Prominent Republican leaves immigration overhaul talks over immigrant health care

Jun 10 2013

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Raul Labrador says he disagreed with others in the talks about health provisions for immigrants who are here illegally now but would gain legal status under the bill. Also, CMS announces that it cannot stop sequestration cuts to Medicare's reimbursement for cancer drugs.

The New York Times: In House, Immigration Spurs Push By G.O.P.
Late Wednesday, a bipartisan group of representatives who had been meeting to write a broad immigration bill announced they had completed their negotiations. But a prominent Republican in the group, Raúl Labrador of Idaho, said he was leaving. Mr. Labrador said that he disagreed with the other lawmakers over health care provisions for illegal immigrants who would gain legal status under the measure (Parker and Preston, 6/6).

Medscape: No Stopping Sequestration Cancer Cuts, Says CMS
There is no stopping the cuts to Medicare's reimbursement of cancer drugs mandated by the federal budget sequestration, according to a June 3 letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to members of the US Congress. The cuts have infamously caused cancer clinics across the country to turn away Medicare patients. The letter from CMS to members of Congress who had appealed for a workaround of the cancer-specific cuts was first reported yesterday by the Huffington Post (Mulcahy, 6/6).