Looking beyond repeal vote, House Republicans plan their own health bills

The House GOP moved forward Thursday with targeted measures to advance their own version of health legislation. Four committee chairmen outlined plans to develop specific plans to kill or replace certain elements of the health law. A bill to permit interstate sales of health insurance is among the specific proposals on the table, and a group of conservative Republicans also unveiled a fiscal plan that would stall health law implementation efforts by defunding them. It would also not provide funding to the Justice Department to defend against current legal challenges to the overhaul.

The New York Times: House Republicans Plan Their Own Health Bills
Less than 24 hours after voting to repeal the new health care law, House Republicans said Thursday that they would pass discrete bills to achieve some of the same goals, but with more restraint in the use of federal power (Pear, 1/20).

Los Angeles Times: House Republicans Offer Own Healthcare Legislation
Following up on their largely symbolic vote to repeal the new healthcare law, House Republicans moved ahead Thursday with more targeted efforts to advance their own health care initiatives, including deregulating health insurance sales (Levey and Mascaro, 1/21).

The Wall Street Journal: Republicans Look Beyond Repeal Vote
House Republicans began a push Thursday to pick apart the Democrats' sweeping health-care law, an undertaking carrying possible risks alongside political rewards. A day after House Republicans voted unanimously to repeal the entire health law — an effort almost certain to die in the Senate — the chairmen of four House committees announced their plans to move on to the bigger challenge of coming up with specific measures to kill or replace parts of the legislation (Bendavid, 1/21).

Politico: House OKs First Step Of 'Replace'
Fourteen Democrats joined all House Republicans to pass the first step in the "replace" part of the GOP's "repeal and replace" plan for health care reform. The House on Thursday approved a resolution directing four committees to work on alternatives to the health care reform law Democrats passed last year. It passed 253-175 (Haberkorn, 1/20).

Modern Healthcare: House Vote Orders Committees To Work Up Reform-Replacement Legislation
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 253-175 on a resolution that instructs four House committees to work on legislation to replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with 14 Democrats supporting the measure. Included in the resolution was one amendment from Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) to include a permanent fix to the Medicare physician payment formula (Zigmond, 1/20).

CQ HealthBeat: House Committee Leaders Signal Intent To Act Quickly On Health Law Replacement
Four House committee chairmen said Thursday they plan to move quickly to oversight hearings and drafting bills to replace aspects of the health care law now that the House has voted in favor of a repeal bill. "The tree is rotten, you cut it down — and if we can't cut it down and succeed doing that all at once, we'll prune it branch by branch," said Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan (Ethridge, 1/20).

The Hill: GOP Healthcare Agenda To Limit Abortions, Probe Dem Reforms
A day after House Republicans struck down the sweeping healthcare reform law, the GOP started laying the groundwork for a health care agenda that includes limits on abortion and investigations into the reform law's implementation (Millman, 1/20).

Fox News: Republicans Plot Course For ObamaCare Replacement
In broad terms, GOP leaders agree on the goals. Lawmakers told FOX News that their broad goals include: cut waste, fraud and abuse; expand insurance coverage; reduce premiums; allow people to keep the coverage they have and block federal funding of abortion (Gibson, 1/21).