Overnight Healthcare: GOP to huddle on Planned Parenthood strategy

Planned Parenthood will be on the top of the agenda when House GOP leaders hold their first meeting in nearly two months on Wednesday.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is facing mounting pressure from the party’s most conservative members to defund Planned Parenthood. The number of House conservatives threatening a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding grew to 28 on Tuesday.

Boehner has just 10 days to map out a strategy on Planned Parenthood before government funding runs dry.

{mosads}Rank-and-file members have laid out several competing bills on Planned Parenthood. The most popular option, which comes from Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), would freeze all federal funding – mandatory and discretionary – for one year until the group is investigated.

A Senate bill from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) goes even further by permanently eliminating all funding for the group, though it has already failed in the chamber. Another House bill would block only the group’s Title X family planning grants without touching mandatory funding from Medicaid. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.), who introduced the bill Tuesday, pitched it as a simpler strategy because it falls under the jurisdiction of only one committee.

Black has maintained that her bill is backed by House leadership, but aides say GOP leaders have not yet firmed up their strategy. Even members of the House Pro-Life Caucus say leadership isn’t showing their hand.  

“As of right now, I think things are very up in the air,” a House GOP aide said. “We wonder, priority-wise, where this falls on the docket.”

Investigations are underway in three committees, including the House Judiciary Committee, which will hold the first Planned Parenthood hearing on Wednesday. No Planned Parenthood officials will testify, by the way.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is also investigating the group, has held briefings with two top Planned Parenthood officials as well as representatives of three private companies that procure fetal tissue, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. No hearings have yet been planned.

OBAMACARE ENROLLMENT DROPS TO 9.9M: The Obama administration said Tuesday that 9.9 million people have ObamaCare coverage, a slight drop from the previous count of 10.2 million.

The new data are for people who have paid their premiums as of June 30, marking a drop-off from the number enrolled through March 31.

Both figures are down from the 11.7 million who signed up in the enrollment period this year, but a decline was expected from that figure, as not all of those people paid their premiums.

The administration also said that as of June 30 it had terminated coverage for around 423,000 people who failed to produce sufficient documentation of their citizenship or immigration status. Read more here.

WATCHDOG SAYS OBAMACARE DATABASE WASN’T READY FOR USE: The IRS began using an ObamaCare database before it had worked out all the security kinks, according to a new report from a federal watchdog.

The Treasury inspector general for tax administration found that the IRS had not completed all the necessary testing for the Coverage Data Repository (CDR) before the 2015 tax filing season started.

The CDR is supposed to store a range of key data for the Affordable Care Act, including household income and insurance coverage. But as of November 2014, the inspector general found that the IRS had only received information for the database from three states.

On top of that, the IRS didn’t implement its plan to audit the database, which could have put taxpayer records more at risk, the inspector general said. Read more here.

Wednesday’s schedule:

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing examining abortion practices at Planned Parenthood.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing on health insurance for small businesses under ObamaCare.

State by state

New York to help Puerto Rico with Medicaid

Planned Parenthood is losing patients because of ObamaCare

What we’re reading

Congress veers closer to Social Security cliff

Planned Parenthood isn’t the only health program at risk of losing funds

Pay, paperwork feed psychiatrist shortage in U.S.

What you might have missed from The Hill

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Doctor’s group warns against merger mania

Paul to headline defund Planned Parenthood rally at Capitol

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