OVERNIGHT HEALTHCARE: Republicans buck GOP chairman on ObamaCare probe

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is lashing out at five Senate Republicans who voted to block his years-long investigation into ObamaCare exchanges on Thursday.

“I do know on the Republican side, we had everyone except for Sen. [Rand] Paul,” Vitter said in an interview after the vote. I know some leadership offices were working to change that in the last week,” he said. “Certainly I know that effort was going on.”

{mosads}The Senate’s Small Business Committee voted Thursday to deny a request from Vitter, its chairman, to subpoena non-redacted documents from the D.C. insurance marketplace. Those documents, he argued, would prove that some in Congress evaded ObamaCare rules by enrolling in the small-business exchange.

Vitter has claimed that congressional staff falsified documents in order to allow members of Congress and their staff to receive subsidized insurance.

In a surprising vote, five Republicans joined the committee’s nine Democrats to oppose the subpoena. That GOP group includes Sen. Mike Enzi (Wyo.), who had previously co-sponsored a bill with Vitter on the issue. Read more here.

Republican Sens. Jim Risch (Idaho), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) also voted against the subpoena.

Vitter said he is “looking at a bunch of different options” about how to proceed with his investigation.

“I’m actively looking at next steps, I’ll determine that in the next week or so,” he said. “I’m certainly not going to drop the issue.”

RAYS OF BIPARTISANSHIP AT BURWELL HEARING: There were few partisan clashes as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell faced lawmakers on Thursday, and even glimmers of bipartisanship over increasing medical research funding.

The impending Supreme Court decision that could gut ObamaCare by invalidating subsidies for 7.5 million people was not mentioned until the last question of the two-hour hearing before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.

That was a far cry from a House hearing with Burwell in February, when Republicans confronted her with the allegation that her department had a secret contingency plan for the court ruling.

On Thursday, Burwell reiterated her position that there is nothing the administration can do to repair the damage if the court strikes down the subsidies.

A more prominent topic at the hearing was funding for medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“I’m pleased that the department has requested a billion-dollar increase for NIH,” the panel’s Republican chairman, Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), said in his opening remarks.

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, likewise called for increasing NIH funding, noting that former Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) had written an op-ed this week also calling for an increase. Read more here.

OBAMACARE CUSTOMERS MORE SATISFIED: People who bought coverage through ObamaCare are generally more satisfied than those with other types of insurance, according to a new national survey.

ObamaCare customers rated their satisfaction over the last year as 696 out of 1,000, compared to the 679-point rating by customers with employer-based plans, according to a large survey by the consumer research firm J.D. Power.

Customer satisfaction has increased sharply from ObamaCare’s tumultuous first year.

New enrollees rated their experience at 670 — a significant 55 points higher than the previous year, when ObamaCare exchanges were plagued by website failures.

The J.D. Power study, which surveyed more than 3,000 healthcare customers, offers the first comprehensive look at the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) efforts to improve the customer experience in ObamaCare’s second year.

Under new leadership this year, HHS officials had prioritized a smoother customer experience after the department had botched the launch of the ObamaCare marketplace the year before. Read more here.

Friday’s schedule

The Alliance for Health Reform will hold a congressional briefing on healthcare delivery and innovation.

State by state

Minnesota governor declares state of emergency over bird flu

Indiana up against the clock on needle exchanges

Maine to fund fertility treatments, unless it was an STD that made you infertile  

What we’re reading

Few vets getting care through $10B VA program

Republican governors may pay price for refusing to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare

CDC using new technology to track listeria

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Please send tips and comments to Sarah Ferris, sferris@digital-stage.thehill.com, and Peter Sullivan, psullivan@digital-stage.thehill.com. Follow on Twitter: @thehill, @sarahnferris, @PeterSullivan4