HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola, Florida, declared the law unconstitutional in a ruling today. ... Vinson's ruling may be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta. A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, is already slated in May to hear challenges to two conflicting federal court rulings in that state, one of which upheld the legislation while the other invalidated part of it. The U.S. Supreme Court may ultimately be asked to consider the issue.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: A Florida judge could on Monday become the second judge to declare President Barack Obama's health care reform law unconstitutional, in the biggest legal challenge yet to federal authority to enact the law. The judge, Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Florida, was expected to rule on a lawsuit brought by governors and attorneys general from 26 U.S. states, almost all of whom are Republicans.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans are preparing to push through restrictions on federal financing of abortions far more extreme than previously proposed at the federal level. Lawmakers have made it one of their highest priorities to take the decision about a legal medical procedure out of the hands of individuals and turn it over to the government. The anti-abortion forces almost derailed health care reform last year over whether people could buy policies that cover abortion on new insurance exchanges.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: Financially strapped governors, Congress and the Obama administration could be headed for a showdown over the Medicaid health care program that covers 48 million poor, disabled and elderly people nationwide. Arizona's governor has already asked for permission to drop people from the joint federal-state program, which states say is eating up huge portions of their budgets.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: President Obama will address the annual conference for Families USA today armed with a new HHS report that shows health insurance premiums will be 14-20 percent lower in 2014 than they would have been without the law.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans launched a two-pronged attack on health reform Wednesday, ripping apart the idea that it cuts spending and painting it as a disaster for business. The first hearing of the Budget Committee took on the spending argument, while the Ways and Means Committee went after the law as anti-business.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: President Barack Obama made two things clear about health care in his State of the Union speech: he is willing to change it around the edges and he is ready to put it in the rearview mirror. "Instead of re-fighting the battles of the last two years, let's fix what needs fixing and move forward."

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: President Barack Obama will have two challenges when he talks about his signature health care law Tuesday night: Get the public back on his side, and don't spend too much time on it. It will be Obama's first State of the Union address since he signed health care reform into law in March, and the public is still deeply divided over his biggest legislative accomplishment.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: Perhaps nothing signifies the changing of the health care guard in Congress more than the Republicans' decision to pivot from a vote on repealing the overhaul to a debate over medical malpractice. Even before the floor votes were tallied on a Republican resolution instructing committees to start rewriting the health care law, the House Judiciary Committee held its first oversight hearing on a longtime favorite GOP issue: curbing malpractice claims.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: The new Republican chairmen of a powerful House committee and its investigative subcommittee want Obama administration officials to explain exactly how they're implementing the health law. It's the first of what's expected to be a long list of investigations that could keep Obama health officials busy gathering documents and testifying on Capitol Hill for much of the year.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: The U.S. House of Representatives voted 253-175 on a resolution that instructs four House committees to work on legislation to replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with 14 Democrats supporting the measure. Included in the resolution was one amendment to include a permanent fix to the Medicare physician payment formula.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: In what is considered to be a symbolic vote, House Republicans joined with three Democrats to fulfill a campaign pledge to pass a bill that would undo the sweeping health overhaul. The vote represented the Republican House majority's first official rebuke of the Obama agenda. Senate action, however, is unlikely.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: A key reason the House is voting on the repeal bill even though leaders know it's unlikely to even get a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate is that dozens of new Republican members got elected last November, nearly every one of them promising to fight to get rid of it.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: Immediately after House Republicans take up the health care overhaul repeal resolution today, they report they will begin crafting an alternative with the goal of reducing insurance premiums, expanding coverage, preserving Medicare and holding down taxes.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans plan on Wednesday to fulfill a tea party priority: voting to repeal the health care law passed by Democrats last year. GOP leaders are sticking with a title for their resolution that Democrats say is inaccurate and unseemly in light of the six people killed in Tucson: "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act."

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans plan to debate and vote next week on repealing last year's health care overhaul in an early test of whether partisan rhetoric softens in the aftermath of the Arizona shootings. They expect to pass their repeal measure the next day and, later, pass another measure that instructs House committees to delve into new health legislation to replace the law passed last March.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: Republican leaders in the House have scheduled debate to begin on Tuesday. And, although the vote — which will follow a day later — is largely considered symbolic, it will kick off the GOP push to defund the bill and undo some of its more unpopular provisions.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: Even as House Republicans press to repeal the health care law, government advisers this week are preparing to wade into one of the most contentious questions raised by the legislation: What benefits must insurers cover? While the law outlines 10 broad categories of coverage – among them hospital and emergency services, prescription drugs, childbirth and pediatric care – it leaves the specifics to the government. The required package affects all policies to be sold in state-based insurance exchanges.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: Both sides in the bitter health care debate say their truce over the controversial law is only temporary. Republicans say they will soon renew their efforts to repeal the law, while supporters say their timeout from publicly arguing against repeal will run out as soon as the House brings its bill back to the floor.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans have called off this week's legislative action, including a planned Wednesday vote on a GOP bill to repeal President Obama's health care law, because of the shooting attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: President Barack Obama urged newly empowered Republicans on Saturday not to wage “symbolic battles” against him but to instead work together to help spur job growth and economic recovery. Obama issued his appeal in his weekly radio address ... “What we can't do is refight the battles of the past two years that distract us from the hard work of moving our economy forward,” he said.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: Legislation repealing President Obama's health care overhaul cleared a key procedural hurdle in the House of Representatives on Friday, advancing a top priority of the new Republican congressional majority. The sharply partisan 236-181 vote probably will set up a final House vote to undo the measure next Wednesday. Almost every Republican voted to advance the measure; nearly every Democrat opposed it. While a successful repeal vote would fulfill a GOP campaign promise, the measure is considered to have virtually no chance of surviving either the Democratic-controlled Senate or a promised presidential veto.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: The nonpartisan budget scorekeepers in Congress said on Thursday that the Republican plan to repeal President Obama’s health care law would add $230 billion to federal budget deficits over the next decade, intensifying the first legislative fight of the new session and highlighting the challenge Republicans face in pursuing their agenda.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: Republicans officially take control of the House and a vote to repeal the health care reform law is at the top of their agenda. But with President Obama in the White House and a Democratic-controlled Senate, any House repeal vote will likely be symbolic — the repeal effort is unlikely to advance any further, and provisions of the law scheduled to go into effect this year will continue on course.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: With the countdown on until the Jan. 12 House repeal vote, Democrats who initially voted against the health overhaul are now considering where they stand on the repeal effort. Meanwhile, the Obama administration and other Democratic officials "hit back" at the GOP push to the undo the health law by detailing the negative repercussions it would have for consumers.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans have set Jan. 12 as their day to vote on a repeal of President Obama's health-care law, after a midterm election in which they campaigned against the landmark legislation as a government takeover of the health industry.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: Republicans in the House plan to make good on a campaign promise to repeal President Obama’s health care overhaul. The vote, which Republican leaders pledged would occur before the president’s State of the Union address later this month, is intended both to appeal to the Tea Party-influenced factions of the House Republican base and to emphasize the muscle of the new party in power.

HC Reform Update from Mark Sanna: The new health care law explicitly grants permission to employers to offer rewards of at least 30 percent of the total cost of health insurance to employees. Those winnings, often in the form of lower premiums, will go to people who join wellness programs and hit certain health goals.