Healthcare Monday

ON THE HILL:

Members of Congress return to Capitol Hill, likely having heard an earful over the weekend from state officials getting more and more anxious about the fate of legislation granting extra Medicaid funding next year. Many states had included that money in their 2011 budgets, which took effect at the start of July. A failure of Congress to provide the additional funds before January would force many states to start cutting other programs, including education. But so far, that threat alone hasn't been enough to usher the bill through the Senate.

Expect the heat to intensify surrounding the Department of Health and Human Services's announcement last week that high-risk insurance pools — designed to cover sick Americans who have been denied private insurance — can't cover elective abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is threatened by the pregnancy. That's a more restrictive policy than the one to be applied to exchange plans, which can offer abortion services if the patient pays separately for that coverage. 

The announcement has ignited a firestorm among abortion rights advocates. "Because of the restriction, a woman with heart disease or diabetes might be compelled to carry a pregnancy to term despite its potentially damaging effect on her future health," Laura Murphy, legislative director at ACLU, warned recently. You can bet that liberals on Capitol Hill will share those sentiments.

Proving that Republicans have no intention of letting up on Donald Berwick, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) over the weekend used the entirety of the GOP's weekly radio address to slam the White House for its recess appointment of Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Republicans wanted a chance to grill Berwick over comments the Harvard-based pediatrician made praising Britain's single-payer healthcare system. 

They have this in their favor: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) also found the recess appointment troubling, and is vowing that Berwick will appear before the panel "in the near future."

NEWS: 

Politico reports Monday that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is hoping to use immigration reform to fix what they saw as an enormous flaw in the Democrats' health reform law: the exclusion of illegal immigrants from insurance exchanges, even when they pay full price with their own money. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) told Politico that, “The expectation was that everybody knew it was unfair and that a new immigration bill would correct that.” 

COMMENT:

The Washington Post's Robert Samuelson writes Monday that the Massachusetts healthcare law predicts a tough road ahead for the Democrats' newly installed federal reforms. "The state did the easy part: expanding state-subsidized insurance coverage," Samuelson writes. "It evaded the hard part: controlling costs and ensuring that spending improves people's health. Unfortunately, Obama has done the same."

MONDAY CALENDAR:

House Republicans host a panel discussion at the Capitol Monday on healthcare reform's effects on biosimilar drugs. (You can expect the verdict to be less than positive.)

On the vets' health front, an HHS advisory panel meets Monday to discuss challenges facing veterans living in rural areas.

The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics gathers in D.C. this morning to discuss HIPAA standards. 

And FDA officials will meet at the University of Maryland to examine their oversight of tests developed in laboratories.