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The House gave its final blessing Thursday to the bill prohibiting insurance coverage for abortions in the state health exchange and local government plans – with a fair amount of rancor over the divisive issue.

The final vote was 73-39, with Rep. William Brisson, a Democrat representing Johnston, Sampson and Bladen counties, breaking ranks with his party again.

UPDATED: Democratic Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin broke his silence on the legislative debate surrounding the health insurance exchanges, arguing that a state-based exchange is better for the state's consumers.

"I believe that North Carolinians know what’s best for North Carolina," he said in a prepared statement released Tuesday. "State-based regulation best protects our consumers and promotes a healthy insurance marketplace."

Goodwin sat on the sidelines (at least publicly) for the past week as the Republicans pushed a bill to let the federal government run the online marketplace for insurance policies and require Goodwin to send back any federal money he received to help get a state-sponsored exchange.

The General Assembly convenes at noon Wednesday, but a handful of bills have already been filed. Topics include resisting the federal health insurance exchange, not expanding Medicaid coverage, unemployment insurance and funding a western state crime lab. Here's a look at what's been filed.

Additional bills cover temporary funding for group homes, right-to-work constitutional amendment, eugenics compensation and eminent domain.

Update: The crime lab bill, sponsored by Sen. Tom Apodaca of Hendersonville, would allocate almost $18 million to build and staff a regional crime lab on the Western Justice Academy in Henderson County. Apodaca is one of the Republican leaders in the Senate, and so this bill can be considered a priority with the legislature.

"Obamacare" -- the Affordable Care Act -- is deeply unpopular with Republican politicians, who still hope it goes away. But until or unless it does, states are still required to set up their own exchanges for uninsured residents and small businesses -- or else surrender that authority to the federal government.

North Carolina, like about one-third of the states, has put it off long enough that the feds wlil do it for them. Here's the story.

An overflow crowd in a ballroom at the Crabtree Marriott on Saturday rallied to carry on the fight against the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s health-care plan that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Thursday.

The “Hands off My Healthcare” rally was co-sponsored with the Civitas Institute. Sponsored by Americans for Prosperty, the group heard U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C.; Jason Rink, executive director of the Foundation for a Free Society and the author of a book on Ron Paul; Jeanette Doran of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, and Dallas Woodhouse, state director of AFP.

A workgroup focused on setting up a new health benefits marketplace is getting back to work next week with an expanded membership.

The marketplace, which would provide a choice of insurance policies to small businesses and individuals, is required by last year's federal health care law. If states don't set up their own exchanges, then the federal government will do it for them.

A bill that would set up a state exchange passed the House last year, but the Senate did not act on it.

The state's Republican leaders joined in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the requirement that individuals have health insurance. The issue is likely to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the meantime, the legislature told the state departments of insurance and health and human services to continue working on meeting requirements in the federal law.

Pam Silberman, president and CEO of the N.C. Institute of Medicine, said the group will lay the groundwork for the health care exchange start up. The institute is coordinating the workgroup activities.

"If the state decides to create its own state-based health care exchange, a lot of the pre-work can be done" and handed to the board that will run it, Silberman said.

Even if the individual mandate is ruled unconstitutional, the marketplace will still be useful for individuals and small businesses as a place where they can shop and compare costs and benefits of different plans, she said.
 

Chiropractors and physical therapists would get a boost from a bill that cleared a House committee Thursday.

The bill would require health insurance companies covering some 2 million people in the state to offer a lower co-pay for chiropractors and physical and occupational therapists.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Cullie Tarleton, started out as a do-over for a requirement that patients could see chiropractors and pay the same co-payment they are charged for seeing a family doctor.

That benefit was inserted into the budget by former House Speaker Jim Black four years ago. It helped land him in prison when three chiropractors admitted to giving him cash payments while pushing their legislative agenda. It was later rescinded.

Tarleton said the benefit was rescinded because of the circumstances surrounding it, not because it wasn't good policy.

"This is a really a patient's bill, plain and simple," said Tarleton, a Blowing Rock Democrat.

More after the jump.

The House approved the State Health Plan bill.

Members voted 60 to 56 in favor of the bill. House Republicans objected to the final version.

Members cited the increased cost to state employees and the removal of a provision that would convert the plan to a calendar year.

"The only thing the House could have been proud of and stood up for is converting the plan to a calendar year," said Rep. Dale Folwell, a Winston-Salem Republican.

Converting the plan's calendar would put it in line with most other health plans and allow families to better plan for health care costs.

But the conversion would cost the state an additional $60 million over two years. It would cost employees an additional rate increase.

Rep. Hugh Holliman, the bill's primary sponsor and House Democratic leader said the compromise bill was meant to be a short-term fix that will help the struggling plan stay solvent while officials consider a long-term fix.

"I think this is a fair compromise," Holliman said.

* Services for state Sen. Vern Malone, who died this weekend, will be held at noon Thursday at Martin Street Baptist in Raleigh.

* After a trip to Cuba, U.S. Rep. Mel Watt says he was surprised to find that Raul Castro was "just as outgoing and loquacious" as his brother, Fidel.

* More than any other state, North Carolina is seeing a spike in the number of people without health insurance, up to 25 percent.

* Former state treasurer Richard Moore closed out his gubernatorial campaign account, forgiving himself $1 million in loans.