Three years after Congress approved President Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA), contraceptive care remains its most controversial provision, drawing not only more comments than any other regulatory proposal on any subject government-wide, according to an analysis of federal regulations on Sunlight's Docket Wrench.
More than 147,000 people and organizations have made their voices heard over the debate, most of them opposing the provision that requires that federal agencies have interpreted to mean that women have access to preventive services--including contraception--at no cost. The Catholic Church has led the charge, urging parishioners to write with messages such as ...
Continue readingAfter health care, what will happen to Dodd-Frank?
While the U.S. Supreme Court has now upheld the health care reform law as constitutional, conservative groups still are on a legal attack on the constitutionality of one of the other signature achievements of President Barack Obama’s term in office: the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
Last week, C. Boyden Gray, an eminence grise of conservative Washington, along with the Competitiveness Enterprise Institute and the 60 Plus Association, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to challenge the constitutionality of Dodd-Frank, joining the Texas-based community bank, State National Bank of Big Spring. While the Dodd-Frank has been under ...
Continue readingWhat’s in a name? A look at how ‘health reform’ became ‘Obamacare’
The political backdrop for Thursday's Supreme Court ruling on President Obama's health care law is vividly illustrated in the way rhetoric about the controversial measure has changed. The orange line indicates frequency of mentions for "Obamacare." The pink line is for "health reform."
In the graphic above, created by Capitol Words -- Sunlight's tool for tracking the language used on the floor of Congress -- you can see how the derogatory term "Obamacare," invented and mostly used by Republicans, as seen below. The red line indicates Republican mentions of the term, the blue, Democrats.
If winning a debate means ...
Continue readingGuess who’s giving to lawmaker trying to repeal tax on medical devices?
The Minnesota congressman leading the charge to repeal a medical device excise tax that is meant to generate a big chunk of funding for the health care reform law has taken the most campaign money--more than $64,000--from medical device manufacturers this election cycle.
Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., has attracted 240 cosponsors, including 11 Democrats, for his bill to repeal the 2.3 percent excise tax, which the House is scheduled to consider this week. Paulsen hails from a state where the medical device industry is a substantial employer. Companies such as Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and Starkey Laboratories ...
Continue readingSuper Committee, Boehner speech protests linked to major labor group
Our DC, a SEIU-linked protest group that stopped the first Super Committee meeting, has been regularly delivering a pro-jobs message to congressional Republicans: with some 100 protesters outside House Speaker John Boehner's speech at the Economic Club of Washington yesterday, according to organizers, who said the protest was in support of the American Jobs Act.
Last Tuesday, it organized a protest at the first meeting of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, the so-called the Super Committee.
“Jobs! Now!” about 25 unemployed or underemployed protesters shouted outside the room, bringing the meeting to a brief halt. “Jobs! Now ...
Continue readingSunlight Weekly Round-up: New Oklahoma website improves state accountability
For a while now, we have been advocating for opening up our government through the use of technology and the... View Article
Continue readingReporting: Health Care Waivers and Health Care Lobbying
Sarah Dorsey on the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group site posted yesterday about the continued health care reform lobbying. Her post... View Article
Continue readingHealth Care Reform Revolving Door
In the middle of December 2010 Andrew McKechnie, the top health care policy advisor to Senate Finance Committee ranking member... View Article
Continue readingNew GOP wave could slow the pace of healthcare reform
House Republicans will begin planning their agendas this week. Many of these candidates made their opposition to the President's health care law a central issue in their campaigns. But to what extent will Tuesday's elections actually affect the course of reform?
Likely Speaker of the House John Boehner has been an outspoken proponent of the "repeal and replace" approach, telling reporters yesterday that he wants to begin "lay(ing) the groundwork" to repeal the law. But overturning health care reform would require a two-thirds majority to beat an Obama veto, a mark the GOP falls far short of ...
Lobbying dollars continue to flow toward health care reform
The President signed the health care reform bill in March, but over $125 million in lobbying dollars continues to flow to the issue, lobbying disclosure forms show. Total dollars spent lobbying on health care issues remained high in the three months after the reform bill was passed, dipping by only $16 million since the first quarter of the year.
State insurance commissioners are currently working out the details that will shape one of the first regulatory battles of health care reform: what percent of premiums health insurers must spend on patient care. And the health care industry is taking note ...
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