Healthcare

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) on Tuesday warned that the Obama administration's planned survey of patient access to primary care doctors in the U.S. could impose significant costs on doctors and needlessly waste U.S. taxpayer dollars.

Kirk said he has "great concern" about what he called the administration's planned "stealth survey," which was first reported in The New York Times on Sunday. That report said the administration plans to have fake patients try to set up appointments with doctors in order to gauge patient access to these doctors.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) last week re-introduced legislation that would require abortion providers in states without parental notification requirements to notify parents about abortion procedures.

The bill, H.R. 2299, would also make it a federal offense to transport minors across state lines to avoid a state's laws requiring parental notification of abortions.

Members of the House on Wednesday evening warned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that they will be closely watching how the FDA establishes regulations, and may yet consider legislation that seeks to require officials follow "hard science" as they develop rules.

Congressmen cited pending regulations relating to the use of antibiotics in cattle due to possible risks to people who eat beef. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) said he and other members have asked FDA to justify these possible regulations, but FDA declined to discuss their scientific justification.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is offering legislation to give officials the power to block health insurance rate increases. 

House Republicans this week opened up a new front in the battle over federal suntan policy by introducing legislation to eliminate the 10 percent tax on tanning services. That tax was included in last year's healthcare law, but Michael Grimm (R-NY) and 24 other House Republicans would repeal that tax with their legislation, H.R. 2092.

"America's small businesses and hard-working middle class should not have to foot the bill for Obamacare," Grimm said Friday. "The healthcare law unfairly imposes onerous taxes, like the tan tax, on our nation's business owners and consumers, slowing economic growth and costing jobs. I made a promise to repeal Obamacare, which is why I'm pleased to introduce legislation to repeal the tan tax and eliminate one more job-killing and economy-crushing provision in the healthcare law."

The House on Wednesday afternoon approved an amendment from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) that would prevent a federal healthcare education fund from being used for abortion or to provide for training for abortion procedures.

The House voted 234-182 in favor of the amendment. Thirteen Democrats voted for it, and 10 Republicans voted against it.

The House late Tuesday was thrown off its schedule and is now expected to complete work on a healthcare bill Wednesday.

The bill, H.R. 1216, would scale back federal funding for graduate medical student education. One amendment to the bill, from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), would ensure remaining funds are not used for abortion training.

House Democrats on Tuesday evening moved to block progress on a healthcare bill in response to a Republican attempt to limit debate on amendments, after debate on a single amendment lasted nearly two hours.

The House was debating an amendment from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) that would prevent federal funding for medical training related to abortion. Debate began on the abortion amendment, but over the afternoon led to a broader debate, led by several Democrats, over the GOP's plan to move Medicare to a voucher system.

House members on Tuesday night are expected to hold a controversial vote on language that would prevent federal funds for medical resident training from being used to train residents on abortion procedures. (Update: later events postponed the vote until Wednesday.)

The language in question comes from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who is seeking to amend a bill that would scale back the federal funding and make it subject to annual appropriations. The program, established in last year's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), was automatically funded by Democrats last year.

The House Tuesday afternoon approved a rule allowing consideration of three bills, all of which are expected to be taken up this week. The rule was approved in a 238-181 vote; only six Democrats supported it, and one Republican opposed it.

The rule covers H.R. 1216, which would reduce federal funding for graduate-level medical education that was provided for in last year's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The House immediately moved to debate on this bill and is expected to approve it later Tuesday.

The rule also covers the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the House is expected to take up Tuesday and Wednesday. And it allows the House to immediately take up an extension of Patriot Act surveillance authorities, which the Senate will vote on first this week.