This article originally appeared on TheHill.com on March 15, 2011.
OVERNIGHT HEALTH: Healthcare reform dodges budget ax again
By Healthwatch staff – 03/14/11 05:45 PM ET
Healthcare reform dodges the budget ax again: The House is scheduled to vote on yet another stopgap spending bill that again avoids cutting big-ticket healthcare items, including the reform law and Planned Parenthood. The $6 billion in cuts outlined in the three-week spending measure includes two healthcare cuts backed by the administration: $276 million in pandemic flu funding and $75 million from State Health Access Grants.
Conservatives growing impatient: The short-term spending measures keep pushing back fights over funding for healthcare reform and Planned Parenthood, and conservatives are growing restless over what they see as another missed defunding opportunity. GOP Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Steve King (Iowa) circulated a letter on Friday demanding that the next continuing resolution withhold $105 billion in the reform law’s mandatory spending as well as any funds for implementing the law. On Monday, the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List said failure to include Rep. Mike Pence’s (R-Ind.) amendment blocking funds to Planned Parenthood would show the House is “not serious about cutting spending.”
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