Bill Would Boost CMS, HHS Funding For Health Reform
June 14, 2012 | By Alicia Caramenico
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services may get an extra $1.38 billion in spending next year to help implement health reform previsions, despite Republican objections.
The Senate Appropriations subcommittee voted 10 to 7 to provide $158.8 billion for the departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services and related agencies in 2013, the committee announced Tuesday.
To further help fund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the bill also would boost the Center for Medicare & Medicare Services' budget to $3.16 billion from $2.61 billion this year.
Under the bill, funding for healthcare fraud prevention and enforcement would double to $610 million in 2013, according to the announcement. With current anti-fraud funding, the government expects to recover $1.2 billion for the first half of fiscal 2012.
But health reform funding may be hard to preserve if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down previsions of the ACA later this month, The Hill's On The Money blog noted.
On top of that, Republicans have maintained their efforts to defund health reform. Ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told The Hill he would never support a bill that funds health reform implementation. "The majority of Americans do not want the ACA because they know it will lead to higher taxes and lower quality of care," he said.
The full committee votes on the 2013 funding bill today, noted On The Money.
For more information:
- read the committee announcement
- read the Hill's On The Money blog post
Thank You Fierce Healthcare and Ms Caramenico
We just 86-ed Donald Berwick as head of CMS. Berwick's position was that Health Care Rationing was "Inevitable" under the President's PPACA. And President Obama replaced Berwick with Dr Seuss.
CMS is already worth almost a Trillion Dollars and a Tenth of That is being Ripped Off while roughly 1% of the net, Boondoggle Trillion of CMS, is actually being recovered by Federal Anti-Fraud initiatives.
And now we have Republican Objections to tossing Another $158.8 Billion into the aggregate Black Hole of DC.
The Hill's Erik Wasserman has:
Dems, GOP Battle Over Healthcare Law As 2013 Spending Bill Advances
- 06/12/12 03:16 PM ET
Democrats and Republicans clashed Tuesday over President Obama’s signature healthcare reform law as Democrats moved forward with a 2013 spending bill that funds it.
The Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill passed out of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee by a vote of 10 to 7 with the GOP united in its opposition to increased funding for the Affordable Care Act. It heads for a full committee vote on Thursday.
Protecting the ACA’s funding could be tricky if part of the law is struck down by the Supreme Court later this month.
“We’ll just have to see what the Supreme Court decides and how that plays out. I just don’t know yet,” subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) acknowledged.
He said that a decision by United Healthcare this week to keep some parts of the ACA, such as allowing parental coverage for those 26 and younger, demonstrates the popularity of at least parts of the law.
“It shows there are a lot of things in this healthcare bill that the American people don’t want to give up,” he said. “Defunding the bill means they would have to give it up. Republicans can’t have it both ways, saying they will vote to defund it but they want to keep all these other things.”
Overall the spending bill provides $158.8 billion for 2013 for the departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services and related agencies. That $8.8 billion is more than the House is expected to provide in its bill, which is heading for a markup as soon as next week and a major fall battle looms, likely after the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
Harkin said the bill is "fiscally responsible" because it adheres to the $1.2 trillion budget cuts in last August’s debt-ceiling deal.
He noted that it keeps funding for home heating assistance and for graduate education, which the White House had proposed cutting. He also highlighted the increase in Pell Grant college scholarships — to a maximum award of $5,635 — and a doubling of diabetes research funding.
Ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said he would never support a bill that funds the ACA. Specifically he objected to an increase in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid budget and for a prevention fund that the GOP calls a “slush fund.”
“The majority of Americans do not want the ACA because they know it will lead to higher taxes and lower quality of care,” he said.
He noted that one “ObamaCare” program would authorize the building of grocery stores in poor neighborhoods.
“I ask my colleagues, does this sound like a job for the federal government?” he said. “These are programs we do not need and cannot afford.”
“It shows there are a lot of things in this healthcare bill that the American people don’t want to give up,” he said. “Defunding the bill means they would have to give it up. Republicans can’t have it both ways, saying they will vote to defund it but they want to keep all these other things.”
Overall the spending bill provides $158.8 billion for 2013 for the departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services and related agencies. That $8.8 billion is more than the House is expected to provide in its bill, which is heading for a markup as soon as next week and a major fall battle looms, likely after the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
Harkin said the bill is "fiscally responsible" because it adheres to the $1.2 trillion budget cuts in last August’s debt-ceiling deal.
He noted that it keeps funding for home heating assistance and for graduate education, which the White House had proposed cutting. He also highlighted the increase in Pell Grant college scholarships — to a maximum award of $5,635 — and a doubling of diabetes research funding.
Ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said he would never support a bill that funds the ACA. Specifically he objected to an increase in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid budget and for a prevention fund that the GOP calls a “slush fund.”
“The majority of Americans do not want the ACA because they know it will lead to higher taxes and lower quality of care,” he said.
He noted that one “ObamaCare” program would authorize the building of grocery stores in poor neighborhoods.
“I ask my colleagues, does this sound like a job for the federal government?” he said. “These are programs we do not need and cannot afford.”
How do you top Borrowing $188 Million per hour to build US Federal Grocery Stores when we're $15 Trillion in debt?
Oh Well, just trust in the system, and all will be well. The President's Dems must know what they're doing, since we have a Debt that Exceeds our GDP Already from the President's Dems. And that $90 to $120 BILLION A YEAR of Medicare/Medicaid FRAUD will All be accounted for by our Federal Dept of Justice just as soon as those nasty Republicans get off of our US Attorney General, Eric Holder's, over worked and partisan hen pecked back.
And Atty Gen. Holder Will get around to finding out What Happened to those 2 missing hospitals and what that 18K Brass Plated Phony, Only 24 hr/16hr UCSF Faculty Staffed PES, SF Gen Hospital is all about too, Provided of course that the Republicans don't cite him for Contempt of Congress or Impeach him first.
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