WASHINGTON BUREAU — Republicans today attacked Obama administration implementation of the Affordable Care Act at a hearing on part of the administration's 2012 budget proposal.
The Senate Finance Committee called in Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to talk about the section of the 2012 budget proposal that would set HHS funding for the 2012 federal fiscal year, which will start Oct. 1.
Some of the changes in the $80 billion HHS section of the proposal would provide funding for implementation 
of the Affordable Care Act, the legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, cited estimates that PPACA could cause the loss of 800,000 jobs, said the Obama administration's implementation of PPACA has been "chaotic" because PPACA has given so much rulemaking authority to a "sprawling federal bureaucracy," and charged that the Obama administration seems to be ignoring the public's skepticism about its ability to cut the federal budget.
Hatch said the administration has been unwilling to give states leeway to cut Medicaid spending and protect themselves from onerous mandates in the new law.
Other members of the panel expressed concern about
Medicare.
Sebelius defended the administration's 2012 HHS budget proposal.
Funding would be "slightly below" the 2010 level, Sebelius said.
The administration wants to make sure "we're cutting waste and excess, not making across-the-board deep cuts in programs that help our economy grow and are making a difference for families and business," Sebelus said.
"For every program we invest in, we know we need to cut somewhere else," Sebelius said.
When developing the HHS budget proposal, "we took a magnifying glass to every program in our department and made tough choices," Sebelius said. "When we found waste, we cut it. When we found duplication, we eliminated it… In some cases, we cut programs we wouldn't in better fiscal times."
In response to comments about a new health insurance exchange system that is supposed to start distributing subsidized individual and small group health coverage in 2014, Sebelius said the exchanges will offer eligible consumers and businesses "one-stop shopping" for health plans.
"State-based health insurance exchanges will create affordable, quality insurance options for many Americans who previously did not have health insurance coverage, had inadequate coverage, or were vulnerable to losing the coverage they had," Sebelius said.
"New premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions will also increase the affordability of coverage and care," and expansion of Medicaid should also help millions of people who previously were not eligible for help with paying for health coverage, Sebelius said.
In comments about the current level of Medicaid funding, Sebelius said the administration is working "aggressively with states on a variety of options" to cope with declining state funding resources.
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