October 17, 2013
After over two weeks amid a government shutdown, the GOP ended up with little to show for their anti-Affordable Care Act crusade: Just one, relatively small, ACA provision was included in the deal that brought the fiscal impasse to a close.
The CBS Evening News went so far as to remind viewers that the shutdown was “triggered just over two weeks ago when House Republicans said they would fund the government but only if they could also roll back the President’s healthcare law.”
Though they didn’t manage to pull off defunding the law in its entirety, a handful of publications, mostly out of the beltway, report on the extractions that Republicans managed to make from the Affordable Care Act. The Hill (10/17, Baker, 194K) “Healthwatch” blog reports that the shutdown fight over the ACA “is set to end with hardly any changes to the law.” In fact, the final agreement includes just one ACA provision, calling for “more rigorous income verification when people apply for new tax subsidies to help cover the cost of their premiums.”
The Washington Times (10/17, Wolfgang, 417K) reports that the White House is “fine” with the “provision calling for strict income monitoring of those seeking taxpayer subsidies under Obamacare.”
Also reporting on the “Tiny Obamacare ‘Ransom,’” as Time (10/17, Nicks, 13.4M) “Swampland” blog puts it, are CQ (10/17, Attias, Subscription Publication, 967), the National Journal (10/17, Condon, Subscription Publication, 427K), the Washington Examiner(10/17, Crabtree, 319K), and Modern Healthcare (10/17, Meyer, Subscription Publication, 224K).
(Article courtesy of American Medical Association).
