OVERNIGHT HEALTH: White House pushes back on Grubergate

by Elise Viebeck - 11/18/14 6:01 PM ET

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Republicans are hyping past comments from ObamaCare consultant Jonathan Gruber to distract from what’s going well for the healthcare law.

After saying that Gruber’s view that the healthcare law passed partly because of the “stupidity” of the American voter is not shared by “anybody at the White House,” Earnest challenged claims that ObamaCare was not passed in a transparent way.

{mosads}He also suggested that few Americans are paying attention to the controversy.

“People are understandably pretty tired of relitigating all the fights from 2009 and 2010,” Earnest said Tuesday at his daily press briefing.

“Some Republicans are fanning the flames of those old political arguments because it’s politically advantageous. It’s easier for them to talk about six to eight-year-old videos than to talk about how the open enrollment period has gone smoothly so far, or the millions who have gotten health insurance.”

Republicans are continuing to push the issue amid an explosion of interest from conservative media. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) entered the fray late Monday by calling for a probe of Gruber’s consulting payments, and lawmakers discussed Gruber’s nearly two dozen visits to the White House Tuesday. Read more here.

Another day, another lawyer: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has hired another lawyer for House Republicans’ lawsuit against President Obama, after two legal teams backed away from the effort. Boehner will retain Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, as lead counsel to challenge Obama’s delay of the healthcare law’s employer mandate.

Turley has testified on Capitol Hill in support of the lawsuit, which has been criticized as a nonstarter in parts of the legal community.

It has been more than four months since House Republicans decided to focus their lawsuit — intended to challenge Obama’s use of executive action — on the employer mandate. The suit has not been filed, and two Washington legal teams have already backed out of the effort. A spokesman for Boehner said last month that the action would “soon” go to court. Read more here.

Recouping ‘wasted’ dollars: Three Republican senators are pressing the Obama administration for details about how it will recover the “hundreds of millions of dollars” spent on failed ObamaCare exchanges.

In a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday, the senators accused the federal government of a lack of oversight and a lack of urgency in recovering federal funds.

“This equates to hundreds of millions of dollars in government waste, and this issue needs to be addressed swiftly,” Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) wrote. Read more here.

‘Cannot be complacent’: President Obama warned Tuesday that the deadly Ebola virus “is still going to be a danger” to Americans as he pressed lawmakers to approve more than $6 billion in emergency funding to fight the disease. “We cannot be complacent simply because the news attention on it has waned,” the president said Tuesday during a meeting with top health officials.

“We have to stay with it, and that’s why I’m calling Congress to make sure that it approves, before it leaves, the emergency funding request that we’ve put forward to respond to Ebola,” he added. Obama said the additional money would help strengthen domestic health systems “so we can respond to any future cases that may arise in the United States, wherever they might happen.” Read more here.

Mobile use reported: About 20 percent of people who logged onto HealthCare.gov have used their cell phone, the head of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Tuesday.

HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell disclosed the figure in Houston during a press conference. A spokeswoman for HHS pointed to the figure as evidence that the government is reaching out to populations that are typically uninsured, such as Hispanics.

“One of our priorities this year was to optimize HealthCare.gov and CuidadodeSalud.gov for mobile — so no matter where you were, you could learn about your options and get covered,” HHS spokeswoman Meaghan Smith wrote in a statement to The Hill. Read more here.

GOP takes aim at Ebola response: House Republicans are again aiming criticism at President Obama’s response to Ebola, renewing calls for travel bans and quarantines, even as public attention on the disease continues to wane.

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), who leads the House Oversight Committee’s health subpanel, on Tuesday slammed the administration for repeatedly opposing policies that have been adopted by “respected institutions,” such as the U.S. military.

“It’s impossible for the American people to understand why the government would have one standard for the military and yet another standard for people who may have been in the same, or possibly more perilous, circumstances,” Murphy said at the hearing, which marks the first held by the House Oversight Committee in more than a month. Read more here.

Wednesday’s schedule:

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing on the development of medical products to fight Ebola.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will mark-up a series of bills, including a measure (H.R. 669) designed to speed development of Ebola drugs and treatments.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing examining U.S. preparedness for public health threats.

The House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Oversight will hold a hearing on the role of the White House chief technology officer in the launch of HealthCare.gov last year.

State by state:

Montana governor will try again to expand Medicaid

LePage: Medicaid fight may go to Supreme Court

Kynect’s first weekend nets more than 1,100 plans

Feds say yes to Ind.’s HIP, talks continue to HIP 2.0

Reading list:

Advocates ask White House to include healthcare in immigration end-run

Boehner prefers ‘expensive’ ObamaCare to Medicare

Medicare now covers genetic tests for targeting depression drugs

Good news for boomers buying health plans

Nursing homes serving minorities offering less care than those housing whites

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