In California, Democrats in the legislature proposed a bill to add greater oversight over the health insurance industry. The rate regulation bill, proposed by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), would have allowed the Insurance Commissioner to review rate hikes proposed by insurers, and block hikes if they are without justification.

The bill, which mirrors similar policies for the auto insurance industry and health rate review laws in other states, died a sudden death yesterday as health care industry lobbying intensified:

Groups representing insurers, hospitals and doctors lobbied against the bill, saying the regulations would add bureaucracy and do nothing to address high and fast-rising medical costs that help drive rate increases. Ultimately, they argued, rate regulation could reduce access to care.

As ThinkProgress reported back in June, health insurers mobilized opposition through a number of third party groups funded by health insurers and other health care industry businesses. For instance, the California Chamber of Commerce slated Feurer’s bill, AB 52, as a “Job Killer,” but obscured the fact that Kaiser Health Plans, UnitedHealthcare of Southern California, and Anthem Blue Cross of California are major donors to the Chamber’s political coffers.

Although Feurer’s bill is dead for now, the fight has not yet ended. Next year, advocates will push again for the bill, which passed the Assembly earlier this year and died due to obstruction in the Senate.

Rate regulation might also see momentum in the form a ballot initiative drafted by California Watchdog for the polls next year. According to reports, California Watchdog’s rate review initiative would not only include elements of Feuer’s bill, but also require a 20 percent rollback of existing rates. “We’re preparing an initiative to be ready to go on health insurance reform if we’re not able to get satisfactory results in the Legislature,” said Doug Heller, executive director of the group.

GOP presidential “fringe runner” Rick Santorum has put a lot of effort into becoming the most anti-choice candidate in the field. Having cast 99 votes against women’s rights while in Congress, Santorum not only supports a federal abortion ban but is a consistent supporter of “personhood” rights for embryos. Those who subscribe to “personhood” ideology believe life begins at the moment of fertilization, which, if enshrined in law, would effectively ban contraception like birth control pills.

Yesterday in an interview with CNN host Piers Morgan, Santorum corrected his “belief” that life begins at conception. “I shouldn’t say I believe it,” he told Morgan, because “it’s a biological fact that life begins at conception.” This “fact,” he argued, bestows every right guaranteed under the Constitution to a zygote:

SANTORUM: I do believe that life begins at conception. I shouldn’t say I believe it, it’s a biological fact that life begins at conception. That child in the womb is biologically human — completely and fully human — and alive. Therefore, a human life. It’s reason that tells me that person that is now alive and human should be given the rights of any person under the Constitution. Where they are or where they’re located at the particular time in their life cycle shouldn’t determine whether they have constitutional rights or not. So, that’s something I came to as a matter of study more than anything else.

Watch it:

The medical community has long been in agreement that fertilization does not mark the beginning of pregnancy. Fully half of fertilized eggs never result in a pregnancy because they never begin dividing, never implant, or implant but spontaneously abort, often so early on a woman never knows she may have been pregnant. Some conservatives consider birth control pills tantamount to abortion because they can act to prevent implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus.

There’s no actual scientific moment at which life is agreed to begin — many scientists will explain life is an unceasing continuum that doesn’t “begin” at any one moment. The “fact” Santorum speaks of doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, embryos are not viable outside the uterus until at least their 23rd week. This standard of viability is a critically important medical distinction for practical purposes and forms the basis of the Roe v. Wade decision. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee on Ethics stated in 2006 that an embryo left or maintained outside the uterus “cannot develop into a human being.”

Regardless of the rhetoric-based debate about when life begins, extrapolating from personal religious belief that a single-celled fertilized egg inherently deserves the same exact rights as a human being ignores some pretty glaring biological differences — not to mention women’s constitutionally-protected right to an abortion.

Santorum’s ideology drives him far to the right of most Americans and even most Republicans who allow abortion exceptions to victims of rape or incest. During Fox’s GOP presidential debate this month, he used the “moment of conception” belief to argue that “the child is an innocent victim” and that rape victims should not be allowed to have abortion because that would be traumatizing them twice.

States across the country are slowly moving forward in implementing health insurance exchanges, a key component of the Affordable Care Act that helps uninsured Americans compare private insurance policies. Thirty-eight states have introduced legislation promoting these exchanges, and 10 states have enshrined them in law.

Even GOP leaders who consistently rail against the health care law are pursuing similar exchanges. In South Carolina, former GOP Gov. Mark Sanford (R) accepted $1 million in federal grant money last year to being exploring an exchange for his state, the fifth poorest in the nation.

But there’s a new executive in town, and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) is putting her foot down on progress. Committed to the “Obamacare” demagoguery, Haley declared that her administration will opt out of this state-driven solution to find its own state-driven solution that will provide “the most health at the least cost”:

But Haley and Tony Keck, whom Haley appointed to head the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, say the federal plan is not the right fit for South Carolina.

“The governor remains an equal opportunity opponent of ObamaCare, the spending disaster that South Carolina does not want and cannot afford,” said Rob Godfrey, Haley’s spokesman. “She and Tony Keck are focused on finding South Carolina solutions that provide our state with the most health at the least cost.”

By rejecting the option of setting up her own exchange, all Haley is guaranteeing now is that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will do it for her. All health exchanges are schedule to open in 2014 when ACA is fully implemented. But if a state has not made progress by Jan. 1, 2013, HHS will intervene. Indeed, HHS is bending over backwards to give states a “second chance” in setting up exchanges to avoid federal action. Only 12 states are refusing to move forward with health care exchanges.

Haley’s refusal to help implement an inevitable health reform all in the name of politics may not sit well with the 21 percent of South Carolinians under age 65 who have no insurance. As state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D) notes, “Governor Haley and all these people spouting the rhetoric have good health coverage…the people who don’t have a place at the table, their voices are not being heard.”

Keck, however, did not completely shut the door on an exchange. “If [the state] decides later that it makes sense for the state to run [an exchange], then we’ll run it. But that may be years off.”

Media Matters’ Political Correction blog has a smart take on the recently-released GOP plan to repeal a slew of regulations they claim are holding back job creation. This week House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent a memo to House Republicans about their “Upcoming Jobs Agenda,” which is nothing more than a list of regulations they will try to block or repeal.

In particular Republicans are taking aim at environmental regulations that are essential to protecting public health through clean air, clean water, and limiting toxins. Political Correction pulls out this Environmental Protection Agency assessment of the impact of just one of the rules, the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, that Cantor wants to block. The American Public Health Association estimates that the rule “could save between 14,000 and 36,000 lives every year from averted heart attacks, strokes and respiratory illnesses.”

The kicker is, this so-called “Transport Rule” and new Utility MACT standards — another Cantor target — actually create jobs. The University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute estimates that they could directly create nearly 638,000 jobs between 2010 and 2015 and indirectly contribute up to 1.5 million.

The ghosts of Gov. Rick Perry’s (R-TX) more moderate past have come back to haunt him in recent days, particularly when it comes to health care.

In 2001 at a border summit in south Texas, Perry spoke optimistically about the prospects for a “bi-national health insurance” program that would cover both U.S. and Mexican residents along the border. He also praised the Texas legislature’s bill to increase funding for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Given that Perry now considers Medicaid to be unconstitutional, the speech reads like it comes from another world — or an entirely different person:

There are other challenges that require a unified approach, especially in the area of health care. [...] I urged legislators to pass a telemedicine pilot program that will enable, through technology, a sick border resident of limited financial means to receive care from a specialist hundreds of miles away.

But the effort to combat disease and illness requires greater cooperative efforts between our two nations. It is a simple truth that disease knows no boundaries. [...] We have much to gain if we work together to expand preventative care, and treat maladies unique to this region.

Legislation authored by border legislators Pat Haggerty and Eddie Lucio establishes an important study that will look at the feasibility of bi-national health insurance. This study recognizes that the Mexican and U.S. sides of the border compose one region, and we must address health care problems throughout that region. That’s why I am also excited that Texas Secretary of State Henry Cuellar is working on an initiative that could extend the benefits of telemedicine to individuals living on the Mexican side of the border.

In the speech, Perry also extols the need for more preventative medicine and brags about how the legislature “expanded access to Medicaid for more low-income children” and increased Medicaid funding by $4 billion. His past praise for a “unified,” transnational health care program is a stark contrast with the view he expresses in his recent book Fed Up, where he posits that the Constitution forbids a “federally operated program of pensions” and “a federally operated program of health care.”

The remarks paint a refreshing picture of an enlightened, compassionate Perry who is informed about the benefits of preventative health care and Medicaid and has sympathy for poor border residents and undocumented immigrants.

The Perry campaign is, predictably, trying to downplay the speech. Campaign spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger tried to distance Perry from the proposal, saying, “A bill was passed by the Legislature that authorized a study to look into this issue, which ultimately concluded there were numerous barriers to accomplishing that idea, and the Legislature took no further action on this concept.”

Perry has also faced scrutiny this week for a 1993 letter he wrote as Texas Agricultural Commissioner praising then-First Lady Hillary Clinton for her efforts to reform the health care system. That legislation was brought down by mass GOP opposition and “Hillarycare” is still derided by conservatives as the precursor to “Obamacare.”

Kansas will restore Planned Parenthood funds: Kansas officials announced yesterday that they will immediately comply with the order of U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten to restore Planned Parenthood’s funding while their legal case to strip the organization of much of its funding is appealed in court. [AP]

Florida shutting “pill mill” clinics: Florida officials have taken aggressive action against “pill mills” that illegally sell and distribute prescription drugs throughout the country. In the past year 400 clinics were closed, dozens of pill mill operators have been indicted by prosecutors, and 80 doctors have had their licenses suspended. Florida has long been the nation’s center of illegal prescription drug sales. [New York Times]

California bill to regulate health insurance rates is shelved: Insurers and hospitals effectively killed a bill that would have allowed California officials to regulate health insurance rates for millions of consumers. The months-long fight to assert greater control over increasing health insurance premiums was defeated “after [a] forceful lobbying campaign” compelled Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D) to pull his bill. [Los Angeles Times]

FTC: consumers benefit from name-brand, generic competition: Yesterday the Federal Trade Commission released its final report on “authorized generics,” or generic drugs sold by the brand-name manufacturer during their six-month grace period without patent challenges from other generics. The FTC concluded that despite complaints from generic companies, consumers ultimately benefit from the competition, which lowers prices for the two competing drugs and for future generics. [Healthwatch]

Texas nursing homes brace for sicker patients, higher costs: Nursing home providers in Texas are preparing for more acute patients and rising medical costs as they receive less support at the state and federal level. The last state budget imposed a $20.4 million cut in general revenue for nursing homes, and they will likely be hit again in October with an over 10 percent — or $233.8 million — reduction in funding from the federal government. [Texas Tribune]

HHS awards $40 million for public health workforce: On Wednesday the Department of Health and Human Services awarded $40 million in grants to health departments and schools of public health to help train and educate public health workers. Most of the money came from a provision in President Obama’s health care reform law that Republicans derided as a “slush fund.” [Healthwatch]

Group trying to add abortion, contraception ban to Ohio constitution: A radical anti-abortion group, Personhood Ohio, is collecting signatures in an effort to amend the state’s constitution to redefine life as beginning at the moment of fertilization. The group hopes to put the issue on the ballot in 2012, which would ban abortion completely and effectively outlaw many common forms of contraception. [AP]