Republicans take aim at federal health care spending

In the early hours of the morning Saturday, February 19th, House Republicans passed their 2011 appropriations bills outlining over $60 billion dollars in cuts from 2010 spending levels, nearly $100 billion less than President Obama’s proposed spending levels for 2011. The Republican’s proposed cuts eliminated programs such as Americorps, ended all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, de-funded the EPA’s ability to monitor toxins in the air, and cut funds for border security. Republicans saved some of their biggest cuts for health care programs, targeting not only the recently passed Affordable Care Act, but also Planned Parenthood, Community Health Centers, and federally funded medical research.

First and foremost, the GOP have used the amendment process for this appropriation bill as an opportunity to re-fight the health care reform debate that took up much of Obama’s first two years as president. The bill, as passed, includes provisions to:

• Stop any funding for the defining of “essential benefits,” part of the patient’s bill of rights included in health care reform that would guarantee consumers certain services would be covered when they buy insurance
• Stop any federal work on state health insurance exchanges, which are regulated marketplaces where consumers will be able to shop for insurance
• Stop funds for enforcing a new rule whereby health insurance companies must spend at least 85% of their revenue on health care for their customers or else send out refund checks to make up the difference
• Block wages to any employee of the Health or Labor departments whose job it is to implement the law
• Block any funding to the Internal Revenue Service that allow it to enforce the tax provision of health care reform

Republicans know they don’t have the votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, so their strategy has become sabotaging the law piece by piece.

Republican spending cuts weren’t just reserved for recent federal programs to expand access to health care. Their appropriations bill cut all federal funding for women’s health services provided by Planed Parenthood throughout the country including “lifesaving breast and cervical cancer screenings, annual exams, family planning visits, birth control, HIV testing, and more.”

$1.3 billion in cuts for Community Health Centers, a previously bipartisan program championed by George W. Bush, were also included. Community Health Centers serve more than 20 million people throughout the country, according to the Michigan Primary Care Association, and provide important preventative health service to underserved areas. The health centers are intended to lower costs by providing health care access outside of the emergency room for uninsured and low income Americans.

To top it all off, the Republican’s appropriations bill included a $1 billion annual cut in funding for the National Institute of Health, which funds scientific research into treatments for diseases like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s, ending a decade long bipartisan push to expand America’s support for scientific research.

These cuts come only two months after the passage of tax cuts which added $858 billion to the deficit in 2011 and ‘12 without being paid for. If you remember, Republicans in the House and Senate held middle class tax cuts hostage for an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the top tax brackets, at an additional cost of about $70 billion over two years. Just keep that in mind when you hear Republican congressmen saying drastic and deep cuts are necessary because of big deficits. Letting the tax cuts expire on the richest Americans would have saved the government more than all of these cuts combined.

-- Washington Post / Washington Post / Politico / NPR / The Hill / HRSA.gov / Washington Independent / Bloomberg / CNN / Washington Post / CBS News