1776 Coalition » health care reform

Obama Health-Care Law Ruled Constitutional by Appeals Court

bryan1776 — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:06:02 +0000

Tom Schoenberg and Andrew Harris, Bloomberg News

President Barack Obama’s health-care legislation requiring almost all Americans to have medical insurance beginning in 2014 is constitutional, a U.S. appeals court ruled.The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today upheld the measure Obama signed into law in March 2010 by a 2-1 vote. It was the third appellate court to rule on the constitutionality of the statute, and the second to reject a challenge to its insurance mandate by opponents who argue the government has no right to force an individual purchase a service or product.

“Broad regulation is an inherent feature of Congress’s constitutional authority in this area; to regulate complex, nationwide economic problems is to necessarily deal in generalities,” wrote Judge Laurence Silberman, who has a reputation as one of the court’s most conservative judges.

“Congress reasonably determined that as a class, the uninsured create market failures,” Silberman said. “Thus, the lack of harm attributable to any particular uninsured individual, like their lack of overt participation in a market, is of no consequence.”

The Washington appeals court may be the last to rule on the law before the U.S. Supreme Court takes it up. The Obama administration asked the high court to review an Aug. 12 ruling by the appeals court in Atlanta, which found the insurance mandate is unconstitutional.

The Thomas More Law Center, a self-described Christian organization that lost challenges to the legislation in a Detroit federal court and at a U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati, also asked the Supreme Court to review its case.

The high court justices will consider whether to take the cases at their conference on Nov. 10.

A U.S. Court of Appeals panel in Richmond, Virginia, addressing two cases in a pair of Sept. 8 rulings, concluded it was blocked from ruling on the merits of the law by a statute that generally bars challenging taxes before they’re collected or assessed.

The law provides for a tax penalty to be levied on almost any American who fails obtain health coverage.

“The ruling is yet another victory for millions of Americans who are already benefitting from the law,” said Stephanie Cutter, assistant to the president and deputy senior adviser, in a White House blog post.

Health reform lawsuit appears headed for Supreme Court

bryan1776 — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:05:01 +0000

By JENNIFER HABERKORN, Politico

The Obama administration chose not to ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear a pivotal health reform case Monday, signaling that it’s going to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether President Barack Obama’s health reform law is constitutional.

The move puts the Supreme Court in the difficult position of having to decide whether to take the highly politically charged case in the middle of the presidential election.

The Justice Department is expected to ask the court to overturn an August decision by a panel of three judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the law’s requirement to buy insurance is unconstitutional. The suit was brought by 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business, and several individuals.

Since the ruling, the Justice Department had until Monday to ask the entire 11th Circuit to review the case. Administration lawyers didn’t file the paperwork by the 5 p.m. deadline, so the ruling would stand unless the Justice Department asks the Supreme Court to step in.

The petition isn’t due until November, and the administration could get an extension.

Opponents of the law had expected the government to ask for the so-called en banc hearing to delay a ruling by the Supreme Court.

“The president and solicitor general deserve full credit for refusing to employ delaying tactics in this pressing constitutional controversy,” said Randy E. Barnett, a Georgetown Law professor who is working with the plaintiffs.

But former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger, who has worked on briefs in support of the legislation, said the move should be read as a sign of confidence from the administration.

“This confirms what I had already concluded: That the government is confident that it’s going to prevail in the Supreme Court and would like to have a decision sooner rather than later,” Dellinger told POLITICO.

The issue of the constitutionality of the individual mandate has been widely expected to be decided by the Supreme Court. The key question has been the timing. The Justice Department’s apparent decision to ask the Supreme Court to review the case greatly increases the chances the issue will be heard in the 2011-12 term, which begins Monday.

The Supreme Court now has several strong reasons to accept the case. The court rarely declines requests from the government to take a case, especially in situations in which a circuit court has struck down a piece of a high-profile law.

There is also a split between the appeals courts. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the mandate, the 11th Circuit has ruled it unconstitutional, and the 4th Circuit has ruled that a tax law prevents it from issuing a decision on the mandate until at least 2014.

“The odds are pretty significant the court will take the case now,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, which has filed briefs in support of the law.

But a Supreme Court ruling in the middle of a presidential election could carry serious political risks, since a decision upholding or striking the mandate has the potential to galvanize either Republicans or Democrats.

If the court accepts the case before January, it is likely to be put on the calendar to be heard in the spring. A decision would likely be postponed until June.

The 26 states and the NFIB have said they would work quickly to file briefing papers to ensure the case can move quickly.

Tea Party group to GOP: Don’t ‘reward collaborators’ on healthcare law

bryan1776 — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 05:05:42 +0000

By Julian Pecquet -The Hill

Republicans should refuse to “reward collaborators” by not helping industry groups that supported the healthcare law unless they support its full repeal, the non-profit FreedomWorks told House leaders in a confidential memo sent Monday.

“Don’t reward collaborators,” the memo states.

The memo suggests repeal is within reach, and advises House leaders to start offering their own proposals for healthcare reform.

“We’re sending this memo because we believe your ultimate success depends as much on how you handle the ‘replace’ as the ‘repeal’ side of the strategy,” reads the memo to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). “We think it’s time to start emphasizing what you’re for as much as what you’re against.”

The memo from FreedomWorks leaders Dick Armey, Matt Kibbe, and Dean Clancy outlines a seven-point repeal strategy that includes making repeal unavoidable by passing a balanced budget amendment, and not reducing any taxes from the healthcare law unless the affected industries endorse full repeal.

It also argues that Republicans should seek to unravel the law by repealing or delaying its core elements, and that the GOP should try to defund implementation.

The House in January voted to repeal the healthcare law, but Republicans in the Senate failed to win a majority vote on a procedural motion to move to healthcare repeal. Every Senate Democrat in attendance voted against repeal.

Even if a repeal bill made it through Congress, it would be vetoed by President Obama.

FreedomWorks is a conservative organization affiliated with the Tea Party movement.

As quoted from the memo, Republicans should:

• Make repeal unavoidable by passing a balanced budget amendment;

• Keep working to put full repeal on the president’s desk;

• Don’t repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board or reduce any of the various taxes, unless the affected industries endorse full repeal; don’t re-fund Medicare Advantage unless the health insurance lobby publicly endorses full repeal;

AT&T Plans $1 Billion Charge for Health Care

bryan1776 — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:37:09 +0000

The Associated Press

The telecommunications giant AT&T said on Friday that it would take a $1 billion noncash accounting charge in the first quarter because of the health care overhaul and might cut benefits it offers.

The charge is the largest disclosed so far. Earlier this week, the AK Steel Corporation, Caterpillar, Deere & Company and Valero Energy announced similar accounting charges, saying the health care law that President Obama signed Tuesday would raise their expenses. On Friday, the 3M Company said it would take a charge of $85 million to $90 million.

All five are smaller than AT&T, and their combined charges are less than half of the $1 billion that AT&T is planning. The $1 billion is a third of AT&T’s most recent quarterly profit. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the company earned $3 billion on revenue of $30.9 billion.

AT&T said Friday that the charge reflected changes to how Medicare subsidies are taxed. Companies say the health care overhaul will require them to start paying taxes next year on a subsidy they receive for retiree drug coverage.

A White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said Thursday that the tax law closed a loophole.

Under the 2003 Medicare prescription drug program, companies that provide prescription drug benefits for retirees have been able to receive subsidies covering 28 percent of eligible costs. But they could deduct the entire amount they spent on these drug benefits — including the subsidies — from their taxable income.

Final health care bill awaits Obama

bryan1776 — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:48:50 +0000

By Jennifer Haberkorn

Congress passed the final repairs to President Obama’s landmark health care overhaul plan Thursday, successfully pulling off a plan to circumvent a Republican filibuster put together shortly after Senate Democrats lost their supermajority in January.

The bill passed the Senate 56-43 with five more votes than needed, but it had to go back to the House for another vote after Republicans were able to delete two provisions.

The final changes quickly passed in the House 220-207 sending the legislation to the White House.

The votes cap more than a year of work on Democrats’ effort to overhaul the nation’s $2.5 trillion health system. On Tuesday, Mr. Obama signed the underlying bill into law.

The heavy lifting behind him, the president spent Thursday in Iowa, trying to persuade a skeptical public to support the plan.

“What this is is a historic step to enshrine the principle that everybody gets health care coverage in this country, every single person,” he said near a University of Iowa hospital where, three years ago, he promised to sign health reform into law during his first term.

Republicans already have embarked on a “repeal and replace” campaign, convinced that voter discontent with the plan will win them majorities in the fall mid-term elections. But they condemned a rash of reported violence and threats against lawmakers stemming from Sunday’s vote and asked Americans to channel their anger into constructive opposition.

The repair bill includes a provision that effectively fills the Medicare “doughnut hole” of missing drug coverage, reduces the impact of a tax on high-cost insurance plans, imposes a new Medicare tax on wealthy Americans and essentially removes private banks from student-loan industry. House members only agreed to support the underlying reform bill in exchange for the package of repairs.

GOP challenges send health bill back to House

bryan1776 — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:17:41 +0000

By Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer

Senate Republicans have successfully identified two minor violations of reconciliation rules in the final piece of the health-care package. The violations will force the Senate to change the reconciliation bill and ship it to the House of Representatives for final passage.

But Democratic leaders said the provisions that will be struck — from the part of the bill dealing with Pell Grants for college students — do not significantly affect the student loan program or the health-care bill overall.

The corrected legislation most likely will not be subjected to additional challenges when it is sent back to the House, Democratic staffers said, and is expected to receive final approval before the weekend.

“The parliamentarian struck two minor provisions tonight from in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. But this bill’s passage in the Senate is a big win for the American people,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.).

For much of Wednesday and into Thursday morning, Senate Republicans offered dozens of amendments to the bill President Obama signed into law Tuesday. Their goal was to force the legislation that will launch an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system. back to the House for another vote. But when the Senate began voting shortly after 5 p.m., all 29 amendments were easily rejected.

Lawmaker acknowledges shouting out ‘baby killer’ during Stupak floor speech

bryan1776 — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:46:14 +0000

By Jordy Yager – The Hill

A Texas Republican on Monday acknowledged he yelled out the words “baby killer” during a floor speech by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) on healthcare reform.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer said he was not calling the anti-abortion-rights Stupak a name, and instead was referring to the legislation.

The 60-year-old lawmaker, who apologized to Stupak on Monday, said he exclaimed: “It’s a baby killer!”

“In the heat and emotion of the debate, I exclaimed the phrase ‘It’s a baby killer’ in reference to the agreement reached by the Democratic leadership,” Neugebauer said in a statement.

“While I remain heartbroken over the passage of this bill and the tragic consequences it will have for the unborn, I deeply regret that my actions were mistakenly interpreted as a direct reference to Congressman Stupak himself.”

Neugebauer added that “the House Chamber is a place of decorum and respect. The timing and tone of my comment last night was inappropriate.”

Landmark health care plan passes

bryan1776 — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:43:23 +0000

Washington (CNN) — A sweeping bill overhauling the U.S. medical system goes to President Obama’s desk on Monday to be signed into law.

The House of Representatives passed the measure late Sunday, delivering a historic victory to Obama, who had made it his No. 1 domestic priority.

The bill passed in a 219-212 vote after more than a year of bitter partisan debate. All 178 Republicans opposed it, along with 34 Democrats.

The measure, which cleared the Senate in December, constitutes the biggest expansion of federal health care guarantees since Medicare and Medicaid were enacted more than four decades ago.

A separate compromise package of changes expanding the reach of the measure also passed the House over unanimous GOP opposition, and is now set to be taken up by the Senate.

The overall $940 billion plan is projected to extend insurance coverage to roughly 32 million additional Americans. It represents a significant step toward the goal of universal coverage sought by every Democratic president since Harry Truman.

Most Americans will now be required to have health insurance or pay a fine. Larger employers will be required to provide coverage or risk financial penalties. Total individual out-of-pocket expenses will be capped and insurers will be barred from denying coverage based on gender or pre-existing conditions.

The compromise package would add to the bill’s total cost partly by expanding insurance subsidies for middle- and lower-income families. The measure would scale back the bill’s taxes on expensive insurance plans.

Numerous House members insisted they would not vote for the Senate bill without a clear promise that senators would approve the changes.

“This is what change looks like,” Obama said shortly after the votes. The passage of health care reform is “not a victory for any one party. … It’s a victory for the American people and it’s a victory for common sense.”

The president said successful reform proves Americans “are still a people capable of doing big things.”

iReport: Share your views on health care reform

The rare Sunday votes occurred after a long weekend of intense negotiations among the White House, House leaders and individual Congress members. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill on Saturday to make a last minute plea to the House Democratic caucus. He spent much of the past week trying to personally persuade dozens of members.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, worked with administration officials to defuse a potential rebellion among socially conservative Democrats concerned that the bill wouldn’t do enough to prevent taxpayer-funded abortions.

She also brokered a last-minute deal among several Democrats worried about disparities in Medicare funding for individual states.

Republicans failed to stop the Democratic health care initiative despite using virtually every weapon in their legislative arsenal. GOP leaders have repeatedly warned the plan will lead to a government takeover of America’s private employer-based health care system.

They have also argued it will lead to higher premiums and taxes while imposing harsh Medicare cuts and doing little to control spiraling medical costs.

Pelosi and Boehner make final comments

Shortly before the House voted on the bill, Pelosi said health care reform was necessary to end insurance industry abuses and bring greater economic stability to most Americans.

Speaker Pelosi Hates This

bryan1776 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:37:12 +0000

In the heat of the last days of the health care debate, Independent Women’s Voice launched 2 websites geared towards Members of Congress and their staff. You can visit them at www.coburnspromise.com and www.speakerpelosihatesthis.com You can also watch the video here:

Speaker Pelosi Hates This

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRZamO8vUjM

Democrats say they have votes to pass healthcare

bryan1776 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:23:40 +0000

Reuters

An upbeat House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer predicted victory in Sunday’s vote on the biggest revamp of the $2.5 trillion healthcare system in four decades, although even the most optimistic Democrats expected a razor-thin margin.

“Clearly, we believe we have the votes,” Hoyer told reporters. “We expect we have the votes to pass the Senate bill.”

House Democratic leaders spent Saturday in a whirlwind of closed-door meetings and conversations on the House floor with wavering party members as they tried to nail down the 216 votes needed for final approval.

President Barack Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to rally support and urged House Democrats to “stand up” and take what he acknowledged could be a tough vote politically.

“I know what pressure you are under,” Obama told the Democrats. “This is one of those moments. This is one of those times where you can honestly say to yourself: ‘Doggone it, this is exactly why I came here.’”

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid joined Obama at the rally and told House Democrats he had commitments from “a good majority” of the 100-member Senate to pass the changes to the healthcare bill the House will take up on Sunday.

Reid’s office released a letter to Pelosi from Senate Democrats pledging their support for the changes, which they would take up once they are approved by the Senate, but did not say how many senators had signed it.

Under heavy Republican criticism and pressure from some Democrats, Democratic leaders backed away from a controversial proposal to pass the Senate bill, which is unpopular with House Democrats, without a direct vote.

Democratic aides said instead the House will take at least three votes on Sunday — on the rule setting the process, the revisions to the Senate bill sought by House Democrats and on the Senate bill itself.

‘A BETTER PROCESS’

“We believe this is a better process,” Hoyer said.

Republican critics claimed victory and said Democrats would now face a potential political backlash on both votes.

“They will have to vote on the Senate-passed bill, stuffed with tax hikes, Medicare cuts, and infamous backroom deals, and they will vote on something worse: their ‘fix’ with more taxes, more Medicare cuts and new special deals,” House Republican leader John Boehner said.

The political battle over healthcare reform has consumed Congress for more than nine months, putting a dent in Obama’s approval ratings and worrying Democratic lawmakers who face re-election in November.

The overhaul, Obama’s top domestic priority, would expand coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans and ban insurance practices like refusing coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.

It would require all Americans to have health insurance but give subsidies to help lower-income workers pay for it and set up exchanges where individuals and groups could shop and compare insurance plans.

The House Rules Committee met into the evening on Saturday to set the debate rules and the process for passing the legislation on Sunday.

If the Senate’s version of the bill is approved on Sunday, it will become law once signed by Obama. The package of revisions designed to win over wavering House Democrats would move in a separate bill the Senate would take up next week.

House Democrats, who passed their version of the overhaul with three votes to spare in November, picked up seven new converts in recent days who said they would switch their November votes to “yes” from “no.”

Democratic leaders ruled out a separate vote on adding more strict anti-abortion language to appease a handful of Democratic holdouts who are abortion rights opponents, another sign Democrats were growing confident.

“We have an agreement with the Senate — this is what we are passing in both houses,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the healthcare package.

Democratic leaders had worked for days to heal a rift with a small group of abortion rights opponents led by Democratic Representative Bart Stupak. They threatened to oppose the bill unless the ban on using federal funds for abortion was strengthened.

Democrats said the concerns of Stupak’s group might be met if Obama issued an executive order clarifying the ban.

As Democrats tried to line up votes for Sunday, thousands of conservative “Tea Party” protesters gathered outside the Capitol, waving yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and chanting: “Kill the Bill.”

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Bill Trott)