Some Republican Health Staffers Flee The Hill
Politico reports that some GOP health care staffers have left Capitol Hill to take lobbying jobs that offer more money, fewer hours and less frustration.
Politico: Frustrated GOP Health Staffers Jump Ship
If you want to see how frustrated Republicans are with health care, just look at their staffs. Since the election, one top Republican health policy staffer after another has fled the Hill for consulting and lobbying gigs that promise better pay, fewer hours and less obstructionism. ... It's been a bumpy few years for these staffers, most of whom participated in the health care law negotiations in 2009 and 2010, watched as Democrats passed the law without a single Republican's vote, stood by as their bosses continually tried — and failed — to ditch the law and saw GOP hopes for entitlement reform fall by the wayside (Cunningham, 3/8).
In other Congressional news, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is pushing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to scale back proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage -
The Hill: Rubio Presses HHS To Soften Medicare Advantage Cuts
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) pushed the federal Medicare agency on Friday to scale back its proposed cuts to private Medicare Advantage plans. The insurance industry is aggressively fighting the cuts, and has been looking for lawmakers to take up their case with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Rubio urged CMS Friday to use different assumptions about how Medicare will pay doctors next year — a change that would almost certainly lead the agency to scale back its proposed 2.2 percent cut (Baker, 3/8).