Healthcare

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Monday pushed the Obama administration to set an explicit target for healthcare cost savings from delivery reform.

On the Senate floor, Whitehouse said that "vague intentions to bend the healthcare cost curve" often voiced in Washington are not enough to ensure better patient outcomes for a better price.

"Instead of being a disgraceful outlier from all the rest of the world on quality and cost, let's make America a healthcare system that is in the envy of the world," Whitehouse said. "That should be our goal, and that could be our destiny." 

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Monday that he would soon introduce a bill to increase pediatric medical research.

“My bill can help increase our understanding of pediatric diseases, improve treatment and therapies, and create better health outcomes for our nation’s children,” Brown said Monday.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) introduced three anti-abortion rights bills Thursday, one of which would double spending for a pregnancy assistance program aimed to help pregnant teens and college students.

Casey, an anti-abortion rights Democrat and staunch Catholic, believes life begins at conception and said it’s the government’s job to protect life.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on Thursday proposed several abortion bills to mark Friday's "March for Life" rally in Washington, D.C., including one that would prevent taxpayer money from going to groups like Planned Parenthood that perform abortions.

"Every life matters, so let's show that we mean it," Vitter said in a Friday op-ed with Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). "Let's do all that we can to help build a culture that respects the right to life as the central human rights issue of this generation.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) called for Medicare and Medicaid reform to be part of the Senate budget debate.

On the Senate floor Thursday, Hatch said entitlement spending, as it stands, is a major contributor to the nation's fiscal troubles.

“The difference simply cannot be made up by taxes,” Hatch said. “It’s time to deal with unsustainable entitlement programs. ... The main drivers of our debts and deficit are not a lack of revenue, it’s our entitlement programs.”

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) on Tuesday called President Obama the "abortion president" given his support for Planned Parenthood and the 2010 healthcare law that Smith said will allow public funding of abortions.

Smith and several other House Republicans spoke on the House floor to mark the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court that made abortion legal. Smith said that despite recent setbacks, he and other anti-abortion-rights members would continue fighting to curtail abortion rights.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) called for the end of brand-name drug manufacturers using pay-off agreements to keep cheaper generic equivalents off the market.

“These anti-competitive patent settlements between brand and generic drug companies only serve to keep the price of prescription drugs high and reduce consumer choice,” Grassley said Thursday.

New York and Idaho lawmakers called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to change its nutrition guides to include Greek yogurt as a source of protein.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Reps. Richard Hanna (D-N.Y.) and Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) sent a letter Thursday to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack urging him to change USDA guidelines on the protein-packed food.

“A standard serving of Greek yogurt has more protein than an equivalent portion of beans, yet it is not included in the list of protein sources in current USDA nutrition materials, nor is it recognized as a type of yogurt on the dairy page,” the lawmakers wrote. 

"By his executive actions today, President Obama is pushing the government further into the exam room," Rep. Fleming (R-La.) said.

Dozens of House Democrats on Tuesday reintroduced legislation that would amend the 2010 healthcare law to create a government-run health insurance option, or a so-called "public option."

The Public Option Deficit Reduction Act, H.R. 261, was introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), along with 44 other House Democrats.