Health reform implementation

GOP Sen. Charles Grassley admitted Wednesday that a full repeal of Obama's healthcare law will die in the Senate.

Popular radio personality Don Imus told Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) this week that he's "delusional" for defending the new health reform law in the face of so much controversy.

"The majority of the American people don't like it, and all of the people I talk to think that it's not workable," Imus told Weiner on "Imus in the Morning" Wednesday. "But it's good to see that you're passionate about it, though delusional."

Weiner, one of the most vocal supporters of the reform bill passed by the Democrats in March, conceded that Republicans were politically successful this year "making demons" out of proposals whose individual provisions were popular with voters. 

A large chunk of the economic stimulus bill, for instance, was dedicated to tax cuts, Weiner noted, while the central insurance reforms contained in the healthcare bill have also polled well.

"[Republicans] did a very skillful job, though, of taking these things that people like, packaging them, and make them into bogeymen," Weiner said.

Asked about some hospitals' claims that the health law will put them out of business, Weiner said the reforms might save those facilities instead.

"Right now, so many people are coming into hospital emergency rooms without insurance that you and I are paying the bill. And hospitals are closing," he said, adding that New York has seen 17 hospitals close in the last decade — before the new law was in place. 

"It's much cheaper for us to provide subsidies for people to get insurance than keep providing them with healthcare and it not being reimbursed in any way," he said. 

"Hospitals, perhaps, have the most to gain if we get this right."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will file a brief in a Florida court in support of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new health-reform law.

The top Senate Republican will file an "amicus curiae" ("friend of the court") brief in the Florida case and has urged GOP colleagues in the Senate to sign onto the filing, too.

"While I strongly believe that we should repeal the law and replace it with the types of commonsense reforms Americans support, I also strongly support the efforts of over twenty States that have challenged this law in the courts," McConnell wrote in a dear colleague letter.

The effort is meant to build support by Senate Republicans for one of the highest-profile legal challenges to health reform, President Obama and congressional Democrats' signature legislative accomplishment in the past two years. It can be seen within the context of Republicans' vow to repeal the president's new health plan, a cornerstone of the case they made to voters in last week's election.

The suit challenges the constitutionality of a key part of the legislation, the so-called "individual mandate," or the requirement for all individuals to have health insurance. A judge ruled in October that the Florida suit, brought by 20 state attorneys general and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), could proceed.

McConnell wrote that the healthcare law would "remove an important bulwark" against government intrusion.

"I hope you will join me in arguing to the court in the attached brief why that should not happen," the Republican leader wrote.

Senate leaders filing amicus briefs are not entirely without precedent. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed one earlier this year in support of military families who were challenging a church's First Amendment right to protest soldiers' funerals.

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) is highlighting the fundraising and mentoring help he has given colleagues and touting his conservative credentials as he launches a campaign to chair the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. 

A letter Monday from Shimkus to House Republicans shows he’s using a different strategy than Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas), who is seeking another two years as top Republican on the panel. 

The Illinois Republican, like Barton, is selling himself as a reliable conservative voice in the caucus. But Shimkus sent his letter announcing the campaign to the whole caucus, while Barton's initial pitch was aimed at incoming freshmen.

The Food and Drug Administration allowed Chinese heparin to be imported into the United States from firms that refused to grant inspectors full access to records and labs, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.

The GAO report, requested by House Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas), also faulted FDA's reliance on outside experts with links to heparin companies. FDA boosted its inspections of Chinese heparin plants in 2008 after the deaths of more than 80 people were linked to contaminated heparin, an anticoagulant made of pigs' intestines.

"It’s now obvious that FDA has a fundamental weakness in how it deals with the surge of Chinese medical and food imports," Barton said in a statement. "The FDA allowed importation of heparin from Chinese processors who refused to permit full inspections of their labs and plants. This was a mistake.

"FDA already has the leverage to do in-country inspections in China because Chinese companies want access to U.S. markets," Barton added, "and FDA should use its leverage to insist on full inspections. To protect public health, there must be traceable and accountable supply chains in China — not just FDA keeping its fingers crossed."

The Colorado senator barely won his reelection race last week after being targeted for supporting the healthcare bill.

A leading House Democrat said this week that the party's signature healthcare reform law was largely the reason the Democrats were trounced in the midterms.

But, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) added, the law was worth the political costs because it "was the right thing to do."

"We got in the place that we're in because of healthcare reform," Clyburn told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday. "But you know what? … A lot of people lost their seats over Social Security, but that was the right thing to do.

"A lot of people, in fact — Democrats in the South — we lost the South because of civil rights back in the 1960s, but that was the right thing to do.

"And so I do believe that healthcare was the right thing to do."

Clyburn, the majority whip, is making headlines this month for his contest with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) for minority whip in the next Congress. 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who's running unchallenged to lead the party next year, will sit down Monday with Hoyer and Clyburn, Politico is reporting.

House Ways and Means Chairman-to-be Dave Camp (R-Mich.) is making his case for repealing and replacing the healthcare overhaul, touting his own version of a bill that he says would reduce premiums. 

In a USA Today editorial, Camp said the House Republican alternative was the only bill certified by the Congressional Budget Office "as reducing premiums across the board by up to 10 percent."

"By putting an end to junk lawsuits, encouraging small businesses to band together to provide health plans, forcing insurance companies to compete by allowing Americans to shop across state lines, and giving states the flexibility to make changes that best meet the needs of their residents, we can reduce premiums and still provide important patient protections," Camp said in the editorial. 

The Republican plan also would guarantee that those with pre-existing conditions can obtain affordable coverage, prohibit insurers from "unjustly canceling policies" and allow dependents to remain on their parents' policies through age 25, he said.

"We can reform health care, provide better patient protections and lower costs. It doesn't take $1 trillion in new government spending, $500 billion in new taxes and $500 billion in cuts to Medicare over the next decade," he said. 

“I think ObamaCare is one of the worst pieces of legislation passed in modern history,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said.

The announcement comes after HHS revealed only 8,011 people had enrolled in the high-risk pools as of this week.