On January 19th the Republican House voted to repeal the Health Care Reform Law.

 On January 19, as the Obama administration was working to implement the health reform law, the Republican House voted to repeal it. And although on January 25, in his State of the Union address, President Obama said he didn't want to re-fight the reform battles of last year, four House committees are holding hearings on various parts of the law.

Here are some of the provisions they are looking at. (It's important to remember that any member can file a bill, and most bills that are filed never make it to the floor for a vote.)

• House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is testing support in his caucus for replacing Medicare with a fixed payment so seniors can buy a private medical plan from a menu of coverage options.
  
  
• A bill was introduced to dismantle the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a new advisory board with the power to set Medicare rates. The board was a part of the version of health reform that the Senate passed and the House had to accept in total, despite some unpopular additions. In 2009, a group of 71 Republicans and 4 Democrats went on record opposing the advisory board. They wrote, "As the people's elected representatives, we must oppose any proposal to create a board that would surrender our legislative authority and responsibility for the Medicare program to unelected, unaccountable officials…" In December, however, President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission recommended strengthening and expanding the board.
  
  
• A bill introduced last week targets the individual mandate by preventing the Treasury Department from hiring employees to enforce it. Another bill would simply eliminate the individual mandate.
  
  
• The Ways and Means Committee held a hearing focusing on the law's effect on job creation, business and the economy. Two small business owners, a former CBO head, and the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors testified.
  
  
• The House Budget Committee targeted the issue of whether the law would save the money predicted.
  
  
• Bipartisan interest has been expressed in both the House and Senate on moving up the date for states to be able to apply for waivers so they can take completely different approaches to reform (for example, Vermont's two senators expressed interest in implementing a single-payer system in their state).
  
  
• Medical liability reforms were introduced
  
  

Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was the star witness at a Senate hearing on the positive impacts of the health reform law. And the Obama administration produced its own star witness to counter what was going on in the House: The CEO of Costco said that the law was actually pretty good to businesses.

Also, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing this week on the constitutionality of the law. Three lawyers testified about why it should be declared constitutional, and two testified why it should not. Committee Chairman Richard Durbin, D-Ill., pointed out that many past legislative accomplishments, including the Civil Rights Act and the federal minimum wage, also were challenged in the lower courts before they ultimately were upheld by the Supreme Court, and said he believes the Supreme Court will also uphold the reform law.