Tom Howell Jr.

Abortion fight threatens Medicare deal as Democrats balk at pro-life language

This was supposed to be a Congress focused on jobs and the middle class, but Democrats have quickly turned it into a fight over abortion, the thorniest of social issues, which has already derailed a bipartisan anti-human trafficking bill and now threatens to undermine a long-sought deal on fixing Medicare.

March 24, 2015

Pro-choice House leaders: Don’t let abortion-funding ban scuttle Medicare deal

Democratic leaders of the House's pro-choice caucus said Tuesday they plan to support a bipartisan deal to overhaul Medicare payments, even though it includes a familiar ban on using federal funds for abortion.

March 24, 2015

Obamacare repeal debate stalls budget talks in Congress

Partisan rhetoric spotlighted the ill will that still surrounds Obamacare. It also kicked off a pivotal week for the Republican majority Congress, which must pass its budget plans before it can use an arcane budget procedure to bypass a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and get a repeal bill on President Obama's desk.

March 23, 2015

White House scoffs at Ted Cruz’s Obamacare repeal vow

Marking Obamacare's fifth anniversary Monday, the White House brushed off 2016 GOP campaign vows to scrap the law entirely, saying Republicans don't have a track record that supports their ambitions.

March 23, 2015

Obamacare saved hospitals $7 billion: HHS

Obamacare cut hospitals' costs for treating uninsured patients by more than $7 billion last year, the administration said Monday in marking the fifth anniversary of the overhaul's passage.

March 23, 2015

Obama: Republicans must embrace ‘reality’ of Obamacare success

Five years after signing his signature domestic achievement into law, President Obama said Sunday that Republicans must stop efforts to repeal Obamacare and embrace the "reality" that the law is working.

March 22, 2015

HealthCare.gov still fixing tax-form blunder

The administration said Friday it still had to send corrected tax forms to 80,000 of the 820,000 HealthCare.gov customers who received erroneous information from the federal Obamacare exchange earlier this year.

March 20, 2015

Republican budget proposals a tough sell within increasingly polarized GOP

They've written their budgets, but now Republican leaders must try to round up the votes to pass them amid an ever-more polarized GOP riven with disputes over defense spending and the pace of cutting entitlements.

March 19, 2015

John Boehner: House GOP split on defense spending in budget proposal

Speaker John A. Boehner said Thursday his chamber likely will debate additional defense spending when his party's budget resolution heads to the floor next week.

March 19, 2015

House leaders say they’re close to fixing hated Medicare funding formula

Congressional leaders released a bipartisan bill Thursday to scrap an outdated Medicare payment formula and replace it with a system that's more predictable for doctors and rewards the quality — not quantity — of care they provide.

March 19, 2015

Obamacare still disliked more than liked, but gap narrowing: poll

More Americans disapprove of Obamacare than those who favor it, 43 percent to 41 percent, although the gap between those camps has narrowed to its closet margin in over two years, according to a March tracking poll released Thursday.

March 19, 2015

Senate GOP unveils budget with Obamacare repeal, dismisses president’s ‘unserious’ plan

Senate Republicans released a budget Wednesday that achieves balance in 10 years but does not mimic the House GOP's defense-spending ploys or sweeping changes to Medicare, as tough contests loom for dozens of the party's senators in 2016.

March 18, 2015

Chris Van Hollen on GOP budget: ‘Fakery is hard to sell’

The House Democrats' top budget man was still making his way through the GOP's budget when he faced reporters Tuesday, but it's safe to say he's not impressed.

March 17, 2015

GOP budget repeals Obamacare, cuts $5.5 trillion

House Republicans unveiled a 2016 budget Tuesday that would cut $5.5 trillion from spending over the next 10 years, repeal Obamacare and change Medicare into a voucherlike system — key parts of a fiscally punishing blueprint designed to end red ink in less than a decade.

March 17, 2015

HHS touts drop in uninsured rate under Obamacare; 16 million gained coverage

More than 16 million Americans have gained insurance coverage in the five years since Obamacare was signed, the administration said Monday in a report designed to cheer the law's "historic" strides while Republican lawmakers redouble efforts to scrap it completely.

March 16, 2015