Healthcare

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) and dozens of other Republicans proposed legislation on Wednesday that would deny federal funding to public schools that offer students abortion services through third party health providers.

"Our school health centers should be a place of healing and education for students," Neugebauer said this week. "They shouldn't be used as a tool to advocate for abortion, and certainly not with federal taxpayer dollars."

The Senate rejected an amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would have ended funding for President Obama’s healthcare law.

The 45-52 vote on Wednesday was the first amendment vote on the $984 billion continued spending resolution that would fund the government through the fiscal year.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) offered the first amendment to the continued spending resolution that funds the government through the fiscal year.

Cruz said his amendment would prohibit funding for the Affordable Care Act until the economy is growing at the “historic" level of at least 3-4 percent.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that healthcare costs have risen dramatically in the nearly three years since the Democrats' health reform law passed, which shows Republicans were right to downplay Democratic promises that costs would fall.

"It looks like our worst fears are coming true," McConnell said in a floor speech to mark next week's three year anniversary of the passage of what he and others call "Obamacare."

Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) proposes a five-year federal "risk avoidance education" grant program to stop premarital sex. 

The Senate passed a bill by unanimous consent Wednesday that would strengthen national preparedness for public health emergencies.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that the sequester could cut millions of dollars in healthcare research in New York, which she said would lead to both job cuts in her state and less research into life-saving medical technologies.

"I urge House leadership to avoid triggering a sequestration of federal funding that will impose draconian cuts to the research and development programs that are our hope for the future," Maloney said Sunday. "I am determined to join colleagues in both parties and both houses of Congress to prevent our nation from being forced into this entirely manufactured fiscal crisis."

Republicans hope the study confirms their suspicion the groups are focusing more on abortion and less on other healthcare services.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said Thursday that they’d introduced sex-education legislation limiting funding for "ineffective" abstinent-only programs.

The Real Education for Healthy Youth Act would expand comprehensive sex education programs in schools, while ensuring that federal funds are spent on "effective, age-appropriate and medically accurate" programs.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) pushed for a change to Medicare on Wednesday so that elderly patients are not charged for nursing home care after being hospitalized.

Currently, Medicare only covers post-acute care in a skilled nursing home facility if a patient has three consecutive days of hospitalization as an inpatient. Schumer’s Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act would allow “observation” stays to be counted toward the three-day mandatory inpatient stay for Medicare to cover rehabilitation post-hospital visits.