Chiropractic Breakthrough

Congressional Republicans, seizing on the type of social issue that motivates and unifies their base, stepped forcefully Wednesday into the battle over an Obama administration rule requiring health insurance plans provided by Catholic universities and charities to offer free birth control to women, vowing to fight back with legislation to unravel the new policy.

House and Senate negotiators are deadlocked over how to prevent a deep cut in Medicare payments to doctors who treat millions of Medicare beneficiaries, an impasse that could threaten broader legislation on a payroll tax cut. In the absence of agreement, doctors’ fees will be cut 27% next month, and many doctors say they could not continue treating Medicare patients under the lower payments.

This week, House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp said that using war savings to pay for an overhaul of the Medicare physician payment formula is likely out of the scope of the conference committee’s deliberations. In addition, the proposal faces political obstacles.

On Friday, the nation’s pre-eminent breast cancer advocacy group, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, reversed course and restored it’s relationship with Planned Parenthood, which has used the Komen money to provide breast cancer screening and education to thousands of low-income women.

The Republican-led House on Wednesday voted to repeal a financially troubled part of the 2010 health care law that was designed to provide affordable long-term care insurance. The House vote comes months after the Obama administration suspended the Community Living Assistance Services and Support program, known as the CLASS Act.

In a decision that is inflaming passions on both sides of the abortion debate, the world’s largest breast cancer organization, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is cutting off its financing of breast cancer screening and education programs run by Planned Parenthood affiliates.

The Obama administration on Friday told the Supreme Court that if the justices rule that the health reform law’s mandate is unconstitutional, they don’t need to get rid of the entire law. Only two provisions — those requiring insurers to accept everyone regardless of health status and to apply “community rates” — must go if the mandate is knocked down.

It’s been 3 years since Congress approved a nearly $30 billion plan to digitize health care records, yet much of the health care industry is still drowning in paper. The Bipartisan Policy Center released a 43-page report detailing the gaps in health IT implementation–the biggest concern being a delay in getting the various systems to be able to talk to one another.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans have tried to repeal various pieces of President Barack Obama’s health reform law, but they haven’t touched the least popular piece: the individual mandate. One reason for that: They don’t want to give the Supreme Court a reason not to strike it down.

When it came to health, what was most surprising was how little President Obama had to say in his State of the Union address. His landmark 2010 health overhaul — whose fate is currently before the Supreme Court and whose repeal is the top priority for every GOP presidential candidate — got barely a passing mention.