First Edition: February 6, 2015

Politico: Face Of Supreme Court Case Hates Obama, Obamacare
The man who could cripple Obamacare isn’t shy about telling the world that he thinks the president is an “idiot,” posting altered images of the First Lady in Middle Eastern clothing and expressing his hatred for the “Democraps” who enacted the health care law. David M.King, 64, is the lead plaintiff on the Supreme Court case that challenges the government’s right to grant tax subsidies to millions of Americans in certain states to make health insurance more affordable. When the case is argued on March 4, King — friendly, with graying hair and a mustache — will become the public face of King v. Burwell, the most significant threat to the Affordable Care Act since the 2012 Supreme Court case that put the law’s individual mandate on the line. (Haberkorn, 2/6)

USA Today: Immigrants Still Face Health Care Enrollment Snags
Immigrants and others trying to prove their citizenship and identities to enroll in health insurance still face some of the problems they had during the last open enrollment, according to those helping them sign up. Most people in the 37 states using the federal exchange can complete a relatively short application, but immigrants have to use the still-complex, longer form and deal with a multi-stage process of proving their status and identities. (O'Donnell, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Arkansas' 1st-In-The Nation Medicaid Expansion Survives
Arkansas' first-in-the-nation program using federal funds to buy private health insurance for the poor will survive another year after the Legislature reauthorized the program Thursday, despite an influx of new Republican lawmakers elected on a vow to kill the hybrid Medicaid expansion. The Arkansas House voted 82-16 to reauthorize funding through June 2016 for the "private option" plan, which was crafted two years ago as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health law. (DeMillo, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Democrats Hit GOP Plan For Replacing Obama Health Care Law
A plan by three Republican lawmakers for replacing President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul would leave Americans with less coverage and higher costs than the landmark law they want to repeal, Democrats said Thursday. “It effectively raises taxes on the middle class, removes bedrock protections for consumers and chips away at key coverage benefits that Americans rely on,” Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said a day after the GOP authors released their outline. (2/5)

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: Bobby Jindal Condemns ‘Elites’ And ‘Democrat Lite’ Republicans
Polling in the low single-digits and still trying to build a national donor base, Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is aiming to draw attention to himself and his soon-to-be 2016 presidential candidacy. So there was Mr. Jindal Thursday, calling out Washington’s Republican leaders for being insufficiently committed to repealing the Affordable Care Act. (Epstein, 2/5)

Los Angeles Times: Anthem Hack Exposes Data On 80 Million; Experts Warn Of Identity Theft
The attack on the nation’s second-largest health insurer could be one of the largest data breaches in the healthcare industry, experts said. Anthem said hackers infiltrated a database containing records on as many as 80 million people. Hackers appear to have accessed customers' names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, member ID numbers, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and employment information, Anthem said. Some of the customer data may also include details on their income. At this point, it appears that the data stolen do not include medical information or credit card numbers, according to the company. (Terhune, 2/5)

Los Angeles Times: Anthem Hack Raises Fears About Medical Data
All this comes at a time when Anthem is spearheading an ambitious effort to build a controversial database of medical records on 9 million Californians for use by hospitals and doctors. In light of the data breach, patient advocates called on consumers to boycott the Anthem-led California Integrated Data Exchange, or Cal Index, as it prepares to launch this year. California's insurance commissioner said he and other regulators will examine whether the Indianapolis-based company is doing enough to prevent future breaches. (Terhune, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Gov't Investigating If Medicare Data Stolen In Anthem Hack
The federal government is investigating whether the personal information of Medicare beneficiaries was stolen by hackers who breached health insurer Anthem's computer networks. The Health and Human Services inspector general's office said Thursday it is assessing whether personal data about Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries has been compromised. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/5)

The New York Times: Experts Suspect Lax Security Left Anthem Vulnerable To Hackers
The cyberattack on Anthem, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, points to the vulnerability of health care companies, which security specialists say are behind other industries in protecting sensitive personal information. Experts said the information was vulnerable because Anthem did not take steps, like protecting the data in its computers though encryption, in the same way it protected medical information that was sent or shared outside of the database. (Abelson and Goldstein, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Cyber Hackers See Potentially Rewarding Targets When They Attack Health Care Companies
Health care is a treasure trove for criminals looking to steal reams of personal information, as the hacking of a database maintained by the second-largest U.S. health insurer proves. The latest breach at health insurer Anthem Inc. follows a year in which more than 10 million people were affected by health care data breaches — including hacking or accidents that exposed personal information, such as lost laptops — according to a government database that tracks incidents affecting at least 500 people. (Murphy and Bailey, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Health Insurer Anthem Didn’t Encrypt Data In Theft
Anthem Inc. stored the Social Security numbers of 80 million customers without encrypting them, the result of what a person familiar with the matter described as a difficult balancing act between protecting the information and making it useful. Scrambling the data, which included addresses and phone numbers, could have made it less valuable to hackers or harder to access in bulk. It also would have made it harder for Anthem employees to track health care trends or share data with states and health providers, that person said. (Yadron and Beck, 2/5)

The Washington Post: Why Hackers Are Targeting The Medical Sector
A hack at Anthem, the second-largest health insurer in the country, exposed personal information about millions of employees and customers. But the attack is just the latest evidence that cybercriminals are increasingly targeting the medical sector where they can collect health information that can be sold for a premium on the black market. (Peterson, 2/5)

The Washington Post: China Suspected In Major Hacking Of Health Insurer
The massive computer breach against Anthem, the nation’s second-largest health insurer, exposes a growing cyberthreat facing health-care companies that experts say are often unprepared for large attacks. Hackers gained access to the private data of 80 million former and current members and employees of Anthem in one of the largest medical-related cyber-intrusions in history. (Harwell and Nakashima, 2/5)

USA Today: Millions Of Anthem Customers Alerted To Hack
Millions of Anthem health insurance customers woke Thursday morning to an e-mail from the company telling them hackers had gained access to the company's computers and that their names, birthdays, Social Security numbers, addresses and employment data including income might have been stolen. "Anthem will individually notify current and former members whose information has been accessed. We will provide credit monitoring and identity protection free of charge so that those who have been affected can have peace of mind," Anthem President and CEO Joseph Swedish said in the e-mail. (Weise, 2/5)

Los Angeles Times: Anthem Hack Q&A: What You Need To Know
As many as 80 million people may have had their personal information stolen in a massive hack at health insurance giant Anthem Inc. The data breach could be the largest cyber theft in the history of the healthcare industry. Here is what you need to know. (Khouri, 2/5)

The New York Times: Protecting Yourself From The Consequences Of Anthem’s Data Breach
Given the steady beat of security breaches, consumers may assume that a cybercriminal already has at least some of their personal information. But in the latest intrusion, at the health insurer Anthem, hackers got their hands on an especially valuable collection of sensitive information on millions of people. Anthem, which offers several Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans across the country, said the database that was breached included names, Social Security numbers, birthdays, addresses, email and employment information for as many as 80 million people, including some of its own employees. (Siegel Bernard, 2/5)

USA Today: Anthem Fined $1.7 Million In 2010 Breach
Anthem, which revealed Wednesday that the records of 80 million of its customers had potentially been breached, was fined $1.7 million for a 2010 computer breach that resulted in the disclosure of personal information of approximately 612,000 people. The fine was levied by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under HIPAA, the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which governs the confidentiality and security of medical information. (Weise, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Vaccine Skeptics Find Unexpected Allies In Conservative GOP
As vaccine skeptics fight laws that would force more parents to inoculate their kids, they are finding unexpected allies in conservative Republicans. Though the stereotype of a vaccine skeptic is a coastal, back-to-the-land type, it’s generally been Democratic-controlled states that have tightened vaccination laws. This week, Democrats in two of those states — California, where a measles outbreak was traced to Disneyland, and Washington state — proposed eliminating laws that allow parents to opt out of vaccination for personal reasons. (Riccardi, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Five Infants In Chicago Area Diagnosed With Measles
Five infants in the Chicago area have been diagnosed with measles, a situation that highlights the dangers posed by the current measles outbreak, public health officials said Thursday. This is the second time this week that a measles case infecting an infant has potentially exposed other very young children to the virus. ... These situations point to the dangers posed by the current measles outbreak, which has largely centered on California and has sparked renewed focus on the people who do not vaccinate their children. (Officials say that so far, it does not appear that the Illinois cases are linked to the outbreak that began at Disneyland.) (Berman, 2/5)

The Washington Post's Fact Checker: Is There A Link Between The Measles Outbreak And Illegal Immigration?
One of our colleagues noticed that virtually every Washington Post article concerning the measles outbreak is followed by comments that link the outbreak to illegal immigration. As it turned out, a number of prominent politicians have suggested that there might be a link — or that a link cannot be ruled out. (LePage did not mention measles, but suggested there could be in “uptick” in other diseases.) Our friends at PundiFact noted that Rush Limbaugh flat-out declared the outbreak was linked to “our immigration policy,” earning the commentator a “Pants on Fire.” But the politicians’ statements were much more nuanced and careful. What kind of evidence do they have? (Kessler, 2/6)

The Associated Press: A Look At Some Vaccine-Related Legislation In Several States
Several state legislatures are debating vaccine-related measures as dozens of people have fallen ill from a measles outbreak that started at Disneyland in December and spread beyond the theme park. Here is a look at some of the legislation around the country. (2/6)

The Associated Press: Outgoing FDA Chief Saw Changes To Food Safety, Tobacco Rules
From food safety to tobacco regulation and politically charged drug approvals, Margaret Hamburg reset the course of the embattled Food and Drug Administration. After nearly six years as FDA commissioner, Hamburg announced her resignation Thursday in an email to staff. She said the agency’s chief scientist, Stephen Ostroff, will serve as acting head of FDA. (2/5)

Politico: FDA Chief Stepping Down
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, who has overseen food and drug safety for nearly six years, will leave at the end of March, she announced in an email to agency staff Thursday morning. Her departure message focused on the agency’s accomplishments in food safety, the approval of drugs and devices and ushering in an era of personalized medicine. She also lauded the new “breakthrough pathway,” which allows the Food and Drug Administration to speed up review of drugs or biologics to help individuals with serious illnesses. (Pradhan, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot: The Hamburg Legacy At FDA: Accomplishments And Controversies
Has the other shoe dropped? Following mounting speculation, FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg has told staffers that she will step down at the end of March, after a nearly six-year run heading the agency. The news comes just 10 days after the FDA hired Robert Califf, a widely regarded Duke University cardiologist, as deputy commissioner for medical products and tobacco. That move quickly set off speculation that Califf would, in fact, soon succeed Hamburg, since he starts his new job later this month. (Silverman, 2/5)

NPR: FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg To Step Down
FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg — who has been at the center of controversial decisions such as relaxing age restrictions on the Plan B contraceptive — has decided to step down after six years in the job. In a letter to FDA staff, Hamburg called the tenure "the most rewarding of my career." She cited, among other things, the agency's record in improving food safety, advancing the safety and effectiveness of medical products, reducing the time for pre-market reviews of medical devices as highlights of her six years at the FDA's helm. (Neuman, 2/5)

The Washington Post: Va. House GOP Budget Plan To Include Health Funds For Mentally Ill, Poor
House Republicans announced Thursday that their state budget plan will include $124 million for mental-health care and health services for the poor — slightly more than the money proposed last fall by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D). The move reflects a bid by the GOP to build on mental-health reforms begun after a tragedy involving a senator’s son and to shake off the “party of no” label Democrats have lobbed at them for rejecting McAuliffe’s big push to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. (Vozzella, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Arkansas Reaches Settlement In Cystic Fibrosis Drug Suit
Arkansas Medicaid officials have reached a legal settlement to resolve claims the state denied patients a cystic fibrosis therapy made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. due to its cost. In a lawsuit filed in federal court last year, three patients alleged the state had for two years violated their civil rights by denying them the drug, Kalydeco, which has an annual wholesale price of $311,000. (Walker, 2/5)