Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee health subcommittee today marked up a collection of 5 health care funding bills, including one that would repeal health insurance exchange program funding.
The health insurance exchange funding cut-off bill, H.R. 1213, would repeal a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that provides federal support 
for starting an American Health Benefit Exchanges program.
The program is supposed to create state-based that programs individuals and small group groups could use to buy high-quality health coverage with the help of new health insurance tax credits.
The subcommittee also marked up H.R. 1214, a bill that would repeal a PPACA provision requiring mandatory funding for school-based health center construction; H.R. 1215, a bill that would change a PPACA provision to convert funding for personal responsibility education programs from direct appropriations to an authorization of appropriations; H.R. 1216, a bill that would change a PPACA provision to convert funding for graduate medical education in qualified teaching health centers from direct appropriations to an authorization of appropriations; and H.R. 1217, a bill that would repeal the PPACA provision that created the Prevention and Public Health Fund.
The subcommittee approved most of the PPACA funding bills along party lines, by a vote of 14-11. It passed H.R. 1215, the personal responsibility funding bill, by a 15-11 vote.
The Republican lawmakers who introduced the bills say that, in many cases, they support the underlying objections of the provisions they want to change, such as efforts to promote health education, but question whether the federal government should be funding those activities at this time and question whether Congress should have provided direct funding for those initiatives in PPACA, rather than following the usual budgeting process.
When Congress uses the traditional budgeting process, it first passes a bill authorizing an expenditure, and then holds a separate vote on whether to appropriate funding to make good on the authorization.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says the PPACA state exchange provision seems to
give the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary "an unlimited tap on the Treasury to fund state exchange grants, the scope of which seems to be limitless."
"No one has taken credit for writing this provision," Upton says in a written version of his remarks posted on the subcommittee website. "I don't know a single member of Congress who believes it is a good idea to give the secretary of HHS a direct tap on the Treasury with no limit on how much could be spent and virtually unlimited discretion to determine what it means to 'facilitate' enrollment in an exchange. That seems to be a reoccurring theme with this whole law: no one wants to take credit – or accept blame – for what was actually written. I would like the authors of the bill to tell us why this authority was granted."
Other PPACA budget coverage from National Underwriter Life & Health:
- Sebelius Letter Slams House Budget Impact on Medicare Programs
- CBO: To Cut the Deficit, Cut Health Costs
- Pitts: Eliminate the PPACA Slush Fund
- Bernanke: Public Employee Benefits Costs Threaten Sustainability
- Obama Budget: COLI Tax, Dividend Deduction Cut, Life Settlement Reporting, PBGC Reform, PPACA Funding, Dodd-Frank Funding . . . .
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