The week in health policy

By Julian Pecquet - 07/12/10 08:00 AM ET

Lawmakers return to town this week for the last slog before the lengthy August recess. Their most immediate healthcare priority will be extending enhanced Medicaid funding for states for the first six months of 2011, which governors from across the political spectrum will be clamoring for as deep cuts to state budgets and workforces loom ever larger on the horizon.

Before the July recess Senate Democrats were able to broker an FMAP (Federal Medical Assistance Percentages) compromise with centrist Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), so the chances of getting something passed are strong. The compromise would pare down FMAP funding in the first two quarters of 2011 instead of giving states a full 6.2 percent boost, something governors have said they could live with.

The bipartisanship needed to get the FMAP done could be poisoned, however, by continuing fallout from President Barack Obama’s controversial recess appointment of Donald Berwick to head the Medicare agency. Senate Republicans are seething at their lost chance to press Berwick on his support for Britain’s National Health Service and to rekindle the debate on healthcare reform and rationing.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration will make major news on Tuesday with the scheduled unveiling of its long-awaited AIDS strategy.

Also Tuesday, the House Veterans Affairs Committee holds a field hearing in St. Louis on “the consequences of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Non-Compliance.”

A couple of hearings this week may also boost two bills’ chances of becoming law this year.

On Tuesday, the House Education and Labor Committee holds a hearing on mine-worker safety legislation. Sponsored by panel chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), the bill would make it easier for the nation’s miners to complain about unsafe conditions; grant mine safety regulators subpoena power when conducting investigations; hike penalties for safety violations; and empower federal regulators to close unsafe mines more easily.

The next day, the Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee holds a hearing on the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) has a bill to restrict the practice. It got a boost last week when the Food and Drug Administration released draft guidance suggesting that excessive use of antibiotics to grow bigger poultry and livestock “poses a serious public health threat.”