House GOP rejects doc fix proposal: “House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Sunday (Dec. 18) he and his GOP colleagues oppose the Senate’s two-month doc fix that passed 89-10 on Saturday (alongside temporary extenders of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance), calling for a conference between the two chambers to resolve the differences – prompting the White House to charge that Boehner flipped on the issue.” [Inside Health Policy]
Health reform under threat: “President Obama’s healthcare reform law will be under attack on every conceivable front next year.” [Julian Pecquet]
Concern growing over deadlines for health-care exchanges: “With many states unwilling or unable to get insurance exchanges operational by the health-care law’s deadline of Jan. 1, 2014, pressure is growing on the federal government to do the job for them. But health-care experts are starting to ask whether the fallback federal exchange called for in the 2010 law will be operational by the deadline in states that will not have their exchanges ready.”[Washington Post]
Limited backlash against essential health benefits guidance: “The Obama administration’s first crack at defining minimum health benefits did exactly what consumer groups hoped it wouldn’t do: It gave states a choice of “benchmark” plans rather than spelling out the details.But the administration seems to have pulled it off — because there was no backlash to be found from groups that championed the law.” [Politico]
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) introduces new health reform plan: Duffy would repeal the health reform law and replace it with legislation that limits financial awards for plaintiffs in health care lawsuits and shortens the time limit for filing health care suits, expands the use of health savings accounts, allows young adults to remain on a parent’s health insurance until the age of 23, provides health care insurance for people with preexisting conditions through high-risk pools rather than requiring health insurance policies, increases penalties for instances of Medicare fraud and abuse and refocuses enforcement on large entities.” [Wausau Daily]
Pennsylvania adopts tough abortion regs: “Nearly a year after grand jury described a ‘house of horrors’ at a Philadelphia abortion clinic, Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to sign new regulations that will require the state Department of Health to hold abortion facilities in Pennsylvania to the same standards as other outpatient surgical facilities.” [Pocono Record]
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