff increases. (Bebinger, 1/21)

The Texas Tribune: Abbott Names New HHSC Watchdog
Gov. Greg Abbott has named a new watchdog for the embattled Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Abbott announced Wednesday that Stuart Bowen Jr., who spent nearly 10 years as special inspector general overseeing the reconstruction of Iraq, will take over as inspector general for HHSC. He succeeds Doug Wilson, who was fired in December after a controversy arose over the selection of 21st Century Technologies Inc. to receive a $110 million Medicaid fraud software contract. (McCrimmon, 1/21)

San Jose Mercury News: Kamala Harris Given Extension On Daughters Of Charity Sale Decision
California Attorney General Kamala Harris now has until Feb. 20 to decide whether the Daughters of Charity Health System should be sold to Prime Healthcare Services. Robert Issai, CEO and president of the Daughters chain, which includes four Bay Area hospitals, said Wednesday that Harris' office this week asked him to extend the deadline from Feb. 6 to Feb. 20. He agreed. (Seipel, 1/21)

Santa Cruz Sentinel: Sutter Health To Blue Shield: Extend The Contract
Two weeks after Blue Shield announced its contract termination with Sutter Health affecting 280,000 Californians, Sutter Health urged Blue Shield to extend the 2014 agreement "to prevent "tens of thousands of patients being displaced from their doctors." (Gumz, 1/21)

The Texas Tribune: State Of Mind: Finding A Way To Cover The Uninsured
Texas hospitals want state lawmakers to figure out a way for the state to draw down billions in federal Affordable Care Act dollars to cover the uninsured and alleviate the burden on local taxpayers. Health officials hope the Legislature looks at a program in San Antonio that has the makings of a Texas solution. This is the third video in our eight-part State of Mind series. (Rocha and Dehn, 1/22)

Los Angeles Times: California Lawmakers Will Push Death-With-Dignity Measure
It was a dying wish of Brittany Maynard, after terminal cancer led her to move to Portland so she could legally end her life, that her home state of California would someday adopt Oregon's death-with-dignity law. On Wednesday, less than three months after 29-year-old Maynard's death drew international attention to the issue, her husband and mother stood with nine California lawmakers to announce legislation that would allow physicians in this state to prescribe medications to hasten death for the terminally ill. (McGreevy, 1/21)

The Kansas Health Institute New Service: Debate On Licensing Mid-level Dental Providers Resumes At Statehouse
Advocates for allowing dental hygienists with advanced training to perform a broader range of procedures are now in their fifth year of trying to convince legislators to approve the necessary changes in state law. Wearing bright yellow and black scarves, they rallied Wednesday morning and then headed for meetings with legislators to press their case for expanding access to services in a state where 95 of 105 counties have a shortage of dental providers. (McLean, 1/21)

The Des Moines Register: Iowa To Hire Private Firms To Help Run Medicaid
Gov. Terry Branstad plans to hire a private managed-care company or companies to help run the state's Medicaid program, legislators and administration officials said Tuesday. Details are scarce on how the plan would work, but Branstad projects it would save $51.3 million from January through June 2016, its first six months. (Leys, 1/21)

Kaiser Health News: California Takes Different Path On Insuring Immigrants Living In U.S. Illegally
The push to offer health insurance to all Californians regardless of immigration status is the latest in a series of immigrant-friendly state policies over the past few years. Already, immigrants here illegally can obtain licenses to practice medicine, law or other professions, and as of this month, they can apply for driver’s licenses. There is no guarantee that other states will follow California’s lead, but the size and demographic makeup of the state ensure it a prominent role in the national debate over coverage of people living in the country illegally. (Gorman, 1/22)

Bloomberg: Obamacare's Long-Term Prognosis
Compared to last year, Obamacare's 2015 open enrollment is a boring story -- no spectacular IT failures, no politically charged policy cancellations. And as Obamacare wends to the end of its second open-enrollment period, it would seem that we should know more about the shape of the final program. What have we learned so far? The answer is "less than you'd think." (Megan McArdle, 1/21)

Bloomberg: Republican Chutzpah Won't Kill Obamacare
Sometimes, you just have to stand in awe of the chutzpah. In the Republican rebuttal to Barack Obama's State of the Union address last night, Joni Ernst said: “We'll also keep fighting to repeal and replace a health-care law that's hurt so many hard-working families” .... "Keep fighting” to “replace”? Let’s review some evidence, please. (Jonathan Bernstein, 1/21)

The Washington Post: Republicans Pulled A Classic Bait-And-Switch With Abortion Bill
Abortion got barely a mention in last year’s campaign, which led to unified Republican control of Congress. Voters in exit polls said their top priorities were the economy (45 percent), health care (25 percent), immigration (14 percent) and foreign policy (13 percent) — not surprising, given that these are the issues Republicans talked about. A Gallup poll after the election found that fewer than 0.5 percent of Americans think abortion should be the top issue, placing it behind at least 33 other issues. But instead of doing what voters wanted, House Republicans set out to make one of their first orders of business a revival of the culture wars. (Dana Milbank, 1/21)

Los Angeles Times: On Roe Vs. Wade's Birthday, An Unscientific Attempt To Limit Abortion Rights
Many people — including some who are pro-choice — would no doubt be troubled to learn that legal abortions were causing pain to fetuses, if it were true. If it were true, it might even present a challenge in the minds of some to the Supreme Court's determination that the viability of the fetus is the proper place to draw the line between a woman's right to control her body and the state's interest in protecting life. But apparently it is not true. The science that undergirds the so-called Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act has proved unpersuasive to most medical experts. That's why this bill deserves to fail. (1/21)

USA Today: Support Life From Womb To Tomb
Today, I join tens of thousands of fellow pro-lifers at the 41st annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Before the march, I will open the National Memorial for the Pre-Born at Constitution Hall by making an unconventional plea. For nearly three decades, I have dedicated much of my ministry to the pro-life cause. I have advocated, demonstrated, raised money, lobbied, sued, been sued and done jail time pursuing my passion for the sanctity of nascent human life. But increasingly, I've come to realize our critics are right in saying pro-lifers champion the yet-to-be born while we often ignore the suffering of those already born. (Rob Schenck, 1/21)

The New York Times: Obama’s Bad Economic Ideas
But the president’s proposals do invite a case for a comprehensive tax and entitlement reform, one based not on redistribution but on growth, work and opportunity. ... Piling up child tax credits and subsidies for health care over narrow household income ranges, as the president proposes, leads to high rates of taxation on earnings from work as assistance is phased out. Likewise, raising marginal tax rates on investment by the well-to-do reduces asset prices and is a threat to continued economic expansion. So how can we enhance growth, work and opportunity? Four steps can help get us there. (Glenn Hubbard, 1/21)

Los Angeles Times: To Obama, Family Leave Is A Family Value
In rolling out the issues he hopes will define the final two years of his administration, President Obama has proposed two workplace initiatives: requiring companies with 15 or more employees to provide them seven days of sick leave per year to their full time workers, and encouraging states to establish paid family leave programs for new parents or workers tending to family members with significant health issues. As with most such proposals, the devil will be in the details, but we believe the president is on the right track. In fact, California got there first. Under the state's Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, as of July 1 employees who work at least 30 days in a calendar year must be offered one hour of sick pay — up to 24 hours total — for every 30 hours worked. (1/21)

The Washington Post: The Harm Incurred By A Mushrooming Welfare State
America’s welfare state transfers more than 14 percent of gross domestic product to recipients, with more than a third of Americans taking “need-based” payments. ... This is not primarily because of Social Security and Medicare transfers to an aging population. Rather, the growth is overwhelmingly in means-tested entitlements. More than twice as many households receive “anti-poverty” benefits than receive Social Security or Medicare. (George F. Willl, 1/21)

Los Angeles Times: Bias Against The Disabled Is As American As Apple Pie
The fact that the SSDI trust fund is running dry is no surprise. Congress historically has authorized “reallocation” of dollars from the Social Security trust fund (which has enough money to last through 2034) to cover SSDI. Now, Republicans have made that once-routine maneuver — it has been done 11 times before — much more difficult, passing a rule stating that any reallocation must be accompanied by policies that improve the financial footing of Social Security. (Rourke L. O'Brien, 1/21)

Wausau Daily Herald: How To Expand Medicaid, Revisited
So how is Gov. Scott Walker's health care plan for low-income Wisconsinites going? Not great. You will recall that Walker and the Legislature decided to extend BadgerCare coverage for everyone living in poverty .... They also decided not to accept federal funds for Medicaid expansion made available by the health care reform law known as Obamacare, and to cancel BadgerCare coverage for those just above the poverty line .... Medicaid costs have skyrocketed. The state Department of Health Services has requested an additional $760 million just to maintain current coverage. The state could decide to accept federal Medicaid funds any time it wants. But given the political world that we live in when it comes to all things Obamacare, we are not likely to see a full turnabout. (Robert Mentzer, 1/20)

The Baltimore Sun: Balancing Md.'s Budget On The Backs Of The Mentally Ill
During our time together in the Maryland House of Delegates, we worked persistently to address the need for accessible services and adequate funding for the one in five Marylanders who need treatment for mental health and substance use disorders. That's why we were disappointed to see long-overdue funding for behavioral health slashed by the Board of Public Works earlier this month as its members seek to close a state budget gap. (James W. Hubbard and Joseline Pena-Melnyk, 1/21)

JAMA Psychiatry: Retaining Part D’S Comprehensive Coverage Of Antidepressants
Clinicians prescribing antidepressant medication to elderly and disabled Medicare patients have a wide array of choices because antidepressants are among the 6 protected classes of medications in Medicare Part D. ... In a draft rule in January 2014, the CMS proposed to lift the protected status of antidepressants, together with antipsychotics and immunosuppressant drugs, to give plans greater negotiating power. The proposal met with strong opposition from patient advocates, drug manufacturers, and lawmakers. Opposition was so strong that, 2 months later, the CMS rescinded the proposal. Absent from the debate over Part D formulary coverage of antidepressants, however, was an analysis of current prescribing practices for Medicare patients. (Yuhua Bao, Yan Tang and Julie Donohue, 1/21)

JAMA: Critical Care Evidence—New Directions
During the past decades, intensivists have learned how to care for critically ill patients and enable many to survive illnesses that previously would have been fatal. For example, the mortality rates associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and with sepsis have both declined markedly during this interval. Improved short-term survival has resulted not only from better understanding of individual diseases but also (and perhaps more importantly) from optimizing intensive care unit (ICU) organization, standardizing best practices, and improving processes of care delivery. Even though this decline in short-term mortality is a major achievement, it has spawned new challenges. (Drs. John J. Marini, Jean-Louis Vincent and Djillali Annane, 1/20)

The New England Journal of Medicine: Bridging The Hospitalist–Primary Care Divide Through Collaborative Care
One of the most notable changes in the delivery of medical care in the United States in the past quarter-century has been the near disappearance of primary care physicians (PCPs) from general medical inpatient care, replaced by a new breed of generalist: the hospitalist. ... Hospitalist care is more efficient than traditional models of inpatient care and, on average, appears to be of similar quality. Good communication among hospitalist team members and between hospitalists and PCPs can lead to seamless, efficient, well-coordinated care; however, shift-work schedules and suboptimal communication and pass-offs can result in fragmented, impersonal care and excessive testing. ... These shortcomings suggest that the current dichotomous division of labor between hospitalists and PCPs warrants reconsideration, though any alternative approach needs to respect the achievements of the current system. (Drs. Allan H. Goroll and Daniel P. Hunt, 1/22)