First Edition: March 8, 2017

Kaiser Health News: Five Ways The GOP Health Bill Would Reverse Course From The ACA
After literally years of promises, House Republicans finally have a bill they say will “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. Some conservative Republicans have derided the new proposal — the American Health Care Act — calling it “Obamacare light.”  It keeps intact some of the more popular features of the ACA, such as allowing adult children to stay on their parents’ health plans to age 26 and, at least in theory, ensuring that people with preexisting conditions will still have access to insurance. (Rovner, 3/8)

California Healthline: GOP Health Proposal Would Upend Consumers’ Cost Calculations In California
For better or worse, Californians who aren’t insured through their employers could see major changes in their health insurance costs under a Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act. A House GOP proposal introduced Monday would provide substantially less financial help to many consumers in higher-cost areas of California, from San Francisco to Monterey. But people in lower-cost markets like Los Angeles could fare better. (Terhune, 3/7)

Kaiser Health News: Dentists Work To Ease Patients’ Pain With Fewer Opioids
Firsts can be life-changing — think about your first kiss, your first time behind the wheel of a car. But what about the first time you got a prescription for a narcotic? James Hatzell, from Collingswood, N.J., is now a technology officer for a college addiction treatment program. He didn’t realize it at the time, but that spring day of his junior year of high school — seven years ago — was a pivotal moment in his life. (Gordon, 3/8)

The New York Times: Millions Risk Losing Health Insurance In Republican Plan, Analysts Say
Millions of people who get private health coverage through the Affordable Care Act would be at risk of losing it under the replacement legislation proposed by House Republicans, analysts said Tuesday, with Americans in their 50s and 60s especially likely to find coverage unaffordable. Starting in 2020, the plan would do away with the current system of providing premium subsidies based on people’s income and the cost of insurance where they live. Instead, it would provide tax credits of $2,000 to $4,000 per year based on their age. (Goodnough and Abelson, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Income Separates The Winners And Losers In Republicans’ Health-Care Plans
The architecture of the tax credits in the legislation, which House committees are to begin debating Wednesday morning, would offer less help to lower-income Americans than the subsidies provided by the current law. It would steer more money to young adults at the expense of older ones. And it would most benefit consumers living in states in which insurance prices already are relatively low. (Goldstein and Eilperin, 3/7)

The Washington Post: The Massive Tax Cuts For The Rich Inside The GOP Health-Care Plan
Republicans' new health-care bill is a mass transfer of income that cuts taxes for the wealthiest Americans while cutting federal benefits for the middle and working class. Just two provisions in the Republican plan would allow the richest households to pay an average of nearly $200,000 less under the GOP plan, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. (Ehrenfreund, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Republicans’ Obamacare Replacement Contains Huge Tax Cuts For Insurance Companies, But It Comes At A Cost.
The bill would repeal a slew of taxes that would have cost insurance, medical device makers and other health care companies tens of billions of dollars over a decade. The repeal of just one such provision — the health insurer tax — is a tax cut of $145 billion over a decade, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation. (Johnson, 3/7)

The Washington Post: What The GOP Health Plan Really Means For Taxes
The GOP proposal would also eliminate the complex web of tax increases established by Obamacare on people and companies — everything from tanning salons to medical device manufacturers — that help pay for benefits in the current law, like free breast cancer screenings, preventative care, and allowing people to remain on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26. They’d also help underwrite the cost of prohibiting insurers from banning those with pre-existing conditions. The combination of maintaining the most popular and well-known portions of Obamacare — and cutting taxes — is expected to cost the federal government as much as $600 billion over ten years, according to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation. (Snell, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: House Health Plan Explained: How The Tax Credit Would Work
House Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace parts of the 2010 Affordable Care Act would seek to help households purchase health insurance with a measure called an advanceable refundable tax credit. Here’s an explanation of how that would work, and how it differs from the existing law. (Rubin, 3/8)

The Washington Post: GOP’s Obamacare Replacement Cracks Down On Lottery Winners Who Receive Medicaid
The lottery is a famously bad bet. People are more likely to be zapped by lightning while drowning, canonized a saint or hit by an asteroid than win a jackpot. Very few people walk away from the Powerball with massively engorged bank accounts. ... Yet, ten pages into the American Health Care Act, the bill that House Republicans unveiled Monday as the replacement for the Affordable Care Act took aim at lottery winners who receive Medicaid, devoting roughly a tenth of the 60-odd-page bill to lottery winners. (Guarino, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Apple’s IPhone Makes (Another) Cameo In The Health-Care Debate
Some Republicans are arguing the rollback of Obamacare would put responsibility on Americans to make better choices as consumers, but one comment this morning didn’t get a great reception. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) told CNN Tuesday that lower-income Americans may have to prioritize spending money on health-care rather than electronic gadgets such as iPhones. (Peterson and Andrews, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Care Companies Find Some Gifts, Big Risks In Plan To Replace Obamacare
For health-care companies, the new House Republican proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act carries significant risks, as it would likely mean a decline in insured patients and continued worries about an unstable market. Insurers, hospitals and medical-device manufacturers are still parsing the details of the draft legislation, which could change considerably as it moves through the House and Senate, and they are applauding moves like the elimination of some taxes. But the proposal’s pullbacks on Medicaid and federal insurance subsidies could significantly reduce the number of people with health coverage over time, analysts and industry officials said, a serious problem for health-care providers and insurers. (Wilde Mathews and Evans, 3/7)

USA Today: GOP Obamacare Repeal And Replacement Plan Riles Patients, Hospitals
The long-awaited House Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will hurt low-income consumers who rely on federal subsidies or Medicaid for their coverage, as well as the hospitals who are required to treat them whether or not they are insured, health care experts say. It's harder to find the winners under the new bill, a joint effort by House Republicans including Speaker Paul Ryan. (O'Donnell, 3/7)

The New York Times: G.O.P. Health Bill Faces Revolt From Conservative Forces
After seven years of waiting longingly to annul President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, Republican leaders on Tuesday faced a sudden revolt from the right that threatened their proposal to remake the American health care system. The much-anticipated House plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act also drew skepticism from some of the party’s more moderate members, whose constituents have benefited from expanded coverage in recent years. (Steinhauer, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: GOP Health Plan Sparks Debate Over Obamacare Comparisons
House Republicans are facing swift criticism that their sweeping plan to repeal and overhaul large swaths of the Affordable Care Act is too similar to the law it would replace. “Obamacare 2.0,” tweeted Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan. “This is Obamacare-lite,” said Jason Pye, public policy and legislative affairs director at FreedomWorks, a conservative group associated with the tea party movement. (Armour, 3/8)

The Washington Post: House GOP Proposal To Replace Obamacare Sparks Broad Backlash
The most imminent and serious threat to the plan crafted by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) was the growing backlash from conservative lawmakers and powerful outside groups who argue that the draft is nothing more than “Obamacare Lite,” a disparaging reference to the former president’s signature 2010 domestic achievement. The lawmakers do not represent a majority of Republicans in either chamber of Congress, but there could be enough of them to scuttle any health-care bill they oppose — and several said Tuesday they intend to use that leverage to force major changes to the measures. (DeBonis, Costa and Weigel, 3/7)

The Associated Press: Conservative Backlash Threatens To Sink New GOP Health Bill
But major obstacles loomed as key Republican lawmakers announced their opposition, and one conservative group after another torched the plan. The Club for Growth, Heritage Action for America, Americans for Prosperity and Tea Party Patriots variously derided the new bill as Obamacare Lite, Obamacare 2.0 and even RyanCare, in a dig at House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. (Werner and Fram, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: GOP’s Health Plan Draws Skepticism On Capitol Hill
Opposition from conservative lawmakers and activist groups could derail the party’s highly prized bid to replace the Affordable Care Act. That could challenge Mr. Trump to decide whether to enter the fray explicitly and become the negotiator-in-chief he had styled himself as on the campaign trail, and if so, when to deploy himself in that capacity. White House officials said they were unfazed by the blowback, and that negotiations could resolve lingering objections from lawmakers they assume are ultimately unwilling to torpedo their chance to repeal the law. (Radnofsky, Peterson and Huges, 3/7)

The Washington Post: The Three GOP Factions That Could Doom Republicans’ Obamacare Replacement Bill
As they roll out their Obamacare replacement plan, Republicans are quickly finding out what Democrats learned eight years ago: Even if you win control of Congress and the White House, there are still plenty of obstacles to passing laws that, in principle, your whole party agrees with. Several factions within the Republican Party don't like some key details about this new health-care plan. In fact, there's enough opposition that these Republicans could derail the bill as it stands. It's something President Trump appeared to acknowledge when he offered up in a tweet Tuesday morning the opportunity for “review and negotiation.” (Phillips, 3/7)

Politico: Ryan Disappoints His Friends With Obamacare Replacement Bill
House Speaker Paul Ryan has long been the darling of conservative policy wonks. But on one of the biggest days of his political career, when House Republicans released their much-anticipated Obamacare replacement, many of Ryan's closest friends in conservative intelligentsia expressed disappointment — if not outright dismay — with the legislation bearing the speaker's imprimatur. (Johnson, 3/8)

The Washington Post: Whip Count: Here’s Where Skeptical Republicans Stand On The GOP’s Obamacare Replacement 
The magic number in the House of Representatives is 218, and in the Senate 50. Republicans conceivably have enough lawmakers to get to those majorities, but not by much. Assuming no Democrats support the bill, Republicans can lose only 21 votes in the House and just two in the Senate. (Phillips, 3/7)

Politico: Pelosi's Last Stand: Saving Obamacare
Nancy Pelosi stands alone. As Republicans prepare to dismantle Obamacare, the longtime House Democratic leader is facing her biggest fight in years, perhaps the biggest since she twisted dozens of Democratic arms to pass the bill in the first place seven years ago. (Caygle and Bresnahan, 3/8)

The Associated Press: Republican Governors Complain About GOP Health Care Plan
Republican governors complain that a GOP proposal to replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law would force millions of lower-income earners off insurance rolls or stick states with the cost of keeping them covered. Governors, especially those from political battleground states, were generally cool to the bill put forth in the Republican-controlled U.S. House. Some signaled that they would continue working on their own legislation to compete with the measure introduced Monday. (Beaumont and Noon, 3/7)

Politico: Trump Moves To Assure Conservatives On Obamacare Replacement Plan
President Donald Trump is moving to quiet conservative opposition to the House GOP Obamacare replacement, drawing on his newfound bully pulpit to pressure but also coax rebellious lawmakers. Trump on Tuesday night turned his massive Twitter following on one of the most vocal opponents of the repeal bill: conservative firebrand Sen. Rand Paul. The Kentucky Republican had blasted Speaker Paul Ryan’s Obamacare alternative as Obamacare-lite. (Bade and Cheney, 3/7)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Said He Fully Supports The New GOP Health Plan — And House Republicans Plan To Hold Him To It
President Trump said Tuesday that he was “proud” to support House Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, asserting that his party was committed to seeing the plan through. "Obamacare is collapsing," Trump said in remarks at the White House to Republican lawmakers responsible for building support for the plan in Congress. “It’s in bad shape, and we’re going to take action. There’s going to be no slowing down, there’s going to be no waiting and no more excuses by anybody.” (Memoli, 3/7)

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare Overhaul Faces Resistance In Congress From Right And Left
“This is not the Obamacare repeal bill we’ve been waiting for,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is leading the GOP opposition with Paul and the House Freedom Caucus. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has also raised objections. “We promised the American people we would drain the swamp and end business as usual in Washington. This bill does not do that,” Lee said. “This is exactly the type of backroom dealing and rushed process that we criticized Democrats for, and it is not what we promised the American people.” (Mascaro, 3/7)

The Associated Press: Trump’s Promises Vs. The Republican Plan On Health Care 
President Donald Trump said he was “proud to support” House Republicans’ proposal for replacing the Affordable Care Act,” though he noted that he considered it the first phase of his planned health care overhaul and the beginning of a “negotiation.” It’s not clear exactly how the White House would like to change the bill. Trump has never put forward a detailed health care proposal. Still, he has made plenty of promises on how he will improve the health care system. (Thomas and Lucey, 3/7)

The Associated Press: How To Transform GOP Health Care Plan Into Law
After more than 60 votes and seven years of promises, Republicans offered their long-awaited plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Now, the real work begins. Republicans must navigate a complicated path to turn their 123-page proposal from legislation to law. A look at the process and the politics. (Lerer, 3/8)

The Washington Post: How The House Republicans’ Proposed Obamacare Replacement Compares
On Monday, House leaders released legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act. If it passes, here’s what would change. (Cameron and Shapiro, 3/7)

The Washington Post: GOP Health Care Bill Compared With Obama-Era Law
At first glance, the new health care bill from House Republicans appears to have similarities to the Obama-era law, like tax credits, protections for people with health problems, and the ability of parents to keep young adults on their insurance. But in most cases those components would work very differently under the GOP framework than is currently the case with the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/8)

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare 101: What's In The House Republicans’ Replacement Plan?
Obamacare is pretty complex. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that what the GOP is proposing in its place has a few knotty details. Here’s a short guide to what’s in the Republican plan and what it could mean for Americans’ health coverage. (Levey, 3/7)

NPR: 7 Provisions To Watch In The GOP's Health Care Bill
The GOP plan also retains many of the features the public likes in the Affordable Care Act, like protections for people with existing health conditions. Here are seven provisions to look out for as the congressional debate unfolds over the next few weeks and months. (Fulton, 3/7)

The New York Times: Obamacare Took Months To Craft; Repeal May Be Much Swifter
In June 2009, House Democratic leaders unveiled the first draft of legislation that would ultimately become the Affordable Care Act. A month later, three House committees began formally drafting the bill ahead of a House vote that came well into the fall, after the summer heat had dissipated and the leaves had begun to change. On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee will formally mark up legislation to repeal and replace the act — less than 48 hours after Republicans unveiled the bill to the public. (Pear, 3/7)

The Washington Post: What Does ‘Repeal’ Mean? The Answer Complicates The GOP’s Health-Care Strategy.
After a day of bad reviews for the GOP leadership’s preferred Affordable Care Act replacement, the House Freedom Caucus was ready for the spotlight. Dozens of reporters and cameramen had set up at the House Triangle. Some cable networks were even taking the Freedom Caucus news conference live, harking back to the time when tea party protests could rattle or derail business in Congress. But a few reporters were being held inside the Capitol by security guards. Vice President  Pence was wrapping a visit to the Hill, talking to Freedom Caucus members, a few of whom had served with Pence when he was a congressman. When the vice president left, some of the conservative rebellion’s leaders were taking a measured — if still skeptical — tone about the American Health Care Act. (Weigel, 3/7)

NPR: Analysis: GOP Health Plan Won't Fix Obamacare Problems
On Monday evening, House Republicans finally released their own health care proposal. It would replace Obamacare's mandate to buy insurance and his subsidies to bring down the cost with a fixed refundable tax credit that people can use to buy coverage. Nobody's required to have a health plan. But if you don't get covered at the outset, you'll pay a penalty to buy it later.So does it fix the problems Republicans have laid out? Likely not. (Kodjak, 3/8)

Los Angeles Times: Millions Of Californians Likely Would Lose Coverage Under GOP Obamacare Replacement, Experts Say
Millions of Californians probably would lose health coverage under the Obamacare replacement bill released by House Republicans this week, experts say. The long-awaited GOP alternative removes the requirement that all Americans sign up for health insurance or pay a penalty, alters the amount of financial assistance offered for plans sold on the marketplaces and bans federal funding for Planned Parenthood. But what probably would affect the greatest number of Californians and raise the toughest questions for the state are proposed cuts to Medicaid, which covers more than a third of California’s residents. (Karlamangla, Mason and Myers, 3/7)

The Washington Post: How Obamacare Made The GOP Embrace ‘Government Health Care’
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) made a comment Tuesday morning about health care coverage that he seemed to quickly regret."Americans have choices, and they've got to make a choice," Chaffetz said on CNN. "And so maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care." (Blake, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Republicans Say ‘Every American’ Can Understand Their Obamacare Bill. Except For Me, Apparently.
Republicans' main problem with Obamacare isn't that it insures more people. It's that it does it in a ham-handed way: To hear Republicans describe the 2010 Affordable Care Act is to hear about a knotted tangle of overly burdensome federal government regulations that are strangling the health-care market. Republicans say their version is much cleaner, clearer and simpler. (Phillips, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Care Overhaul Gets A Shrug From Wall Street
Health-insurance shares barely budged Tuesday morning, despite that negative change in policy. The muted share reaction is well founded. For starters, the final bill is bound to change; any law will have to pass the Senate, where the Republicans hold just a two-seat majority. Republican governors in states with expanded Medicaid coverage have bristled at the prospect of rolling back Medicaid. Those forces will likely cause some provisions of the bill to soften. (Grant, 3/7)

NPR: GOP Cuts To Planned Parenthood Could Strand Patients, Directors Of Other Clinics Fear
Opponents of abortion rights have long argued that public funds for services like cancer screenings and contraception should go solely to health clinics that don't provide abortions. They've made "defunding Planned Parenthood" — or, to be more precise — blocking the organization from receiving funding through federal programs like Medicaid — a major goal. (McCammon, 3/7)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: New Anti-Obamacare Ads Conflate The Exchanges With The Entire Health-Care System
With the debate over the GOP replacement for the Affordable Care Act at full boil, a Republican nonprofit entity controlled by allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has launched a big ad buy to remind people what’s wrong with the ACA in the first place. The 60-second spots target five Democrats running for reelection in 2018, as well as seeks to support six Republicans who face challenges or might be considered uncertain on how they would vote on a replacement bill. But as is often the case, the language of the ads leaves a misleading impression that the problems that afflict the ACA exchanges extend to the entire insurance market. (Kessler, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Analysts Scratch Their Heads Over Trump Drug Price Tweet
President Donald Trump is keeping biotech analysts busy trying to match up his opaque drug-pricing rhetoric with the complexities of the U.S. health-care system. Mr. Trump said on Twitter Tuesday morning that he is, “working on a new system where there will be competition in the Drug Industry.” He also cited an effort to “get rid of state lines” when selling health care, which he said would be in parts two and three of the Affordable Care Act overhaul. (Eisen, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Latest Drug Pricing Tweet Hits Biotech Stocks
Tuesday’s premarket tweet was enough to drag down the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology exchange-traded fund, which tracks drug companies that could be hit by lower prices. The ETF dropped 1% shortly after the opening bell as some major players in the industry tumbled. Valeant Pharmacueticals International and Endo International Plc both fell 4.1%. Mallinckrodt Plc fell 2.4%, while Perrigo Plc was down 2.3%. Eli Lilly and was down 1.7% and Allergan Plc dropped 1.5%. (Eisen, 3/7)

The Associated Press: Losses For Drugmakers, Hospitals Pull Stocks Lower
U.S. stocks declined for the third time in four days on Tuesday as health care companies took center stage. Drugmakers fell after President Donald Trump said he wants to bring drug prices down. Insurers rose and hospital companies dropped after Republicans in Congress introduced a bill intended to replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act. (Jay, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Drugs Are Killing So Many People In West Virginia That The State Can’t Keep Up With The Funerals
Deaths in West Virginia have overwhelmed a state program providing burial assistance for needy families for at least the fifth year in a row, causing the program to be nearly out of money four months before the end of the fiscal year, according to the state's Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR). Funeral directors in West Virginia say the state's drug overdose epidemic, the worst in the nation, is partly to blame. (Ingraham, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Surgeons Were Told To Stop Prescribing So Many Painkillers. The Results Were Remarkable.
The head of general surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center had a remarkably simple idea not long ago: What if the department suggested that surgeons limit prescriptions of narcotic pain pills to a specific number for different kinds of operations? The results were dramatic: The number of pills prescribed by doctors for five common outpatient surgeries dropped by 53 percent, and patients didn't consume all the pills they were given, according to a study that will be published this week in the journal Annals of Surgery. (Bernstein, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Arthritis Afflicts About 1 In 4 Adults In The U.S., CDC Report Finds
About one in four adults in the United States suffers from arthritis, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vital Signs report published Tuesday. Of the 54 million people in the United States who have this debilitating condition, not all are elderly. About 60 percent of those with arthritis were between the ages of 18 and 64, that is, working age. Activity limitations from arthritis increased by 20 percent since 2002, the report found. Simple, everyday tasks, such as walking or lifting bags, are challenging for 24 million people affected by the condition in the United States. (Naqvi, 3/7)

USA Today: Most Boomers Infected With Liver-Damaging Hepatitis C Virus Do Not Know It
Few Baby Boomers have been tested for the liver-damaging hepatitis C virus, despite recommendations that all members of that generation have the blood test at least once, new research suggests. The share of boomers who had the test barely budged in the two years after health authorities first recommended it for everyone born between 1945 and 1965, according to a report published Wednesday in American Journal of Preventive Medicine. (Painter, 3/8)

Los Angeles Times: As Obesity Keeps Rising, More Americans Are Just Giving Up
It stands to reason that if you know you’re overweight or obese, and you know your extra pounds are unhealthy, that you’ve made a stab at losing weight. Right? Not so much anymore, new research shows. The proportion of American adults who were either overweight or obese has been growing steadily for decades, rising from about 53% a generation ago to roughly 66% more recently. (Healy, 3/7)