Overnight Healthcare: Obama veto threat heats up abortion battle

A battle over abortion is taking center stage on Capitol Hill this week. The Obama administration on Tuesday threatened to veto the GOP-backed bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks, calling it a "direct challenge" to a court-protected right for women. The House is planning to vote on the bill Thursday, the anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court abortion case, Roe v. Wade. It’s also the same day that thousands of anti-abortion advocates will participate in the March for Life. Democrats offered their rebuttal to the bill late Tuesday, announcing plans to reintroduce the "Women’s Health Protection Act," largely aimed at preventing states from enacting laws against abortion. A group of Democrats will also hold a press conference on Wednesday with several women's health and reproductive rights groups. Planned Parenthood also sent a letter to "every member of Congress" this week urging them to oppose the bill. The White House issued nearly the same veto threat in 2013, when Republicans last tried to advance the bill. But the administration also added another concern. Under the bill, rape survivors seeking abortions after 20 weeks would be required to report the crime to police, which has also raised concern among a group of female House Republicans. Read more here. Abortion bill could mean more Medicaid spending: The Republican bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks also ran into a new problem on Tuesday – its cost. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that the bill would cost as much as a half-billion dollars in extra Medicaid spending. Read more here. Audit slams HHS for lax HealthCare.gov oversight: The government skipped multiple steps when hiring the 60 contractors who helped build its now-infamous ObamaCare website. Federal auditors now say following those steps could have prevented some of the chaos. Out of six contracts examined by the inspector general's office, only two had been properly vetted before the government gave the green light. Most of the contracts also lacked cost estimates and signatures from agency officials to sign off on the project. In total, HHS had $800 million worth of contracts related to HealthCare.gov, which officially launched in fall 2012 but remained largely dysfunctional for several weeks after. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has undertaken major reforms to its contracting process since HealthCare.gov first launched, acknowledging that it has "come a long way" since the initial planning, a spokeswoman for the agency said. Read more here. No tool 'off the table': The head of the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday said that he wouldn't take any tool "off the table" to chip away at ObamaCare under the new GOP-controlled Congress. Speaking from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) laid out a year's worth of plans to undo the law "piece by piece," acknowledging that Republicans stand no chance at repealing the healthcare reform legislation before the next election. On his agenda in 2015: bills to repeal the employer mandate and the medical device tax and reinstate the 40-hour workweek. Read more here. GOP delivers tax help: As the 2015 tax season kicks off, the House Ways and Means Committee is helping people navigate this year’s "convoluted process" under ObamaCare — and using it to argue that the entire law should be repealed. The tax-writing committee sent a lengthy email Tuesday laying out each step of filing under ObamaCare, complete with three screenshots of the new forms and a slew of technical jargon. But the email from the GOP-led committee also raises red flags that the new mandates that could potentially drive up costs. Read more here. Wednesday’s schedule: Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), will hold a press briefing on the Hill to condemn the GOP-led bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks The Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee will hold part one of its hearing on SGR [sustainable growth rate] reform at 10:15 a.m. State by state: New York governor proposes bill of rights to protect Ebola workers Health spending helped drive up Massachusetts's $750M deficit New outbreak of avian flu found in Washington state What we’re reading: New privacy concerns over government’s healthcare website Why the Supreme Court's Medicaid decision matters SCOTUS ruling against ObamaCare threatens GOP in 2016 swing states ObamaCare legal challenge downplayed by business leaders What you might have missed at The Hill: Nebraska senator invites Ebola doctor to SOTU Lawmakers cracking down on seafood imports Majority still support single-payer option, poll finds Please send tips and comments to Sarah  Ferris, sferris@thehill.com, and Elise Viebeck, eviebeck@thehill.com. Follow on Twitter: @thehill, @sarahnferris, @eliseviebeck