Health reform implementation

Frustration is emerging as the House moves toward a vote on a bill to bolster part of the healthcare law.

The bill would strengthen ObamaCare's stopgap insurance program by taking funds from another part of the law.

Rep. Greg Harper (R-Miss.) said the fact ObamaCare officials haven't been furloughed shows sequester cuts are political.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she is working to address a top Democrat's concern that ObamaCare will be a "train wreck" because too few people understand the law.

Sen. Max Baucus's (D-Mont.) widely broadcast remark followed Sebelius to a committee hearing Wednesday, where GOP senators asked her to respond.

"I think the senator [Baucus] was describing a situation where he felt far too few people were aware of the benefits that they were going to be entitled to receive, and that there wasn't enough outreach and education going on," Sebelius said. 

The conservative Club for Growth still opposes a GOP bill to fund part of ObamaCare, despite a Republican amendment designed to allay conservatives' concerns.

Club for Growth said it will still "score" lawmakers' votes on the GOP bill, which would increase funding for the healthcare law's high-risk insurance pools by cutting its fund for prevention and public health.

The House is set to vote on the bill Wednesday, along with an amendment that would create state-based high-risk pools in addition to propping up the federal pools in ObamaCare.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) reprimanded the Obama administration Wednesday for using billions of dollars from ObamaCare's preventive health fund for other purposes.

Harkin, the fund's creator, said federal health officials don't understand the fund's value in fighting the myriad costs associated with chronic disease.

The fund has been tapped several times to pay for the Affordable Care Act's soon-to-launch federal insurance exchange, as well as for outreach related to the law. 

House Republicans hammered the Obama administration Wednesday as they sought to build support for a controversial bill to fund ObamaCare's insurance pools for uninsured people.

Republicans put the focus squarely on the Obama administration as the House prepared to vote on a bill that has divided conservatives. The proposal would increase funding for high-risk insurance pools by cutting funding for another part of the healthcare law.

Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee pressed a top healthcare official over the administration's decision to stop accepting new enrollees in the high-risk pools, which were intended to serve as a bridge to 2014, when other provisions of the health law take effect.

“Building a bridge doesn’t do any good if it doesn’t get you to the other side," Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said.

The White House is conducting a final review of a proposal from the healthcare reform law that would cut federal grants for hospitals that serve poor patients.

The facilities, known as Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH), are eligible for state and federal funding to balance out the amount they spend caring for patients who are unable to pay their bills.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spent more than $17 billion on payments to DSHs in 2011, according to a Government Accountability Office study. The Affordable Care Act aimed to slash those grants exponentially from 2014-2020, starting with a $500 million cut next year.

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House Republican leaders face a major test on a controversial bill that is strongly opposed by a powerful right-leaning group.