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First Edition: November 11, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how Republicans are positioning themselves to capitalize on the health law's implementation difficulties in the upcoming election season.

11 Nov 2013

SCOTUS won't hear appeal seeking to reinstate Okla. abortion law

The U.S. Supreme Court is refusing to hear an appeal seeking to reinstate an Oklahoma law that would effectively ban abortion-inducing drugs. In Texas, opponents of an abortion law are appealing to the Supreme Court to reinstate their injunction against the law that requires those performing the procedure have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

6 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 5, 2013

Today's headlines include continuing coverage of the implementation issues that are plaguing the health law, as well as President Barack Obama's pledge to campaign for the overhaul's success.

5 Nov 2013

Viewpoints: Website is like 'a patient bleeding from self-inflicted wounds;' remembering patients who never had care and the need for health law

Obamacare is starting to resemble a patient bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. A month after launch, the online health exchanges where individuals are supposed to shop for insurance remain slow or unusable, except in states that opted to run their own marketplaces and did a more competent job than the administration. As if that weren't trouble enough, critics are justifiably mocking President Obama for his repeated, untrue promise that if people liked their health plans, they could keep them. Oops. Hundreds of thousands of people are getting termination notices for plans that don't meet the strict new requirements of the Affordable Care Act. Presumably, not all those people disliked their plans (11/3).

5 Nov 2013

State highlights: GOP tries abortion issue to lure Hispanic vote

A selection of health policy stories from Texas, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, California and West Virginia.

5 Nov 2013

Tracking health law policy, politics on Capitol Hill

A Democratic House member grapples with the troubles in the health law rollout. CBO releases numbers on adding Capitol Hill staffers to the exchanges and a House committee ponders subpoenas to get exchange enrollment numbers. Also, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., readies a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

4 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 4, 2013

Today's headlines include the latest on the efforts to address the problems with healthcare.gov, as well as the continuing controversy surrounding President Barack Obama's promise that Americans could keep their health coverage if they liked it juxtaposed with the news of recent policy cancellations.

4 Nov 2013

Health law policy issues: Abortion and maternity coverage raising GOP concerns

As if the rollout of the federal health law didn't have enough problems, abortion is back in the spotlight. How the various health plans in the exchanges would or would not pay for abortion was one of the very last issues settled before the bill was passed in 2010. Now abortion's invisibility on the federal HealthCare.gov website has some people pretty upset (Rovner, 11/1).

4 Nov 2013

Federal appeals court reinstates Texas abortion law

A federal appeals court gave the OK for Texas to reinstate a controversial abortion law while its legal fate is being decided and reversed a decision issued earlier this week blocking the law, which now goes back into effect immediately. It requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and limits medication-induced abortions.

3 Nov 2013

First Edition: October 31, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about the Obama administration's efforts to recover from health law implementation hiccups and challenges.

31 Oct 2013

Viewpoints: House Republicans help themselves, and the country, with smart, tough questions to Tavenner; Kentucky senators out of step with eager constituents; replace health law with single payer system

When House Republicans direct their opposition to Obamacare toward aggressive oversight rather than apocalyptic budget shenanigans, they can do themselves and the country a lot of good. That was obvious when the House Ways and Means Committee posed some smart, tough questions about HealthCare.gov to Marilyn Tavenner, who, as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is perhaps the person most directly responsible for the fiasco. Yes, there were a few "gotcha" questions meant to showcase individual representatives' hatred of the health-care law. But for the most part, the queries seemed designed to find a path toward more competent management of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (10/29).

31 Oct 2013

Courts in Texas, Okla. wrestle with state abortion laws

Oklahoma's high court on Tuesday set the stage for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether states can restrict doctors from prescribing two drugs used to induce abortion in the early stages of prnegancy.

30 Oct 2013

First Edition: October 31, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how health law complications are quickly moving beyond problems with the healthcare.gov website to include other issues.

30 Oct 2013

Viewpoints: Policy cancellations raising ire; One woman's story on more affordable insurance; Daschle: Democrats want deal on entitlements

The insurers have assumed that everyone would be required to have coverage by March 31. If the enrollment period is extended for a significant period, the sickest people are most likely to sign up early and the healthiest will likely hang back, driving up the costs ... there is no need for despair. In the long run, the technical problems can and will be fixed and most Americans will be better off.

30 Oct 2013

Federal judge blocks parts of Texas abortion law

A federal judge in Texas Monday partially blocked an abortion law there that would have required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals in order to perform the procedure -- a move that abortion rights advocates say would have shuttered nearly all the state's abortion clinics.

30 Oct 2013

First Edition: October 29, 2013

Today's headlines include previews of a Capitol Hill hearing that will feature Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Serivces Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.

29 Oct 2013

State highlights: 'Habilitation' an essential benefit, but what is it?; Va. gov. candidates differ on mental health system; Calif. pays $2.7M for late hearings

A selection of health policy stories from Virginia, California, Colorado, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Kansas and Texas.

25 Oct 2013

State highlights: Cuccinelli blasts health law, Sebelius in bid to gain ground in Va. governor's race; N.Y. residents split over law; medi-cal cuts threaten access

A selection of health policy stories from Virginia, New York, California, Oregon, Michigan, Texas and Georgia.

24 Oct 2013

Ohio opponents of Medicaid expansion file lawsuit

A group of six Ohio lawmakers, along with two anti-abortion groups, brought suit Tuesday, challenging a legislative board's move to approve that state's expansion of Medicaid under the health law. Other media outlets look at the estimated 5 million Americans who will go without insurance because their states are not expanding the federal-state program for the poor.

24 Oct 2013

Viewpoints: HHS officials must tell Congress, citizens what is happening to marketplaces; 'rate shock' didn't materialize; problems with medical credit cards

The Affordable Care Act's botched rollout has stunned its media cheering section, and it even seems to have surprised the law's architects. The problems run much deeper than even critics expected, and whatever federal officials, White House aides and outside contractors are doing to fix them isn't working. But who knows? ... Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is even refusing to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a hearing this coming Thursday. ... The department is also refusing to make available lower-level officials who might detail the source or sources of this debacle (10/18).

22 Oct 2013