OVERNIGHT HEALTH: GOP seeks delay in individual mandate

by Sam Baker and Elise Viebeck - 07/09/13 10:30 PM ET

“It’s pretty rich coming from leaders who have now voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act going on 40 times, and who promised to do it again, to charge up that hill, only again not to reach the top, rather than focus on the work that the American people want done,” Carney said.

{mosads}Healthwatch has the story.

12 percent: A new survey from HealthPocket found that only 12 percent support implementing the individual mandate next year as prescribed by law. Another 41 percent said the policy should be delayed alongside the employer mandate, while a plurality (47 percent) said they were not sure.

Read more at Healthwatch.

Funding bill advances: A subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved a 2014 spending bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education on Tuesday that spent 25 percent more than the House is planning to spend.

The bill also fully funds the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, including $5.2 billion for program management at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an increase from the $3.9 billion enacted in 2013 before sequestration.

The Hill has all the details.

More investigations: Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are expanding their investigation of the employer mandate delay to encompass the administration’s decision to initially allow unverified income information from applicants to the new exchanges.

Lawmakers wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking how exchange eligibility will be verified and how implementation is progressing overall. The delays “raise troubling questions” about ObamaCare’s enactment and whether exchanges will be operational in October, the members wrote.

Read the letter here. It set a response deadline of July 17.

Wednesday’s schedule

The House Ways and Means subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing on the employer mandate delay.

The Senate Special Committee on Aging will hold a hearing on diabetes research.

The Alliance of Specialty Medicine will continue its Washington Advocacy Conference, with more than 100 doctors from 25 states coming to Capitol Hill to talk about reforming the sustainable growth rate, the looming doctor shortage and other issues.

The Science Coalition and the Association of American Universities will hold a roundtable discussion on sequestration’s impact on U.S. research budgets.

Members of the National Center for Assisted Living will continue to meet with lawmakers and staff about rulemaking at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that could mean reduced Medicaid funding for people in assisted living facilities.

State by state

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Seventeen states made it harder to get an abortion this year

At bill signing, Nixon ‘hopeful’ about Mo. Medicaid committees

Reading list

ObamaCare delay increases costs and complications

HHS rule allows hospitals to bill for patients presumed eligible for Medicaid [free registration required]

Concern at undetected cases as WHO holds coronavirus talks

What you might have missed on Healthwatch

White House scrambles to get ready for ObamaCare implementation

GOP leaders seek records on ObamaCare mandate delay

AHCA hires senior Corker adviser

Poll: 12 percent back individual mandate taking effect in 2014