The AP (5/13,
Alonso-Zaldivar) reports, "Critics who allege that Congress
overstepped the US Constitution by requiring Americans to carry
health insurance are 'flatly wrong,' the Obama administration
said Wednesday in its first court defense of the landmark health
care law." Congress "acted well within its power to regulate
interstate commerce and to provide for the general welfare,
Justice Department lawyers argued in a 46-page brief filed in
federal district court in Detroit." The AP notes that the case
"could go all the way to the Supreme Court, since more than a
dozen state attorneys general have also filed suit against the
legislation on broadly similar grounds."
Politico (5/13,
Kliff) notes, "With few surprises and succinct language,
Tuesday's response defended the mandated purchase of health
insurance as well within the bounds of both the Commerce Clause
and Congress's power to raise taxes." David Engstrom, a
constitutional law scholar at Stanford University Law School,
said, "My guess is this represents the definitive response of
the government, and you're not going to see much variation. ...
You might see it change a little if the attorneys general are
pressing a slightly different question, but my guess is a lot of
awfully smart folks have put their eyeballs on this, and it
therefore represents the considered response of the government."
CQ HealthBeat (5/13,
Norman,) notes, "Named in the Michigan suit are Obama, Health
and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Attorney General
Eric H. Holder, Jr. and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner."
But, CQ also points out that the Michigan lawsuit "is separate
from a suit in federal courts in Florida filed by attorneys
general and governors from 20 states also challenging the new
law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152). Other suits have been filed as
well." The Hill (5/13,
O'Brien) and Reuters (5/13,
Pelofsky) also cover the story.
Politico (5/13, Haberkorn)
reports, "Senate Republicans revived their health care
'rationing' theme Wednesday evening as they fired their first
salvo in what's expected to be a fierce battle over the
confirmation Donald M. Berwick to be administrator of the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services." GOP lawmakers "say
Berwick supports the idea of rationing health care, a charge
they deployed to stir public anger against the Democrats' health
care overhaul." Although "they focused on the public insurance
option that ultimately was dropped from the legislation, they
also said that a series of programs that made it into the final
legislation, such as the US Preventive Services Task Force,
would also lead to denying health care to save money."
The Hill (5/13,
Pecquet) reports that Republican "Sens. Pat Roberts (KS), Mitch
McConnell (KY) and John Barrasso (WY) joined forces on the
Senate floor shortly after the last vote of the day and urged
members to review Berwick's record before voting on his
confirmation." Notably, "they accused Berwick of promoting
health care rationing, especially for older people, and
particularly criticized his endorsement of Great Britain's
National Healthcare System (NHS)." In addition, Roberts
"criticized the NHS' 'death pathway,' which empowers government
physicians to humanely end the lives of terminally ill
patients." White House spokesman Reid Cherlin stated that these
"scare tactics" were not surprising, and argued that insurers
currently ration healthcare.
According to the Boston
Globe (5/13, Milligan), "Berwick...is widely respected by
many veteran policy officials across the political spectrum, who
say he has a firm understanding of how to overhaul parts of the
healthcare system that lead to excessive costs, waste, and poor
health outcomes." Yet, "the GOP's senators are making it clear
they plan to turn Berwick's confirmation hearings into a forum
for continuing debate over the newly-minted health care overhaul
law." The Globe adds, "Democrats believe Berwick will ultimately
survive the nomination process, and no Republicans have said yet
that they will vote against him."
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