Health reform implementation

Two IRS officials working on the implementation of President Obama's healthcare law have been placed on administrative leave after accepting free food and gifts, sources said Wednesday.

Republicans had already zeroed in on the Internal Revenue Service's role in the healthcare law during the uproar over the agency's scrutiny of conservative nonprofits, and Wednesday's news promised to heighten the calls for aggressive oversight of the tax agency's healthcare office.

One of the officials placed on leave, Fred Schindler, is a top aide to Sarah Hall Ingram — who leads the IRS's healthcare office and presided over the office that handles tax exemptions for at least part of the time the conservative groups were being targeted. The other has been identified by congressional sources as Donald Toda.

The two were accused of accepting more than $1,000 in food and gifts during a 2010 conference.

The Hill has full coverage.

White House briefs Dems: House Democrats met Wednesday with Tara McGuinness, the White House's communications adviser for healthcare, to discuss enrollment in the law's insurance exchanges. A House Democratic leadership aide said the caucus and McGuinness focused on effectively implementing the healthcare law and working together to ensure that people enroll in its new coverage options. 

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Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) wants to know why the price tag keeps rising for new insurance subsidies under President Obama's healthcare law.

Hatch wrote to Cabinet officials Wednesday seeking more information about the cost of providing tax credits to help people pay for their insurance premiums.

The latest White House budget proposal estimates spending roughly $32 billion in 2014 on tax credits to help cover premiums. That cost has more than doubled over the past few White House budgets.

Price said he could reintroduce his replacement plan from the last Congress as early as today.

The House is seeking information from more companies Sebelius contacted with information about a pro-ObamaCare group.

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"I could legally solicit funds from anybody regulated by our office," HHS Secretary Sebelius told lawmakers.

More than 50 million Americans have trouble paying their medical bills, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

In the first six months of 2012, 20 percent of Americans — 54.2 million people — lived in a household that had trouble paying its medical bills, the CDC said.

The figure is a slight improvement from a year earlier, when 21.7 percent struggled to afford healthcare.

The Health and Human Services secretary on Tuesday defended fundraising calls she's made on behalf of a group promoting ObamaCare.

States would save money by accepting the Medicaid expansion in President Obama's healthcare law, according to a new study.

The research, published in the journal Health Affairs, said states that reject the Medicaid expansion will end up paying more for healthcare coverage than states that participate — and covering far fewer people.

Together, 14 states that have rejected the expansion will spend $1 billion more on uncompensated care than they would under the expansion, and they'll lose out on $8.4 billion in federal payments, researchers from the Rand Corporation said.

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