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OVERNIGHT HEALTH: Abortion-rights opponents see setbacks in 3 states
Monday was a bad day for abortion-rights opponents.
The controversial “personhood” movement was dealt a fresh loss in the courts, this time in Oklahoma. The state supreme court said in a unanimous ruling that a personhood proposal there is “clearly unconstitutional.”
Personhood advocates want to amend state constitutions to say that life begins at fertilization, which could jeopardize access to contraception and in vitro fertilization. The Oklahoma court’s decision follows a ruling last year in which a Nevada judge threw a personhood amendment off the state’s 2012 ballot.
Healthwatch has the story on the Oklahoma ruling.
The clinics argued that discrimination against them by the state amounted to infringement on their right to freely associate.
U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel noted "the potential for immediate loss of access to necessary medical services by several thousand Texas women" if the law were to take effect. Yeakel, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, will hear full arguments in the case before issuing a final decision.
Healthwatch has more.
Abortion pill bill gets veto in Minnesota: Opponents of abortion rights faced their second defeat in two weeks in Minnesota, where Gov. Mark Dayton (D) rejected a bill requiring that a physician be present every time an abortion pill is prescribed or swallowed. In his veto message Monday, Dayton defended telemedicine — when
doctors deliver care and write prescriptions using telecommunications
technology — as "safe, accessible and cost-effective."
GOP State Rep. Joyce Peppin, the bill's original sponsor, had argued that it would prevent women from suffering harmful side effects without medical supervision.
Last week, Dayton vetoed a measure strengthening state oversight of abortion clinics.
Dayton also vetoed a bill Monday that would have allowed the state to withdraw from Medicare, Medicaid and any other federal healthcare arrangement it wished.
Read more at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Minnesota as microcosm: The New York Times has an on-the-ground dispatch from Minnesota, where Dayton is clashing with Republicans — or, in his words, “vitriolic antigovernment, anti-Obama” activists — over the state’s insurance exchange. The Republican chairman of the state Senate’s health committee told the Times: “The exchange centralizes power in the hands of bureaucrats and is a step to single-payer health care that has been the dream of the political left for decades.”
Similar battles are playing out nationwide, as Republicans try to put the brakes on anything related to “Obamacare” and Democrats try to forge ahead with the centerpiece of the 2010 overhaul. The Times story is here.
Doctors push against ACA rule: Doctors groups have written to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services opposing a rule from the healthcare law aimed at reducing Medicare payments to doctors. In its proposed form, the rule would impose a burden on doctors and practices, they wrote, by requiring that they keep up to 10 years of billing records on file. In its simplest form, the statute requires physicians to report and return overpayments within 60 days.
Healthwatch has more.
Tuesday's agenda
The Institute of Medicine releases a report on issues related to studying the safety of approved drugs.
State by state
Enrollment in an Alabama health plan for patients with pre-existing conditions increased sixfold over one year, The Birmingham News reports.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) plan to cut costs in Medicaid was approved by federal regulators, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Community clinics in California are using funding provided by the 2010 healthcare law to transition to a medical home model, California Healthline reports.
Lobbying registrations
Ogilvy Government Relations / Budco Health Services Solutions
Bill tracker
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation to "ensure health care coverage value and transparency for dental benefits under group health plans."
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) introduced legislation to "ensure that the coverage offered under multi-State qualified health plans offered in Exchanges is consistent with the federal abortion funding ban."
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) introduced legislation to "require the label of drugs intended for human use to contain a parenthetical statement identifying the source of any ingredient constituting or derived from a grain or starch-containing ingredient."
Reading list
Total healthcare spending nationwide grew at the slowest rate in more than 50 years in 2009 and 2010, The New York Times reports.
Propublica examines four medical implants that have received criticism for an apparent lack of FDA scrutiny: hip implants, surgical mesh, heart valve rings and defibrillator leads.
The number of babies born in the United States with drug withdrawal tripled between 2000 and 2009, a new study found. The Associated Press has the story.
Teens may be wired for addiction, according to the largest imaging study ever conducted of the adolescent brain. The Wall Street Journal has more.
What you might have missed on Healthwatch
Georgetown to continue providing contraceptive coverage
CMS: Obama health law has saved seniors $3.4 billion on prescription drugs
Medical debt collector denies pressuring patients
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