House Republicans on Thursday introduced two bills that seek to prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions, the opening salvo in what's sure to become a bitter political dispute.

"A ban on taxpayer funding of abortion is the will of the people," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said at a press conference, "and it ought to be the [law] of the land."

Anti-abortion groups immediately praised the legislation, while Planned Parenthood said it would penalize people with healthcare plans that cover abortions by taking away their tax deduction.

"Republicans took control of Congress on a promise to create jobs, but instead, one of their first acts is to take away health insurance benefits that the majority of women currently have," Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards said in a statement. "The true intent ... is to end insurance coverage for virtually all abortions, including private insurance coverage that Americans pay for with their own money, even in cases involving the most severe dangers to a woman's health."

The House has just approved a resolution instructing four committees to work on alternatives to last year's healthcare law. The measure, H.R. 9, was approved by a 253-175 vote, a wider margin than Wednesday's 245-189 vote to repeal the healthcare law.

Fourteen House Democrats voted for the resolution: Reps. Jason Altmire (Pa.), John Barrow (Ga.), Dan Boren (Okla.), Corrine Brown (Fla.), Ben Chandler (Ky.), Mark Critz (Pa.), Tim Holden (Pa.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Lipinski (Ill.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Mike Ross (Ark.), and Heath Shuler (N.C.).

The mostly partisan vote came amid Democratic complaints that the resolution is simply an instruction to work on alternatives, and is not an actual healthcare plan. That, coupled with yesterday's repeal vote, has Democrats worried that Republicans were quick to repeal last year's law but will be slow to come up with alternatives.

H.R. 9 was approved with an amendment that also asks committees to come up with a permanent solution to the Medicare physician reimbursement rate (see post immediately below).

Updated at 11:45 a.m.

The House has just overwhelmingly approved language in support of finding a permanent Medicare physician payment schedule that does not require periodic legislation in order to avoid steep cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates to doctors.

In a 428-1 vote, the House agreed to amend H.Res. 9 with the so-called "doc fix" language from Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah). H.Res. 9, which the House is expected to approve in the next few minutes, asks the committees to meet a series of objectives, such as lower costs, coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and preserving doctor choice. The Matheson amendment adds to those objectives a permanent Medicare reimbursement solution.

Only Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) voted against the amendment.

Speaking in defense of his amendment, Matheson said the current reimbursement system is "flawed," in part because it has forced Congress to repeatedly pass bills to avoid steep cuts in physician payments. He noted that last year alone, the House had five votes to avoid scheduled cuts.

At the same time, Matheson said he does not support Republican efforts to repeal last year's healthcare law.

House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) said he supports the Matheson language, a sentiment that was clearly echoed in the final vote tally, as no Republicans voted against the Matheson amendment.

Updated at 12:17 p.m.

A day after the House voted to repeal the healthcare reform law, a powerful House committee is launching a probe of the Obama administration’s efforts to implement the law. 

Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee are flexing their new oversight powers by calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to explain why some groups were given waivers to a key requirement of the reform law and why the department recently reorganized an office created just months ago.

The health department’s power to provide temporary exemptions to certain groups on annual insurance-limit requirements included in the reform law is “troubling,” according to a letter from Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and investigations subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.).

The committee is asking the department to provide a list of every individual, organization, business, state or other entity that requested a waiver, obtained a waiver, or has been denied a waiver for any part of the reform law. The probe seeks “all documents” relating to the granting of waivers or exemptions for any reform law requirement.

The letter also asks HHS to explain why the newly renamed Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, which was created in the aftermath of the reform law, was recently moved from the HHS secretary’s office to the Medicare agency. At the time, the department said the move would provide the office with better resources, but Republicans claimed the move was designed to protect the office from the GOP’s efforts to defund the reform law.

The letter is the first indication that Upton will make good on his promise to provide vigorous oversight of the administration’s implementation of the reform law.

“Real oversight is needed, and the Energy and Commerce Committee will work closely with other committees of jurisdiction to reveal, repeal and replace this law,” Upton wrote in a blog for The Hill last month.

An HHS spokeswoman said the department received the letter and is reviewing it.

This post was updated at 11:30 a.m. with the HHS response.

President Obama’s top health advocate issued “a call to action” for communities, employers and care providers to eliminate barriers to breastfeeding, citing the practice’s numerous health benefits.

Several factors impede a mother’s efforts to breastfeed, according to a new report from Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. Those factors include a lack of support at home or lack of family members with breastfeeding experience; a lack of breastfeeding information from healthcare providers; a lack of time and privacy at the workplace; and no connection with other breastfeeding mothers in their communities.

Babies that are breastfed are protected from certain infections and illnesses and are less likely to develop asthma, and those who are breastfed for six months are less likely to become obese, according to the report. While 75 percent of babies are breastfed after birth, only 13 percent are exclusively breastfed after six months, and rates are much lower among blacks, the report said.

Further, mothers who breastfeed are less likely to develop breast and ovarian cancers, the report said.

As part of her call to action, the surgeon general recommended the following steps:

• Communities should expand and improve programs that provide mother-to-mother support and peer counseling.

• Healthcare systems should ensure that maternity care practices provide education and counseling on breastfeeding.

• Clinicians should ensure that they are trained to properly care for breastfeeding mothers and babies, and they should promote breastfeeding to pregnant patients.

• Employers should work toward establishing paid maternity leave and high-quality lactation support programs that allow nursing mothers to have babies close by during the day. Employers should also provide women with break time and private space in which to breastfeed.

• Families should give mothers the support and encouragement they need to breastfeed.

Working on legislative alternatives will prove a far more unwieldy task than simply rejecting what Democrats passed.

Welcome to The Hill's evening roundup of the day's health policy news and advance look at tomorrow's schedule.

Wednesday’s health news:

GOP votes to repeal: House Republicans made good on a campaign pledge Wednesday night, voting to repeal the healthcare reform law enacted less than a year ago. The party-line vote was 245-189. Senate Democrats have already vowed to block the bill from the upper chamber’s floor. http://bit.ly/i8lwBF

However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is assuring that the Senate will take up a repeal vote. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) challenged Senate Democrats this week to allow an up-or-down vote on repeal. http://bit.ly/h1TE7U
Read more...

Despite some Republican projections that the bill repealing healthcare reform would generate Democratic support, just three Democrats supported the measure Wednesday night.

The Democrats supporting repeal – Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Mike Ross (N.C.) – all voted against the reform law in the last Congress.

“An overwhelming majority of my constituents continue to oppose this health care reform law and I believe we should repeal it, start over and listen to the majority of the American people – not the special interests and party leaders in Washington,” Ross said in a statement.

Democratic support for the repeal measure fell far below the projections of some high-profile Republicans. Earlier this week, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) predicted this week that 15 Democrats would vote for repeal. And earlier this month, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) predicted the repeal vote would gain some bipartisan backing.

“There will be a significant number of Democrats, I think, that will join us,” Upton said on Fox News.

Just 13 of 34 House Democrats who voted against the reform law remain in Congress.

The "no" Democrats voting against the repeal measure included: Reps. Jason Altmire (Pa.), John Barrow (Ga.), Ben Chandler (Ga.), Holden (Pa.), Larry Kissel (N.C.), Daniel Lipinski (Ill.), Stephen Lynch (Mass.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Collin Peterson (Minn.), and Heath Shuler (N.C.).

States vary greatly in how well they report foodborne illnesses, according to a new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, leaving Americans at risk. 

The report, titled "All Over the Map," gave seven states "A"s for aggressively tracking foodborne illnesses, while 14 states were given an "F."

"States that aggressively investigate outbreaks and report them to CDC can help nail down the foods that are responsible for making people sick," CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal said in a statement. "But when states aren't detecting outbreaks, interviewing victims, identifying suspect food sources, or connecting with federal officials, outbreaks can grow larger and more frequent, putting more people at risk."

The report used 10 years' worth of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and CSPI to assign a letter grade to the 50 states. States that reported few outbreaks of foodborne illnesses were given the worst grades, under the premise that they're not avoiding foodborne illness but rather doing a poor job tracking them.

Oregon and Minnesota, states that CSPI says have "excellent laboratory facilities and public health departments" that quickly interview people who are believed to have been sickened, earned an "A". So did five states that report high numbers of outbreaks —Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Washington, and Wyoming.

Fourteen states earned "F"s because they reported just one outbreak per 1 million people: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

The report also mentions what it calls a "troubling trend": The percentage of solved outbreaks — those with both an identified food and an identified pathogen — declined from 1998 through 2007. 

The safety of the nation's food supply made national news last year as Congress debated — and ultimately passed — food safety legislation.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), one of the law's harshest critics, said during the debate that "America has the safest food supply in the world, and it has never been safer." However, the CDC estimates that one in six Americans — about 48 million people — suffer from a foodborne illness every year. The CDC says 128,000 end up in the hospital from the illnesses each year and 3,000 die.