Health reform implementation

Democrats moved quickly on Thursday to tamp down a report that they're seeking to "exempt" themselves from a key piece of President Obama's healthcare law. Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate said they do not want to change a provision that requires lawmakers and their staffs to buy insurance through newly created insurance exchanges.

"There are not now, have never been, nor will there ever be any discussions about exempting members of Congress or Congressional staff from Affordable Care Act provisions that apply to any employees of any other public or private employer offering health care," a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said.

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Some lawmakers have been discussing a change in the way the healthcare law treats lawmakers and their staffers.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is criticizing the federal Health Department for allowing Massachusetts to take three years to comply with certain requirements under ObamaCare without granting similar flexibility to other states.

Hatch, the Senate Finance Committee's top Republican, questioned the special transition period "to eliminate the use of certain rating factors currently used and allowed under [Massachusetts] law." 

"State regulators throughout the country have expressed to you their concerns about the impact of rating reforms on the operations of their markets," Hatch wrote to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "It seems only reasonable that the department has the same authority to offer flexibility to all states." 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that the ObamaCare “train wreck” is no surprise to Republicans.

“Americans can rest assured that Republicans will keep working to repeal this law. I hope more of the President’s allies will join us in that fight too,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday. “I urge my friends on the other side to join with Republicans and stop this ‘train wreck’ before things get even worse.”

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GOP leaders lacked the votes to pass an ObamaCare fix bill.

House Republicans couldn't put together enough votes Wednesday for a bill that would have propped up one ObamaCare program while cutting another. Leadership pulled the bill from the floor ahead of a scheduled vote, saying they didn't have enough votes to pass the measure "yet." It will be back on the floor next month, leadership aides said.

The bill would have cut $4 billion from the healthcare law's prevention fund and redirected the money into the law's high-risk insurance pools — a temporary program set to expire at the end of this year. Conservatives objected to pumping more money into a program that has already burned through most of its $5 billion budget. Others were uncomfortable voting to prop up any part of ObamaCare, even though high-risk pools are generally a policy Republicans support — even as an alternative to ObamaCare.

Pulling the bill marks a setback for GOP leaders, who pushed ahead despite opposition from the Club for Growth and Heritage Action. And it's a sign that many Republicans aren't yet ready to "fix" any part of ObamaCare. Cutting the law's prevention fund has been an easy sell in the past — what made things difficult for this bill was the decision to put the savings back into another part of the healthcare law.

The Hill has full coverage of Wednesday's non-vote.

Harkin hold: If you mess with the prevention fund, you mess with Sen. Tom Harkin. That's the message the Iowa Democrat sent to the White House on Wednesday, when he put a hold on Marilyn Tavenner, President Obama's nominee to lead the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid. 

Marilyn Tavenner had previously seemed poised for an easy, bipartisan confirmation.

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.