More than 80 House Democrats urged the Obama administration Wednesday to adopt an expert panel's recommendation to make birth control available without a co-pay.

The Institute of Medicine identified contraception as one of eight categories of women's health services that shouldn't require a co-pay. The healthcare reform law requires insurance plans to cover the full cost of certain preventive services.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is expected to decide soon whether to adopt the IOM's recommendations.

"While women’s health is often politicized, the IOM’s recommendations break through politics and focus on the data," House Democrats wrote in a letter to Sebelius. "They were developed by an expert panel through an exhaustive review of scientific evidence and rigorous research. We encourage you to adopt each of their recommendations in full."

States that didn't create an insurance exchange this year say they're now facing a time crunch that requires them to push the entire process forward at once.

Governors in 10 states have signed laws authorizing an exchange — the new insurance marketplaces created by healthcare reform. By creating the exchange promptly, those states were able to pass difficult policy decisions to the exchanges' boards and give the boards a jump-start on the logistics of setting up a new marketplace.

But policy officials outside of those 10 states say that without a law on the books, they don't have the luxury of breaking exchange planning into multiple phases.

"We do have to do kind of everything at the same time," said Cindi Jones, director of the Virginia Health Reform Initiative.

The Health and Human Services Department plans to give states more guidance soon on the technical processes for enrolling people in newly created insurance exchanges.

Cindy Mann, the director of the HHS office that administers Medicaid, said Wednesday that "rules of the road" on enrollment and eligibility determinations would be the next regulation HHS releases on the exchanges. She later softened that prediction, saying the rules will come out soon but it's hard to say what will come next.

The healthcare law requires exchanges to provide several options for buying coverage through an exchange, including a website and in-person options. It also mandates a seamless transition between Medicaid and the private coverage people will be able to buy through an exchange, usually with help from a government subsidy.

Eligibility and enrollment are major logistical undertakings, and even conservative Republican governors have called for heavy federal involvement.

Some stakeholders had expected enrollment to be a major focus of the initial exchanges rule, which was released earlier this month.

Congress's top champion of embryonic stem cell research vowed Wednesday to continue pushing for legislation authorizing federally funded research, despite a major court victory supporting her position.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging government-backed research. A three-judge panel said the court's hands were tied after an appellate court in April ruled that it was probably legal. 

The lawsuit sought to forbid federally funded researchers from using discarded embryos from fertility clinics to seek cures for Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries and other conditions. 

Despite the victory, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Col.) said her bill to allow funding for the research remains as vital as ever. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) is the lead co-sponsor.

Returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will place new demands on the Veterans Affairs healthcare system, the Congressional Budget Office testified Wednesday.

The cost of treating veterans from so-called ongoing overseas contingency operations (OCOs) is expected to total between $40 billion and $55 billion over the next 10 years, CBO testified before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The total depends on the number of military personnel deployed to overseas contingencies in the future and the rate of growth of medical expenditures per person.

Overall, CBO said, medical costs for OCO veterans are lower than for other veterans because they tend to be younger and in better health. In 2010, for example, the Department of Veterans Affairs obligated $4,800 per OCO patient on average versus $8,800 per patient for veterans from all eras. Still, OCO veterans' care could result in substantially higher costs in the future. CBO is currently analyzing the number of veterans diagnosed with several conditions — notably traumatic brain injury and mental health illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder — but those results aren't yet available.

About one-third of workers can get health benefits for same-sex partners, The New York Times reports.

Reuters reports that rural Americans have more health conditions and less access to doctors than city dwellers.

The Commonwealth Fund looks at the level of state flexibility in new rules designed to ensure that the risk posed by sick patients gaining coverage through healthcare reform isn't dumped on only a few insurane companies.

After taking heat earlier in the year over making money from Medigap plans, AARP announced Tuesday that it supports new limits on the plans' profits.

The seniors' lobby endorsed a bill, sponsored by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), to make Medigap plans comply with new medical loss ratio rules under healthcare reform. The MLR requires comprehensive health policies to spend 80 or 85 percent of their premiums on medical costs, leaving only the remainder for profits and overhead.

AARP endorsed the proposal, saying the Medigap supplement should be treated the same as major plans. The insurance industry says the bill would undermine a successful program.

Healthwatch's Sam Baker has more.

NIH: Proponents of funding for the National Institutes of Health don't want politicians to scrutinize each research grant the agency awards. Academics and other NIH supporters have come to the agency's defense after conservative groups criticized studies that were either funded by NIH or conducted by people who also received NIH grants for other projects.

Rescinding NIH funds based on how they're awarded "undermines the integrity of the world's premiere scientific enterprise," the Coalition to Promote Research said in a letter to lawmakers. Read the Healthwatch story.

AARP endorsed a bill Tuesday that would impose tighter limits on supplemental health plans that are often sold under the AARP brand.

The seniors' lobby backed a bill that would extend the healthcare law's medical loss ratio (MLR) provisions to Medigap plans. The new law requires traditional plans to spend 80 to 85 percent of their premiums on medical care. Medigap policies are subject to a lower limit.

"By raising the MLR for Medigap policies, Congress would create a balance between maximizing the value of health insurance for consumers and providing issuers with fair compensation for legitimate administrative costs," AARP said in a letter endorsing the bill, introduced by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.).

A healthy piece of AARP's revenue comes from Medigap plans. The organization doesn't sell the plans directly, but lends its brand name to certain policies and collects royalties in return. Republicans have attacked AARP for supporting healthcare reform, arguing that the group stands to benefit if cuts to Medicare Advantage drive up business for Medigap plans.

A coalition of researchers and other stakeholders wrote to appropriators Tuesday urging them to continue funding scientific research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and leave politics out of the review process.

The letter from the Coalition to Promote Research comes as some conservatives are clamoring for a moratorium on NIH grant-making and an investigation into the research that is approved.

"Congressional decisions rescinding funding for individual grants that have been approved through NIH's process not only undermines the integrity of the world's premiere scientific enterprise, but also the work of our nation's top scientists, and ultimately, the public's health," reads the letter to Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) and ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).