House GOP plans new votes repealing parts of health law ahead of Supreme Court ruling

The two bills would repeal a tax on medical devices and ease restrictions on health savings accounts, both parts of the Democrats' health care reform law.

The Hill: House Plans Two Votes To Repeal Health Care Law Before Supreme Court Ruling
The House will keep voting on piecemeal bills to repeal parts of President Obama's health care law before the Supreme Court decides whether the law is unconstitutional. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in a planning memo that the House will vote on two partial repeal bills as early as June 4. One would repeal the health law's tax on medical devices, and the other would relax the law's restrictions on the use of tax-preferred health savings accounts (HSAs) (Baker, 5/25). 

CQ HealthBeat: Ways And Means To Mark Up Device Fee Repeal May 31
The House Ways and Means Committee will mark up legislation May 31 to repeal fees that medical device manufacturers will have to pay beginning next year to help cover the costs of the health care overhaul, a GOP aide said. Introduced by Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., the bill has 238 cosponsors. The committee also will mark up HR 5842, a bill introduced by Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., according to the aide. That measure permits the use of health savings accounts and flexible spending account funds to purchase over-the-counter medications, which is now barred under the health care overhaul law (5/25).

Politico Pro: Medical Device Tax Becomes Campaign Issue
A controversial health care reform tax due to go into effect next year has become a prominent issue in a number of House and Senate races throughout the country. Beginning next year, the medical device industry will face a 2.3 percent tax on its sales. The tax is estimated to raise $2 billion each year to help pay for President Barack Obama's health reform law, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation (Haberkorn, 5/29).

Meanwhile, other news organizations look at issues related to the health insurance exchanges also established under the 2010 law:

The Washington Post: State-Based Insurance Marketplaces Hang In Balance Of Supreme Court Health-Care Ruling
While partisan gridlock and logistical disputes have stalled preparations for the 2010 health care law in about two dozen states, more than a dozen others have moved swiftly to set up the insurance marketplaces at the statute's core. So what will come of those efforts if the Supreme Court decides to overturn all or part of the law? Interviews with key officials in some of the states that are furthest along suggest the results could vary widely (Aizenman, 5/26).

Politico Pro: How IT Could Trip Up State Exchanges
Even states that are solidly committed to pursuing an exchange are facing major logistical challenges in building the computer systems that will be able to handle enrollment when exchanges open for business in 2014. That's largely because the system that will actually connect people to the right coverage will have to "talk" to many other systems, and they don't use a common language. This includes a yet-to-be built federal "data hub" with tax and citizenship data, the enrollment systems of multiple private insurers selling exchange plans, and --hardest of all -- state Medicaid enrollment systems, many of which are not yet fully computerized (Feder, 5/25).

And The Associated Press tries to answer one of the biggest questions around Washington.

The Associated Press: Justices' Summer Plans Point To Late June Finish
One never knows when the Supreme Court will hand down its last, often biggest, opinions of the term. But the justices' summer travel schedules make it a pretty safe bet that blockbuster health care and immigration cases will be decided by the end of June. That's because Professor John Roberts, also known as Chief Justice of the United States, has a morning law school class to teach the first week of July. On Malta (Sherman, 5/27).