Healthcare reform showdown in Minnesota:
Gov.
and potential 2012 presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty makes headlines with his
executive order barring state agencies from participation in the healthcare
reform law. http://bit.ly/bJdcli
The
executive order directs state agencies to decline all discretionary
participation in the new law. As a result, none of Minnesota's executive branch
departments and agencies can submit applications for grants or demonstration
projects unless required by the new law or approved by the governor's office. http://bit.ly/9XXAHV
"Obamacare
is an intrusion by the federal government into personal healthcare matters and
it's an explosion of federal spending that does nothing to make healthcare more
affordable," Pawlenty said in a statement. "To the fullest extent
possible, we need to keep Obamacare out of Minnesota. This executive order will
stop Minnesota's participation in projects that are laying the groundwork for a
federally-controlled healthcare system."
Democrats are unimpressed: The
order is immediately dismissed as a political stunt by Democrats. Health and
Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says she's "afraid the
citizens of Minnesota may be the victims of whatever it is that’s coming their
way." http://bit.ly/bgi1FN
The Obama administration this week asked a federal judge to suspend his recent ruling that prohibits the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found that the administration's 2009 expansion of such research violates a ban on the federally funded destruction of human embryos.
That ruling, the Department of Justice (DOJ) argued in an emergency motion filed Tuesday, threatens years of research, causing "irrevocable harm to the millions of extremely sick or injured people who stand to benefit from continuing hESC research."
The agency is asking Lamberth to stay — or suspend — his ruling while the DOJ appeals it.
The move is necessary, DOJ says, "to avoid terminating research projects midstream, invalidating results in process, and impeding or negating years of scientific progress toward finding new treatments for devastating illnesses."
Anti-abortion groups, who cheered Lamberth's ruling, are now slamming the White House for appealing it.
"With our tax dollars, we should be investing in the adult stem cell research that works now and holds the greatest long-term promise for all Americans," Charmaine Yoest, head of Americans United for Life, said in a statement.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) this week lashed out at Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman after the Republican lawmaker urged state educators to back a repeal of healthcare reform — or risk losing their jobs.
Heineman, Nelson said in a statement issued Monday, is using "misinformation to intimidate groups involved in all aspects of our children’s health, safety and education, pitting one against the other."
"What I’m hearing from Nebraskans is they don’t want this kind of divisive politics to be played," Nelson added.
Last week, Heineman sent a letter to state education groups warning that the Medicaid expansion under the Democrats' healthcare reform law would steal vital funding from state education programs, thereby threatening education jobs.
"Increased funding for Medicaid is likely to result in less funding for education," Heineman wrote. "Don't sit on the sidelines. I strongly urge you to support the repeal of the recently enacted federal health care law."
Nelson fired back Monday, arguing that Heineman is using healthcare reform as a scapegoat for the state's budget woes.
“In the end, the governor really is trying to avoid his biggest problem: an estimated $750 million state budget shortfall," Nelson said. "He’s doing so with misinformation and with divisive politics, and Nebraskans do not expect that from the governor’s office."
Nelson also slammed Heineman for touting a recent report — commissioned by the governor and conducted by Milliman, Inc. — that found healthcare reform's Medicaid expansion would saddle Nebraska with new costs totaling between $526 million and $766 million over the next decade.
That report, Nelson charged, "is incomplete at best and intentionally misleading people at the worst."
Among the criticisms, Nelson said Milliman analysts assumed that everyone eligible for Medicaid under the expansion would enroll — an unrealistic projection because "Medicaid is voluntary and voluntary programs never see 100 percent participation," Nelson noted.
"He builds his campaign against health reform on misinformation."
It's hardly the first time Nelson and Heineman have butted heads. Late last year, in the midst of the contentious debate over healthcare reform, the Republican governor urged Nelson to oppose the bill on the grounds that the state couldn't afford the Medicaid expansion. Those concerns led Democratic leaders — who needed Nelson's vote to pass the bill — to include a provision exempting Nebraska from assuming any new costs related to the Medicaid expansion.
Heineman later went out of his way to distance himself from that provision, arguing that he "didn't want a special deal."
"All we want," he said in January, "is to be treated fairly and equally."
Another endangered House Democrat is out with a campaign ad creating some separation from his party's leadership in Washington.
Freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-Md.) is expected to face a strong GOP challenge in November. He defeated state Sen. Andy Harris (R) by less than 3,000 votes in 2008 and represents a district that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won with 59 percent of the vote in the most recent presidential election.
In the 30-second spot, Kratovil says he makes decisions based on "facts not politics," which is why he "voted against the three trillion dollar budget, the big bank bailout and against the healthcare bill."
"You see for me, it's not about Democrats or Republicans," Kratovil continues. "It's about commonsense and doing what's best for our families. Maybe that's why I'm ranked one of the most independent members of Congress."
Kratovil's ad follows a pattern of a number of incumbent Democrats running away from their party's leadership in Washington in their ad campaigns. Reps. Bobby Bright (D-Ala.), Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) have released similar ads highlighting their votes against some Democratic priorities in Washington.
Harris is running again in 2010, but faces a Republican primary challenge Sept. 14. Kratovil is unopposed on the Democratic side. The race is considered a toss-up in November.
Regulators are considering expanding the health reform law's requirement on calorie listing beyond chain restaurants, The Wall Street Journalreports.
The Food and Drug Administration released draft guidelines last week stretching the scope of the law beyond restaurants with 20 or more locations to also include airlines, trains, grocery-store food courts, movie theaters and convenience stores that qualify as chains.
The FDA has said it will finalize the regulation in December. Penalties for non-compliance begin next year.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday announced that almost 2,000 employers and unions have been accepted into the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program created by the healthcare reform law. The law set aside $5 billion to help employers and unions cover the healthcare costs of retirees who are older than 55 but don't yet qualify for Medicare.
The program is aimed at stemming the tide of businesses dropping their retiree health coverage. The percentage of large firms offering such a benefit dropped from 66 percent in 1988 to 29 percent in 2009, according to HHS, largely because of rising costs.
"In conversations with business leaders throughout the country, I hear over and over again about the escalating healthcare costs for employees and retirees," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. "The new reinsurance program in the Affordable Care Act will directly reduce companies’ health premiums for many retirees, offering critical cost relief for American businesses in a difficult economy and an important bridge for early retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare."
The program provides an 80 percent subsidy for retiree claims between $15,000 and $90,000. Approved applicants will be able to begin submitting claims dating back to June 1 starting in September, with payments starting to trickle in a month later.
Critics of the program say it's underfunded, however.
As HHS began accepting applications in June, the Employee Benefit Research Institute said that if the subsidy were drawn down for all retirees and their dependents, the money would run out in 2012.
The program is supposed to last until Jan. 1, 2014, when many people will start receiving subsidies to buy insurance on the new state health insurance exchanges.
More information, including a list of approved applicants by state, is available here.
Americans' support for the Democrats' new health reform law fell to 43 percent in August — down from 50 percent just a month before, according to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Meanwhile, 45 percent of the public said they view the law unfavorably, up from 35 percent in July, Kaiser found.
Respondents' views are largely colored by their own partisan leanings, according to Kaiser, which has been tracking public sentiments surrounding healthcare reform since President Obama took office in early 2009.
A vast majority of Democrats (68 percent), for instance, continue to support the law, down slightly from the 73 percent who indicated their support in July. Most Republicans, meanwhile, continue to oppose the law, with 77 percent of GOP respondents saying they have an unfavorable view of the reforms — up from 69 percent last month.
Democratic leaders, who were quick to trumpet the results of the July survey, have so far been silent on this month's report — a reaction that hasn't been overlooked by Capitol Hill Republicans, some of whom are blasting the August figures out to reporters' inboxes Tuesday.
Genzyme Corp. this week snubbed an $18.5 billion buyout bid by Sanofi-Aventis, arguing that the offer grossly undervalues the Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech company — one of the largest in the world.
“The Genzyme board is not prepared to engage in merger negotiations with Sanofi based upon an opportunistic proposal with an unrealistic starting price that dramatically undervalues our company," Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer wrote to Sanofi Monday.
The $18.5 billion offer breaks down to about $69 per share. Citibank analysts estimate that Sanofi-Aventis would have to hike its offer to as high as $77 per share to entice Genzyme shareholders to support the deal, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Democrats' focus on healthcare reform might have seemed like a distraction to voters whose top concern was the economy, the leader of first-term House Democrats suggested Tuesday.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the president of this Congress's first-term Democrats, said that his party's months-long battle to pass healthcare reform might have come off as a distraction considering the tough economic climate in the U.S.
"I think that the focus of the public, with stubborn unemployment remaining so high, was on the growing the economy and creating jobs," Connolly said Tuesday during an appearance on TBD TV in metropolitan Washington. "And anything else seemed like a distraction."
The northern Virginia lawmaker was among the 219 House Democrats to support the legislation on final passage in late March, a vote which capped off months of intense debate over the reform legislation.
That legislation has since developed into a central part of the midterm election battle this fall, in which Republicans have vowed to repeal the healthcare reform package, and have condemned Democrats for not having done enough to stimulate the economy.
Recent polling suggests that the public's fluctuating opinion on the health reforms might have ticked downward, too, adding to Democrats' woes heading into this fall.
Still, Connolly said he thought that he would win reelection, and that enough of his colleagues in the House would win reelection to ensure Democrats would remain in the majority come next year, when a new Congress is sworn in.
