Health reform implementation

The Obama administration wants to increase the amount it pays hospitals under Medicare.

In a 1,424-page proposal, set to be published in the Federal Register on May 10, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to increase the operating rates for long-term and short-term acute care at inpatient hospitals that treat patients covered by the government healthcare program, and is laying out some new features of the Affordable Care Act.

The CMS proposes increasing payments for acute care, which include short stays for non-chronic conditions like severe injuries or brief illnesses, by 0.8 percent, or about $27 million.

The agency also wants to increase payment rates for long-term care by 1.1 percent in 2014, estimated to come out to $62 million.

The agency's proposed increases account for offsets and reductions in spending, and would take effect starting in October.

Republicans introduced a bill Friday in response to allegations that top congressional officials are seeking to exempt Capitol Hill from ObamaCare's health insurance exchanges.

The measure from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) would require that all federal employees — including the president, vice president and Cabinet members — purchase coverage through the marketplaces.

"If the ObamaCare exchanges are good enough for the hardworking Americans and small businesses the law claims to help, then they should be good enough for the president, vice president, Congress, and federal employees," Camp spokeswoman Sarah Swinehart said in a statement. 

Nearly half of the U.S. working population lacked health insurance or adequate coverage in 2012, but many of those individuals will benefit next year as major provisions of the Affordable Care Act take effect, according to The Commonwealth Fund.

The New York-based research foundation reported Friday that the uninsured population has risen substantially since 2003 and somewhat since 2010, when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law.

Last year, 55 million lacked health coverage for some time during the year, and 30 million had high out-of-pocket costs that rendered them underinsured. 

Republicans hammered Democrats for allegedly seeking to carve themselves out of a requirement in the healthcare law.

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.”

New health exchanges unlikely to end insurance monopolies in some states

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