That didn't take long.
In the 24 hours since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to uphold the Affordable Care Act, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney raised more than $4 million for his presidential campaign.
“Thanks for everyone's support for #Full Repeal!” Andrea Saul, Romney's campaign press secretary, Tweeted Friday. Saul noted that the GOP presidential hopeful raised $4.6 million in more than 47,000 online donations since the SCOTUS ruling.
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Supporters and opponents of the 2010 federal healthcare overhaul have been engaged in a furious war of words in recent weeks over whether the law could stand without the individual mandate. But the apparent attempt to influence the thinking of the U.S. Supreme Court justices appears to be based on a flimsy premise.
Underlying the root of the arguments over whether the law could or should stand without the individual mandate is the broadly acknowledged reality that the mandate is both extremely unpopular by itself and also the least popular of the law's many provisions.
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Some congressional Democrats have blamed their historic 2010 losses on their lack of campaigning on the healthcare law—enacted with only Democratic support. But in recent months, other congressional Democrats have publicly urged their colleagues facing re-election this year to avoid a repeat of that mistake by aggressively campaigning on the law.
One senior Democrat not urging congressional Democrats to tout the law's many popular provisions is one of its primary authors.
I recently asked Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Finance Committee, if Democrats should be running on the healthcare law—his law—in this election.
“That's up to each candidate; up to each senator,” he said in a brief interview. “My personal belief—I can only speak for myself—I stoutly defend it and I think the court's going to approve it.”
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So what did Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) say when HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asked him to hold a confirmation hearing for Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of CMS?
“It's going to be difficult to proceed with the Republican opposition,” said Baucus, chairman of the powerful Finance Committee, when I asked him about the conversation.
The expected strong Republican opposition to Tavenner also has been his public explanation for his decision not to bring her confirmation up for a vote. The scenario echoed similar widespread Republican hostility to her predecessor, Dr. Donald Berwick, who stepped down in December after Baucus demurred giving him a confirmation vote.
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Attendees at the American Hospital Association's annual meeting last month heard from Richard Pollack, the group's executive vice president, about the need to push Congress to pass legislation that would extend certain Medicare provisions set to expire later this year.
On Wednesday, Pollack sent letters to every member of the House and Senate that outlined the various provisions the hospital industry would like to see extended.
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Congressional Democrats—and one independent—are lending their support to a new HHS pilot study that will review the current policy prohibiting gay and bisexual men from donating blood.
Two years ago this month, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) sent a letter to HHS about this issue and have led an effort to overturn a policy—imposed in the 1980s in response to the AIDS epidemic—that bans any male who has had sex with another man since 1977 from giving blood. The lawmakers contend that technological advances in blood testing, as well as opposition from the blood bank community, are reasons to rethink this policy.
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Add another influential Washington figure whose family is directly benefitting from provisions of the healthcare overhaul. But this time it's someone who actually supports the law.
Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) made news last month when he acknowledged that his 23-year-old daughter qualified for coverage under his congressional insurance policy because of the law's requirement that insurers cover any adult child up to 26 years old who applies for coverage. Brown famously campaigned as what was then believed to be the key vote to stop the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from passing the Senate.
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