OVERNIGHT HEALTH: Obama budget sets up health exchanges

President Obama’s $76.4 billion budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services sets up a year-long fight over the healthcare reform law.

Among its most controversial aspects, the budget blueprint sets aside $864 million for state health insurance exchanges and a federal fallback option. States have until 2013 to get their exchanges certified if they don’t want the feds to run things. Healthwatch’s Julian Pecquet has the story.

Familiar cuts: The budget isn’t only about new spending: it also calls for $360 million in cuts to federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs. These are the same proposals that went nowhere when the president first introduced them last year as part of his $3 trillion deficit-cutting proposal. Healthwatch’s Sam Baker has a summary. 

{mosads}Among its most unpopular cuts are a $4.5 billion cut to the health law’s Prevention and Public Health Fund over 10 years and a $660 million reduction in base funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC funding would drop to $5.068 billion in FY2013, down from $5.732 in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

“We deeply regret that the Administration has proposed to disinvest in prevention at the same time that the nation faces mounting, preventable health care costs,” Jeff Levi, executive director of The Trust for America’s Health, said in a statement. “We recognize that these are difficult fiscal times, but cutting prevention is penny wise and pound foolish, and will only end up increasing the economic burden to the health care system and adding to the deficit over the long run.”

The budget also: 

• Calls for a permanent repeal of the Medicare physician payment formula;

• Boosts funding for the Food and Drug Administration by $654 million, including $10 million to improve the safety of food and medical product imports from China and other countries;

• Calls for new user fees to support food safety and generic drugs;

• Invests $3.1 billion to support the creation of 25 new health centers nationwide;

• Funds 2,800 new primary care providers; 

• Increases funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment by $172 million; and

• Keeps funding for the National Institutes of Health at $31.7 million. 

Heartbreaker: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, House Republicans are proposing to decouple the payroll tax extension from the Medicare “doc fix” and unemployment benefits that also expire at the end of the month. Under the proposal, the tax break would not have to be paid for. The Hill has more.

Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said the GOP was leaving seniors behind with its proposal.

“It’s completely irresponsible to leave behind nearly five million unemployed Americans whose benefits will expire and 47 million seniors and disabled Americans whose access to health care would be jeopardized,” Levin said in a statement. “House Republicans chose the go-it-alone path in December to nearly disastrous effect and American families cannot afford a repeat performance.”

Your birth control speed read: For those of you lucky enough to spend the weekend away from any news sources, here’s a recap of the latest political tussling regarding the Obama administration’s so-called “birth control mandate.”

• The Catholic bishops rejected Obama’s “accommodation.”

• White House chief of staff Jacob Lew said tough.

• Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called the change an “accounting trick.”

• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vowed to keep up the pressure until Obama “backs down.”

Legal arguments: Forty-three Senate Republicans filed a brief Monday urging the Supreme Court to strike the individual mandate in President Obama’s healthcare law. Healthwatch has more.

Separately, several anti-abortion-rights groups together filed an amicus brief with the high court arguing that the healthcare law’s individual mandate violates the Constitution by forcing Americans to pay for abortion coverage. Here’s the brief.

Tuesday’s agenda

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holds a hearing on the high toll chronic pain takes on Americans and the nation’s healthcare budget. Some 116 million Americans suffer from some kind of chronic pain, at an annual cost of more than $600 billion in medical treatment and lost productivity. Here’s the agenda.

Lawmakers will analyze last year’s Institute of Medicine congressionally mandated report on chronic pain, which called for a coordinated, national public-private effort to transform the nation’s approach to pain management and prevention. The report offered a blueprint for transforming the way the nation addresses pain prevention, care, education and research. Lawrence Tabak, the principal deputy director of the National Institutes of Health, will testify.

The American Medical Association continues its annual national advocacy conference with a keynote address from Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) precedes her with remarks at 8 a.m. Here’s the agenda.

GE hosts a panel on medical innovation as part of its weeklong forum on “American Competitiveness: What Works.” The event at the Mellon Auditorium features former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach. Here’s the agenda.

State by state

Legislation to implement an insurance exchange stalls in Oregon.

State lawmakers in Virginia approved a controversial “personhood” bill Monday. 

Health Affairs examines Colorado’s bipartisan response to the federal healthcare reform law.

Revolving door

PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. has named former Washington Post reporter Ceci Connolly as managing director of the consulting firm’s Health Research Institute, which provides “research, insight and analysis on the issues, policies and trends important to health organizations and policymakers.” She takes over from Sandy Lutz, the founding managing director of the PwC Health Research Institute, who moves to the role of managing editor of the PwC Health Research Institute.

Lobbying registrations

American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (self-registration)

Reading list

Cancer-causing toxins have been found on the uniform of a 9/11 first responder, the New York Daily News reports.

Overeating is associated with an increased risk of mild cognitive impairment in people 70 or older, reports MedPage Today.

A French court declared U.S. biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, Reuters reports.

What you might have missed on Healthwatch

Administration makes $9.1 million available for primary care in underserved areas

Week ahead: Budget fights begin anew

Comments / complaints / suggestions? Please let us know:

Julian Pecquet: jpecquet@digital-staging.thehill.com / 202-628-8527

Sam Baker: sbaker@digital-staging.thehill.com / 202-628-8351

Follow us on Twitter @hillhealthwatch