Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Kaiser Health News: Obama Seeks To Offer New Incentive For States To Expand Medicaid
With full federal funding for expanding Medicaid set to expire at the end this year, President Barack Obama is proposing to indefinitely extend the health law provision for any of the 19 states that have not yet adopted the enhanced eligibility. But Obama would need the Republican-controlled Congress to approve the offer. That appears unlikely considering Congress voted last week to repeal the Affordable Care Act, though the GOP critics did not muster enough support to override the president’s veto. Obama will seek congressional approval for extending the three years of full federal funding in his 2017 fiscal year budget proposal, which is scheduled to be released Feb. 9. (Galewitz, 1/14)
Kaiser Health News: Fueled By Health Law, ‘Concierge Medicine’ Reaches New Markets
A growing number of primary care doctors, spurred by the federal health law and frustrations with insurance requirements, are bringing a service that generally has been considered “health care for billionaires” to middle-income, Medicaid and Medicare populations. It’s called direct primary care, modeled after “concierge” practices that have gained prominence in the past two decades. (Luthra, 1/14)
Kaiser Health News: Research Gives Context To Addressing Nation's Drug Abuse Crisis, Review Finds
Prescription painkiller abuse is drawing national attention as states battle increasing abuse cases, presidential candidates offer possible solutions and even President Barack Obama includes the issue in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. A new review article published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine provides insights for policymakers on how to curb this deadly trend. (Luthra, 1/13)
Reuters: Obama To Offer In Budget To Extend Deadline For Medicaid Expansion
President Barack Obama will offer a financial incentive in his fiscal 2017 budget proposal to 19 state governments that passed up an earlier offer to help pay to expand Medicaid coverage to more low-income residents, the White House said on Thursday. Obama's new proposal would give states more time to opt in, and would pay for the expansion for three years, the White House said in a release. (Rampton, 1/14)
USA Today: President To Propose Incentive To Lure More States To Expand Medicaid
President Obama plans to propose giving new states that expand Medicaid coverage to the poorest of the poor more time before they have to chip in to cover the new recipients, the White House said in a blog post early Thursday. Obama's fiscal 2017 federal budget will include a legislative proposal to provide any state that expands Medicaid with the same three years of full federal funding and same phase down as the states that expanded the program in 2014. (O'Donnell, 1/14)
The Wall Street Journal: Obama Seeks To Boost Financial Assistance For States’ Medicaid Expansion
White House officials said President Barack Obama will ask Congress to include three years of full federal funding of expansion for any state that extends eligibility for the program to most low-income residents. "This common-sense proposal makes the expansion as good a deal for states that expand now as it is for the states that have already done so," wrote Shaun Donovan, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and Cecilia Muñoz, assistant to the president and Director of the Domestic Policy Council. (Radnofsky, 1/14)
Los Angeles Times: Can Obama Persuade Reluctant States To Expand Medicaid? New Aid Plan Aims To Do So
Providing this additional assistance would probably be expensive. The White House did not provide a cost estimate. It also would require congressional approval, which is likely to be difficult, given persistent GOP antipathy to the health law. Congressional Republicans this month passed legislation, which Obama vetoed, that would have repealed large sections of the law, including the Medicaid expansion. (Levey, 1/13)
The New York Times: With Health Care Switch, Kentucky Ventures Into The Unknown
There is no longer any question that Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky plans to shut down the health insurance exchange his state built to enroll residents for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Now that he has notified the Obama administration of his intention to do so, the question is, will it change the law’s substantial impact there? It is hard to predict, partly because what Mr. Bevin is doing is without precedent. While a few states have been forced to largely rely on the federally run exchange after their own versions failed, Kentucky will be the first to abandon a homegrown exchange that functions well. (Goodnough, 1/13)
The New York Times: ‘Moonshot’ To Cure Cancer, To Be Led By Biden, Relies On Outmoded View Of Disease
Last Friday a group of 15 cancer researchers cut short a meeting at the Food and Drug Administration. The reason: They had been invited to Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s office to discuss his “moonshot” to cure cancer. ... [But] the idea that a concerted government push can lead to a “cure” for cancer is nearly a half century old, stretching back to President Nixon’s failed “War on Cancer.” (Kolata and Harris, 1/13)
NPR: Doctors Respond To Obama's Ambitious Moonshot To Cure Cancer
NPR's Kelly McEvers talks to Dr. William Nelson, director of the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, about Obama's ambitious plan to end cancer and why we haven't found a cure. (1/13)
The Washington Post: Critics Say ACA ‘Risk’ Strategies Are Having Reverse Robin Hood Effect
The administration defends its approach, but critics say the “risk adjustment” program is having a reverse Robin Hood effect — taking money from some plans that are small, innovative or fast-growing, while handing windfalls to some of the industry’s most entrenched players. The goal of the practice is to help keep insurance markets stable by sharing the “risk” of sicker people and removing any incentive for plans to avoid individuals who need more medical care. Such stability is likely to encourage competition and keep overall prices lower for consumers, while its absence can undermine both and limit coverage choices — the basic principles of the law. (Goldstein, 1/13)
The New York Times: Republicans Lead Congress With Two Distinct Agendas
While [Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Mitch McConnell] are set to stand together Thursday at a retreat for congressional Republicans in Baltimore and cheerfully announce their unity against President Obama in his final year in office, they are operating on starkly different political planets in this election year, with little harmony in their legislative agenda. Mr. Ryan wants to finally offer a Republican alternative to Mr. Obama’s signature health care law. Mr. McConnell does not. Mr. Ryan would like to see his chamber explore authorizing military force against the Islamic State. Mr. McConnell would not. Mr. Ryan loves tax reform. Mr. McConnell loves it too — when there is a Republican in the White House to sign it. (Steinhauer, 1/13)
The Wall Street Journal: FDA Took 17 Months To Notify Doctors On Scopes’ ‘Superbug’ Dangers
The Food and Drug Administration took 17 months to notify doctors and the public of “superbug” infection dangers from certain scopes used in gastrointestinal procedures in hospitals, according to a report by Senate Democrats released Wednesday. The document said that in Sept. 2013, the staff at a Seattle hospital had “traced a cluster of antibiotic-resistant infections to a medical device” called a duodenoscope, but that it wasn’t until early 2015 that the FDA sent out a public warning. (Burton, 1/13)
The Associated Press: Abortion-Rights Group Criticizes Pelosi Over Comments
A major abortion-rights group on Wednesday criticized House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi over what it called "disappointing and ill-advised" remarks, the second public rift in a year with a lawmaker such organizations have long considered one of their staunchest congressional allies. In an interview published Wednesday in which the California Democrat defended a woman's right to abortion, Pelosi said, "I don't believe in abortion on demand." (1/13)
Reuters: Controversial 'Pay-For-Delay' Deals Drop After FTC's Win In Top Court
Branded drug companies hammered out far fewer deals with generic drug makers to delay sales of cheaper medicines in the year after the Supreme Court ruled the Federal Trade Commission could legally pursue such agreements as potentially illegal. The FTC, which has fought the practice for years, said that pharmaceutical companies reached 21 of the "pay-for-delay" deals in fiscal 2014, compared with 29 in 2013 and a record 40 in 2012. (Bartz, 1/13)
The Washington Post: Under Fire From Clinton On Health Care, Sanders Chides Those Trying To ‘Demagogue’ The Issue
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, who’s been taking flak from his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton over his call for universal health care, expressed frustration Wednesday night with those “who want to demagogue the issue.” Sanders is advocating moving to a single-payer health-care system under which all Americans would be enrolled in Medicare, and private insurance would become a thing of the past. The Vermont senator introduced legislation with that aim in 2013 and has said he is working on an updated version as a presidential candidate. (Wagner, 1/13)
The New York Times: Hemophilia Patient Or Drug Seller? Dual Role Creates Ethical Quandary
LaQuenta Caldwell-Moody considered it improper when a pharmacy sales representative tried to take her teenage son, when he was still a minor, to dinner without her. The salesman was the father of someone with hemophilia, the same disease her son has. But this invitation seemed mercenary, taking advantage of their friendship and shared illness to try to woo the business of her son, Austin Caldwell, whose drug treatments cost more than $1 million a year. ... The companies, and some patients, say the practice can improve service. But some patient advocates say that having people with dual, and sometimes dueling roles, can result in patients being misled by someone they think of as their friend but who puts profits over their health. (Pollack, 1/13)
The Associated Press: Mental Health CEO Who Hired Fortuneteller Gets Prison
The head of a southwestern Michigan mental health agency has learned his future: at least 32 months in prison for using public money to hire a fortuneteller. Ervin Brinker was sentenced by a Lansing-area judge Wednesday, two months after pleading guilty to embezzlement and Medicaid fraud conspiracy. (1/13)
NPR: Average Age Of First-Time Moms Keeps Climbing In The U.S.
Many women in the U.S. are waiting longer than ever to have their first child. Fifteen years ago, the mean age of a woman when she first gave birth was 24.9-years-old. In 2014, that age had risen to 26.3. "It doesn't sound like a big change," says T.J. Mathews, a demographer at the National Center for Health Statistics and an author of the report published online Thursday. But, he says, the small shift underscores some important trends. (Bichell, 1/14)
