Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: July 18, 2017
Kaiser Health News: Unpaid Premiums? Switching Plans? What Changes Are Coming For 2018 Coverage
People are anxious about what’s going to happen with marketplace coverage next year. Even as Republicans contemplate their next move in the effort to undo the Affordable Care Act after the Senate GOP plan unraveled Monday night, the marketplaces are still likely offer plans this fall for 2018 coverage. Here are some of the important changes that are in the works that could affect consumers’ enrollment and coverage next year.. (Andrews, 7/18)
Kaiser Health News: Postcard From Capitol Hill: When Health Care Takes A Breather
As one senator’s health care emergency upended what was supposed to be an action-packed week for the Senate health care bill, Capitol Hill’s denizens began rebooking Monday. Like T.J. Petrizzo, a lobbyist whose clients include children’s hospitals and cancer centers. On Monday afternoon, he was sitting alone in a nearly deserted Senate cafeteria looking at his phone. (Bluth, 7/17)
California Healthline: Has California Hit The Brakes In Regulating Breath-Robbing Big Rigs?
James Lockett sits on his bed and opens the drawer of his nightstand, revealing a stash of asthma inhalers: purple disc-shaped ones he uses twice a day to manage his symptoms and others for full-blown attacks. Lockett, 70, says he never leaves home without an emergency inhaler. (Nguyen, 7/17)
The New York Times: Health Care Overhaul Collapses As Two Republican Senators Defect
Two more Republican senators declared on Monday night that they would oppose the Senate Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, killing, for now, a seven-year-old promise to overturn President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. (Kaplan, 7/17)
The Associated Press: Trump Blasts Congress Over Failure Of GOP Health Care Bill
President Donald Trump blasted congressional Democrats and “a few Republicans” Tuesday over the failure of the GOP effort to rewrite the Obama health care law, and warned, “we will return.” Trump’s early morning tweet unleashed a barrage of criticism at Congress over the collapse of the GOP’s flagship legislative priority. For seven years, the party has pledged to repeal President Barack Obama’s law. “Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, but said, “We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans.” (Fram and Werner, 7/17)
The Washington Post: Two More Senate Republicans Oppose Health-Care Bill, Leaving It Without Enough Votes To Pass
They joined Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Susan Collins (Maine), who also oppose it. With just 52 seats, Republicans can afford to lose only two votes to pass their proposed rewrite of the Affordable Care Act. All 46 Democrats and two independents are expected to vote against it. (Sullivan and Bernstein, 7/18)
The Wall Street Journal: Two More GOP Senators Oppose Health-Care Bill
“In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn’t go far enough in lowering premiums for middle-class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations,” Mr. Lee, one of the Senate’s most conservative Republicans, said in a statement Monday night. (Peterson and Armour, 7/17)
The Washington Post: What Mitch McConnell Is Doing Next On Health Care, Explained
For Mitch McConnell, Monday night was as embarrassing a blow as they come for a Senate majority leader. Two more Republican senators came out against his bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, effectively dooming the latest version. That forced the Kentucky Republican to confront a difficult question with no good options: What now? (Sullivan, 7/18)
USA Today: Senate To Take Up Bill To Repeal Obamacare Without Replacement Plan
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced late Monday that the Senate will give up on its bill to replace Obamacare and vote instead on legislation to repeal the law within two years. (Singer, 7/17)
Politico: GOP Health Care Bill Collapses
McConnell added that the repeal-only bill is "what a majority of the Senate has already supported in 2015," but GOP lawmakers have voiced severe doubts that such a plan can win the 50 votes necessary this year given the uncertainty it would throw onto insurance markets. The 2015 vote was viewed as mostly symbolic at the time given Obama’s certain veto. (Everett and Haberkorn, 7/17)
Politico: 5 Reasons Why The Republicans Can't Pass A Repeal Bill
Senate Republicans' bid to dismantle and rewrite Obamacare is officially dead. Any effort to pick up the pieces and move ahead requires staring down monumental challenges, starting with healing deep divisions among Republicans deflated by failure to deliver on a defining promise. But with Obamacare’s popularity rising and repeal's popularity diminishing, they’ve got little room to maneuver to get 50 out of 52 Republican senators on board. (Cancryn and Pradhan, 7/18)
Politico: Trump Blindsided By Implosion Of GOP Health Care Bill
President Trump convened a strategy session over steak and succotash at the White House with senators Monday night, trying to plot an uphill path to repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a GOP alternative. ... Meanwhile, two senators – neither invited to the dinner – were simultaneously drafting statements saying how they couldn’t support the current bill, which they released just after Trump’s White House meal concluded. (Dawsey, 7/18)
Los Angeles Times: Two More Republican Senators Announce Opposition To Healthcare Bill, Dooming Latest GOP Plan
In a tweet Monday, President Trump voiced support for repeal only: “Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!” (Mascaro, 7/17)
The New York Times: Old Truth Trips Up G.O.P. On Health Law: A Benefit Is Hard To Retract
In the end, Republicans relearned a lesson that has bedeviled them since the New Deal: An American entitlement, once established, can almost never be retracted. Since the day the Affordable Care Act passed Congress, Republicans have vowed to overturn it. In the beginning, many voters were with them, handing the Republican Party some of the tools: a sweeping rejection of House Democrats in 2010 — a rejection of government reach — followed by the Senate in 2014. (Steinhauer, 7/17)
NPR: After Major Health Care Blow, Trump, GOP Face Brand Crisis
It raises a host of questions about the status of the Republican Party, which is led in the White House by a right-wing nationalist who exploited a culture seething at Washington and in Congress by those very Washington establishmentarians. Who is in control? The conservatives from within, though, are not necessarily aligned with Trump. In fact, they have shown they are not afraid of either Trump or McConnell. That could mean big problems ahead for what Republicans can get done. Tax reform is a priority for McConnell and Trump, and Trump would also like to do infrastructure. (Montanaro, 7/18)
Politico: Obamacare Repeal Could Haunt Senate Republicans In 2020
Obamacare dogged Democrats for years at the polls, toppling their congressional majorities and stoking partisan fires that still burn in Washington. But if Republicans are ultimately able to pass their own health care plan, they will face their own repercussions — and some will hit at a painful time. Like the 2010 health care law, the GOP bill would not take effect all at once. Many of the most politically tricky provisions are staggered over the coming years and would hit right as a promising group of freshmen Republican senators come up for reelection in 2020. (Cheney and Schor, 7/17)
The Washington Post: Vice President Pence’s Bushel Of False And Misleading Claims About Health Care
Vice President Pence recently spoke at the National Governors Association meeting in Providence, R.I., and made several questionable claims about the Senate GOP health-care proposal, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). When he gave his speech, on Friday, the new version of the Republicans’ health proposal was released but had not been analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency that studies the budget impact of legislation. (Lee, 7/18)
The Wall Street Journal: Dollar Slumps After Senate Deals Blow To Trump’s Policy Agenda
The dollar’s doldrums are deepening. On Tuesday morning in Asia, investors dumped the U.S. currency after it emerged that Republican lawmakers were pulling the plug on a contentious health-care bill—the latest sign that President Donald Trump is having trouble implementing his policy agenda. (Vaishampayan, 7/18)
The Wall Street Journal: Cuomo And De Blasio Team Up To Oppose GOP’s Health-Care Efforts
The Republican push to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Monday momentarily united two New York Democrats who are often at odds. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have long sparred with one another, most recently blaming the other for troubles at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and they rarely appear together. (Vilensky and Alfaro, 7/17)
Reuters: New York Attorney General Says Will Sue Over Obamacare Repeal
New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman intends to sue the federal government if Republican lawmakers pass proposed legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, his office said on Monday. Schneiderman's office said it has identified "multiple constitutional defects" with the Republican healthcare bills. (Levine, 7/17)
NPR: McCain's Brain Surgery Could Keep Him Away From The Senate For Weeks
The initial report of Sen. John McCain's surgery sounded simple: the removal of a blood clot above his left eye. But it was actually brain surgery, and the clot was almost 2 inches long. (Columbus, 7/17)
The Associated Press: House Budget Blueprint Boosts Military, Cuts Benefits
House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a 10-year budget blueprint that would dramatically increase military spending while putting the GOP on record favoring Medicare cuts opposed by President Donald Trump. (Taylor, 7/18)
The Washington Post: Interrupted Sleep May Lead To Alzheimer’s, New Studies Show
Getting a solid night’s sleep is crucial not only for feeling good the next day – there is increasing evidence that it may also protect against dementia, according to new research presented Tuesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London. (Bahrampour, 7/18)
Los Angeles Times: Worried About Dementia? Hearing And Language Problems Could Be Forerunners Of Cognitive Decline
Scientists have traced the roots of dementia back to midlife, a time when hearing loss and changes in speech patterns may signal the onset of cognitive decline. In research presented Monday at the Alzheimer’s Assn.’s annual international conference in London, investigators also reported that for people in their 80s, those who were admitted to a hospital for an urgent or emergency medical problem subsequently suffered more dramatic decline in mental functioning than their peers who checked into a hospital for an elective procedure or avoided the hospital altogether. (Healy, 7/17)
The Associated Press: Missouri Becomes Last State To Create Drug-Monitoring Plan
Missouri became the final state to create a prescription drug-monitoring program Monday when Republican Gov. Eric Greitens signed an executive order aimed at combatting a scourge that killed more than 900 residents last year. The announcement surprised lawmakers, many of whom were unaware such a program was under consideration. Almost immediately, Democrats questioned whether the order goes far enough while some Republicans expressed concerns about privacy. (Salter, 7/17)
The Washington Post: Assisted Suicide Is Legal And Available In D.C. — For Now
District officials say doctors in the city may now begin the process of prescribing life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients, setting up a showdown with Republicans in Congress who are trying to void the city’s assisted-suicide law. City officials say the rules and regulations to implement the law took effect Monday, adding the District to six states that authorize the practice. (Nirappil, 7/17)
The Associated Press: Kansas Board Revokes Doctor's License Again In Abortion Case
Kansas' medical board for the third time has revoked the license of a doctor whose second opinions allowed the late Dr. George Tiller to perform late-term abortions more than a decade ago. The State Board of Healing Arts acted against Dr. Ann Kristin Neuhaus over what it previously concluded were her inadequate records for 11 patients aged 10 to 18 who sought abortions in 2003. Kansas law at the time required a second doctor to conclude that continuing a pregnancy would permanently harm a patient's physical or mental health. (7/17)
