Health reform implementation

A dozen House Republicans, including Tea Party favorites Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Ron Paul (Texas), challenged the new healthcare reform law's individual mandate in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in federal appeals court.

The House Republicans said a federal district judge in Michigan — the first to uphold the reform law's requirements for individuals to purchase health insurance — acknowledged that the mandate "goes well beyond any previous exercise of federal authority."

In October, U.S. District Court Judge George Steeh became the first of two federal judges, both Clinton appointees, to rule that the Constitution's Commerce Clause gives Congress the power to require individuals to purchase health insurance. Last month, a federal judge in Virginia appointed by President George W. Bush ruled the opposite, saying the Commerce Clause does not regulate an individual's decision not to buy health insurance.

The lawmakers' brief was filed in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is deciding whether to hear an appeal of the Michigan case.

"Because the district court’s order upholding the individual mandate under the Commerce Clause amounts to a declaration of virtually unlimited congressional power, it must be reversed," the House Republicans wrote in the brief with the Washington Legal Foundation.

Other House Republicans filing the brief included Dan Burton (Ind.), Mike Conaway (Texas), Lynn Jenkins (Kan.), Dan Lungren (Calif.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), Gary Miller (Calif.), Ted Poe (Texas), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Jean Schmidt (Ohio) and Todd Tiahrt (Kan.).

The Virginia judge who struck down the individual mandate last month decided not to block implementation of the law. A federal judge in Florida is expected to rule this month on another challenge to the individual mandate, as well as the reform law's expansion of the Medicaid program.

The requirement for individuals to purchase insurance is scheduled to go into effect in 2014.

The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said a bill will also come early on abortion language.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) argued that Republican repeal efforts could actually open the door for a system favored by liberals.

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) stressed that congressional Republicans have "got a chance to repeal" the healthcare law.

“If I had seen the memo, I would have suggested it be worded differently,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said.

Marking the end of a busy year in healthcare, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius touted her department's accomplishments over the past 12 months in a video message released Thursday afternoon.

For Sebelius, identifying the top accomplishment was a no-brainer: implementation of the sweeping healthcare reform law.

"Through the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, more Americans have access to health coverage as well as new rights and benefits in their health insurance," Sebelius said in a statement.

Other accomplishments in what she called a "banner" year include: fighting obesity through first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign; reducing Medicare fraud, waste and abuse; lowering tobacco use; expanding health information technology; and providing support to Haiti and the Gulf.

An anti-tobacco group is hitting back against a federal judge’s recent decision to block New York City from launching a massive anti-tobacco campaign featuring graphic images.

The campaign, struck down Wednesday, would have required New York City convenience stores to post gruesome images of a brain damaged by stroke, a diseased lung, or decaying teeth and gums as a warning of tobacco’s dangers.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that the city’s regulation was preempted by the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 2009, which prescribes federal guidelines for tobacco advertising.

“An otherwise laudable New York City health regulation designed to alert cigarette purchasers, at the very point of purchase, to the grave dangers of tobacco use must be declared invalid because it imposes burdens on the promotion of cigarettes that only the federal government may prescribe,” Rakoff wrote.

The plaintiffs in the case included the nation’s three largest tobacco manufacturers, as well as two trade associations representing city tobacco retailers.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said Thursday the city's anti-smoking campaign is within legal rights, arguing that the city’s requirement regulates the sale — and not the promotion — of tobacco products.

“We believe that New York City acted appropriately and within its legal authority to regulate the sale of tobacco products in requiring tobacco sellers to post the warning signs,” campaign president Matthew Myers said in a statement. “The court was in error when it failed to address the authority of state and local governments to regulate the sale of tobacco products that was explicitly protected in the new tobacco regulation law.”

The city will consider its legal options, a city attorney told The Associated Press. Before Rakoff’s ruling, the regulation was scheduled to go into effect on Saturday.

Republicans are preparing an array of budgetary, legislative and political strategies to fight regulatory action by President Obama.

Charles Krauthammer, a leading conservative voice, said House Republicans should keep their hands off the healthcare reform law to avoid blame for what he thinks will be the law’s inevitable failure.

Realizing that a Democratic Senate and president will make their wish to repeal the entire reform law impossible, House Republicans have said they will defund the law over the next two years. However, Krauthammer, a Washington Post columnist and Fox News contributor who opposes the reform law, said the defunding strategy will result in a “clumsily enacted” law, providing Democrats the opportunity to blame Republicans if it fails. 

“In the end, if healthcare collapses or if it becomes utterly unworkable, the Democrats will have a way of saying, ‘Well, it was all these injuries inflicted by the Republicans that made it not work,’ " he said on Fox News Monday.

Instead, Krauthammer urged House Republicans to use their new subpoena power to expose flaws in the law. Republicans have been eager to grill Medicare chief Donald Berwick, who was appointed in July without Senate confirmation.

“I think through hearings ... you will expose that in a better way,” Krauthammer said. “Whereas, if you try to take away the funds, in the end, you’re not going to succeed, but you may end up as the fall guy."

But Rep. Rob Andrews said that'd happen only if CBO changed its opinion that the bill cuts the deficit.