Republicans Announce Plans to Attempt Health Reform Repeal

Doctors urge GOP to improve, not repeal, reform law
A pro-reform physician group is asking leading House Republicans to strengthen - and not Repeal - last year’s healthcare overhaul. Doctors for America on Thursday morning delivered a petition, signed by more than 2,000 physicians and medical Students, to the offices of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) that urged the new House majority to improve the Healthcare Reform law. The petition, delivered less than a week before the GOP is set to vote on a mea

End Of Life Counseling Out Of ObamaCare Again
First Obama pushed for end-of-life counseling in ObamaCare, then it was pulled after Sarah Palin rightly pointed out the spooky nature of the Death Panels (you put this in as a cost saving feature of a bill and you’re damn right its a death panel). Then Dr. Donald “I love Socialism” Berwick, head of Medicare, put it back in…this time during the yearly Medicare checkups, and he tried to do it all sly like and back door the thing. He got caught and now Obama is pulling it o...

Republican Hot Air
So, the Republicans in the House are now promising to follow the Constitution. Does this mean Social Security and the federal Minimum Wage will be abolished, to name just two out of hundreds of thousands of Unconstitutional federal programs? Don’t hold your breath. I note also that Republicans in the House are going to vote on repealing ObamaCare. Does this mean they will also vote to Repeal Bushcare, otherwise known as the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act ...

No More Mister Nice Blog
MESSAGING? D'OH -- WE NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE! Is Chuck Schumer extreme3ly clever, or are other Democrats just really, really dim? Senate Democrats embrace Chuck Schumer's media tactics Democrats in the Senate have long been envious about Sen. Chuck Schumer's ability to grab media attention on even the most innocuous local issues. That's about to change. Under a plan conceived by the aggressive New Yorker and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic leaders are building a new messagin...

CBO Warns GOP: Repealing Health Care Reform Will Add $230 Billion To Deficit
House Republicans are breaking their own Budget rules to advance the Repeal of Health Care reform, so they're probably already aware that their plan will increase the Deficit. For any remaining doubters, though, the Congressional Budget Office is here to settle the score. In a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), CBO Director Doug Elmendorf writes: Because CBO and JCT estimated that the March 2010 Health Care Legislation would reduce Budget deficits over the 2010-2019 period and in subsequent ...

Yet Another Premium Spike in Response to Obamacare
The L.A. Times reports that yet another big California Health Insurer has stunned individual policyholders with huge rate increases ... this time it's Blue Shield of California - which will seek to raise premiums on tens of thousands of individual policyholders by as much as 59 percent this year, in what the company says is a move to pay for rising medical costs and expenses associated with new state and federal Insurance regulations (i.e. 'ObamaCare'): Blue Shield said the cost of health covera...

CBO: Health repeal will increase deficit
Congress's official scorekeeper said Thursday that the House Republicans' first major bill — repealing last year's Health Care law — would actually increase Deficits by about $145 billion over 10 years. In a letter to newly-minted House Speaker John A. Boehner, the Congressional Budget Office said a preliminary estimate shows that Democrats' massive Health Care overhaul's cost-cutting measures would have reduced federal spending overall, which means "repealing that Legislation would ...

Dem Talking Points On Republicans Accepting Government Health Care
Pursuant to the Democrat motion to force Republicans to publicly accept or reject Health Care, a Democratic source passed along the talking points Dems plan to use as Republicans begin to draw on their health care benefits. Wednesday night, House Dems used a procedural maneuver to make Republicans vote on whether or not to publicly announce when they begin to draw on their government provided benefits. The Democrats plan to use that vote to highlight what they call the Republican hypocrisy of ...

GOP takes charge: New Speaker Boehner leads House (AP)
WASHINGTON – Claiming power beneath the Capitol dome, resurgent Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives on Wednesday as the 112th Congress convened in an era of economic uncertainty. Dozens of Tea Party-backed lawmakers took office in both houses, eager to cut spending and reduce government's reach. "The people voted to end business as usual, and today we begin carrying out their instructions," said newly elected House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, replacing Democrat N...

Eric Cantor: Health Care Bill 'Full Of Budget Gimmickry'
WASHINGTON — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says the new Health Care law is getting in the way of job-creation and vows Republicans are committed to repealing it. Cantor tells CBS's "The Early Show" the GOP isn't retreating from its commitment to get rid of the law overhauling the Health Care system, even though Senate Democrats have made clear they would block a Repeal there. Cantor isn't accepting a Congressional Budget Office analysis saying the new Health Care is likely to reduce ...

Healthcare law repeal hurts deficits: CBO
By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 6, 2011 10:50am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An effort by Republicans in the House of Representatives to Repeal the healthcare law enacted last year would add to already huge federal Budget Deficits, the Congressional Budget Office warned on Thursday. In a preliminary estimate of Legislation the House is set to begin debating on Friday, the CBO said repealing the law that President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats enacted would "increase federal budget...

CBO says repealing healthcare reform would spike deficit by $230 billion
Congressional Budget scorekeepers said Thursday that Republicans' effort to Repeal Healthcare Reform would increase the Deficit by about $230 billion over the first 10 years, adding fodder to Democrats' argument that the GOP is violating a key campaign pledge with its first major vote. In a letter sent Thursday to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Congressional Budget Office says it is providing a preliminary analysis to the Repeal bill, which is scheduled to take place Wednesday. A mor...

Amendments to health reform repeal filed by Dems to force vote
House Democrats on Wednesday filed four amendments to Republicans' Healthcare Reform Repeal bill in a bid to force an up-or-down vote on popular patient protections in the bill. The amendments seek to preserve:  • The elimination of lifetime limits on care; • The requirement that Insurance plans allow young people up to age 26 to remain on their parents' healthcare policies; • The ban on Discrimination against people with preexisting conditions; and • The provision of free pre

American Sauce: What to watch today - it's a doozie
Capitol Hill (CNN) - The first day was ceremony and rules, today the 112th Congress gets in the saddle for substantive Health Care action, our first taste of the partisan Battleground and some historic symbolism. I'll be tweeting all day @LisaDCNN. But here's a quick, American Sauce guide to events (all times Eastern): - 10a ET UNDERWAY: House session opened. Quorum call, then one-minute speeches - 10a DEMS ON OFFENSE: Senate Democrats Durbin, Schumer, Stabenow news conference ...

Will symbolism be enough for the tea parties?
Kevin Drum is puzzled by the way Speaker John Boehner is handling the effort to Repeal health-care reform. "He's scheduling a quick vote with no hearings and no CBO scoring just so he can say he's done it, after which he can move on to other business he actually cares about." Why, Drum asks, does Boehner think that'll satisfy people who've been convinced that the health-care law will bankrupt their Children and snuff out their grandparents? Jon Bernstein tries to answer: I think it's an indicati...

Times Running Out to Fix Obamacares Flaws
What happened to Repeal and replace? The GOP has advanced a 2-page bill to Repeal the Democratic health reform of 2010. That bill will likely pass the House and then … dribble away. I doubt the Senate will ever find time to schedule a vote on it. My sense is that this is just fine with many Republican legislators. They may calculate that it’s better to have “ObamaCare” as an issue in 2012 than to tinker with improvements in 2011. But the fact is: the reform is beginning...

Blue Shield of California readies 59% increase in rates; Blames Obamacare...
Blue Shield’s plan comes less than a year after Anthem Blue Cross tried and failed to raise rates as much as 39% for about 700,000 California customers. San Francisco-based Blue Shield said the increases were the result of fast-rising Healthcare Costs and other expenses resulting from the new healthcare laws passed last year. “We raise rates only when absolutely necessary to pay the accelerating cost of medical care for our members,” the company told its customers last month. I...

Speaker Boehner readies repeal of 'Obamacare' as HHS details impact on Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio (CGE) - Newly elected speaker of the U.S House John A. Boehner, the third Ohioan to hold this key Constitutional office, repeatedly railed against the Affordable Care Act on the Campaign Trail as a job-killer, and vowed Republicans would make Repeal of it job one if they were to win enough seats to take back the people's chamber from Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, who prior to handing an over-sized gavel to her successor touted it as one of her party's most important achievements...

CVS Caremark Study Finds Medication Adherence Leads to Lower Health Care Costs, Even After Accounting for Increased Prescription
WOONSOCKET, R.I., Jan. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A new CVS Caremark study analyzing annual pharmacy and medical costs over a three-year period for patients with one or more of four chronic diseases concludes that patients who take medications as doctors direct may save the Health Care system as much as $7,800 per patient annually.  The study findings revealed robust reductions in emergency department visits and inpatient Hospital days from medication adherence and by avoiding those costly eve...

Department heads urge against repeal, outline reform's benefits
Federal agency leaders outlined the progress of the new Healthcare Reform law in a letter to Congress on Wednesday, one week before the House is expected to Repeal the overhaul. In almost nine months since the reform law was enacted, it is already holding Insurance Companies more accountable and has provided important consumer protections, according to the letter from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. ...

Boehner challenges new CBO estimate that repealing Obamacare will raise deficit
The Congressional Budget Office has just sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner saying that repealing ObamaCare would "probably increase federal budget Deficits over the 2012-2019 period by a total of roughly $145 billion." The CBO's reasoning is basically this: If ObamaCare is repealed, the government will not collect X in taxes, as provided for in the national Health Care law, and it will not cut Y in Medicare spending, as the law instructs, but it will also not spend a little less than t...

Calif. Dem (Rep Lynn Woolsey) reintroduces public option for health insurance
Source: Raw Story Calif. Dem reintroduces Public Option for Health Insurance By Sahil Kapur Thursday, January 6th, 2011 -- 7:21 am Even as Republicans gear up for a vote to Repeal Health Care reform, one progressive House member is making a renewed push for the public option. On Wednesday, the first day of the 112th Congress, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) introduced a measure to establish a robust public health Insurance option as a supplement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Calif...

PROMISES, PROMISES: GOP drops some out of the gate
(01-06) 03:06 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans have already violated some of the vows they made in taking stewardship of the House. Their pledge to cut $100 billion from the Budget in one year won't be kept. And for a coming vote seeking to Repeal the Health Care overhaul, the first major initiative of the new Congress, lawmakers won't be allowed to propose changes to the Legislation despite Republican promises to end such heavy-handed tactics from the days of Democratic control. Is business...

Democrats desperately selling Obamacare
   Democrats are railing against the possible Repeal of ObamaCare, once again pitting one American against the other.  They have said that Republicans want to kill people, they want to keep people from gaining Insurance when they have an existing condition, and they wish to kick Children off their parents' Insurance policies prior to the ripe Old Age of 26, among other things. They've said Obamacare will reduce the cost of Health Care, but fail to mention that we all are now payin...

Groups target Dem 'no' votes to support repeal
Groups opposing Healthcare Reform are urging 13 House Democrats who voted against the reform law to support the Repeal bill next week.  "If you are really against ObamaCare, then you will vote yea for repeal," according to the letter from DeFundIt.org, Americans for Prosperity, Independent Women's Voice and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Five Democratic "no" votes have already told The Hill they will vote against repeal, with some dismissing the Repeal effort as a poli...