Congress on track to OK expanded private care at troubled VA

Congress is set to deliver a victory to President Donald Trump by expanding private care for veterans as an alternative to the troubled Veterans Affairs health system, despite concerns from some Democrats that this will prove too costly. The Senate is expected to approve a wide-ranging bill Wednesday that would allow veterans to see private doctors when they do not receive the treatment they expected, with the approval of a VA health provider.

Republicans aim to defund Planned Parenthood via Obamacare repeal

US Republicans will seek to defund US women's health care provider Planned Parenthood through a bill that repeals President Barack Obama's landmark health care reform, the top Republican in Congress said Thursday. "Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters when asked how his party would attempt to defund the organization now that the White House and both chambers of Congress will be in Republican hands when Donald Trump is inaugurated president on January 20. Reconciliation is a special congressional procedure by which legislation can bypass Senate blocking tactics and need only a simply majority to pass, rather than a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member chamber.

Judge sides with Planned Parenthood over Mississippi abortion law

A federal judge on Thursday sided with women's health provider Planned Parenthood in a lawsuit aiming to block a Mississippi law that barred medical providers that perform abortions from participating in the state's Medicaid program. The decision by U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan III is the latest in a string of rulings striking down similar laws elsewhere in the country against the women's health provider.