Healthcare

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the co-chairman of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, said Sunday that he sees it as the "duty" of the so-called supercommittee to restructure federal healthcare programs.

"The duty is to put forth legislation that actually addresses our long-term structural debt," Hensarling said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "The president himself has said that the drivers of our debt are Medicare, Medicaid and healthcare. Nothing else comes close.

"So to me, what we really have to focus on is that duty, and that is to find programs, find a way to reform Medicare and Medicaid and our healthcare programs to get good retirement security and health security for our seniors at a cost that doesn't bankrupt our children," he added. "Frankly, if we don't find structural change, we will fail in our duty."

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Tuesday introduced a Social Security reform proposal that would slowly raise the retirement age, reduce benefits for high-income earners, and make other changes that Chaffetz said are needed to help keep Social Security solvent for the next 75 years.

While the plan may prove to be controversial, the Social Security Administration (SSA) acknowledged to Chaffetz that the plan would help keep Social Security solvent.

"We estimate that enactment of the basic provisions in this proposal would maintain solvency of the OASDI [Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance] program throughout the long-range (75-year) projection period and would fulfill the requirements for sustainable solvency," SSA said in a Nov. 9 letter to Chaffetz.

Five House Democrats on Friday proposed legislation that would completely ban smoking in and around all federal buildings.

Three members of the House on Thursday proposed legislation that would give states new incentives to use lower-priced generic drugs over brand-name drugs in a bid to save millions of dollars under the Medicaid program.

Rep. Charlie Bass (R-NH), along with Reps. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), said the bill would reward states for substituting more expensive brand-name drugs with generics.

House and Senate Democrats on Wednesday introduced legislation that would offer new federal grants for the purpose of expanding comprehensive sex education programs in high schools and colleges, with the aim of reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

"Comprehensive sex education programs are successful at reducing behaviors that put young people at risk," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), the lead sponsor of the House bill, H.R. 3324. "Research has shown programs that combine information about abstinence and contraception effectively delay the onset of sexual intercourse, reduce the number of sexual partners, and increase contraceptive use among teens."

A bipartisan group of House members proposed legislation on Thursday that would block a proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that would dramatically cut the Medicare reimbursement rate for radiologists who assess diagnostic images like CT, MRI and Ultrasound scans.

The Diagnostic Imaging Services Protection Act, H.R. 3269, is sponsored by Reps. Pete Olson (R-Texas) and Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), and has 31 other co-sponsors, 11 of whom are Democrats.

Passage was made even easier after the Obama administration announced it supported the bill.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Thursday said the Republican House isn't waiting for him on jobs.

The House approved a bill that Republicans said would prevent last year's healthcare law from funding abortions, but which Democrats said would go far beyond that and make it much harder for women to exercise their constitutional right to have abortions.

The bill, H.R. 358, was passed in a 251-172 vote that saw more than a dozen Democrats join nearly all voting Republicans in support of the measure.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Thursday evening argued that an abortion bill that is expected to pass tonight violates several Republican principles, including the protection of life and the absence of government intrusion.

Hoyer and other Democrats argued for much of Thursday that the bill, H.R. 358, would go well beyond a prohibition on the use of federal funds for abortion, and give hospitals the choice not to provide services to women in need of care, such as abortions that might be needed in emergency situations. Hoyer said that language seems to go against the title of the bill, the Protect Life Act.

"I don't think that's protecting life," Hoyer said. "In fact I think it's ignoring the protection of life."