Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: June 8, 2017
Kaiser Health News: If Insurance Market Crashes, Can Lawmakers Put The Pieces Back Together?
In his high-stakes strategy to overhaul the federal health law, President Donald Trump is threatening to upend the individual health insurance market with several key policies. But if the market actually breaks, could anyone put it back together again? The question is more than theoretical. The Trump administration has already acted to depress enrollment in Affordable Care Act plans, has instructed the IRS to back off enforcement of the requirement that most people have health insurance or pay a penalty and threatened to withhold billions of dollars owed to insurance companies. All of those actions make it more difficult for insurers to enroll the healthy people needed to offset the costs of the sick who make it a priority to have coverage. (Rovner, 6/8)
Kaiser Health News: Former Pharma Reps’ New Mission: To School Docs On High Drug Costs
As a drug salesman, Mike Courtney worked hard to make health care expensive. He wined and dined doctors, golfed with them and bought lunch for their entire staffs — all to promote pills often costing thousands of dollars a year. Now he’s on a different mission. When Courtney calls on doctors these days, he champions generic drugs that frequently cost pennies and work just as well as the kinds of pricey brands he used to push. (Hancock, 6/8)
The New York Times: Senate Health Bill May Alienate G.O.P. Conservatives
Senate Republicans are closing in on a bill to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, diverging from the House on pre-existing medical conditions and maintaining federal subsidies that proponents see as essential to stabilizing insurance markets around the country. The changes appear largely designed to appeal to Republican senators who hail from states where the Affordable Care Act is popular and who were critical of the House bill, which would eliminate insurance for millions of Americans covered under the current law, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the revisions may well alienate the Senate’s most conservative members, who are eager to rein in the growth of Medicaid and are unlikely to support a bill that does not roll back large components of the current law. (Steinhauer and Pear, 6/7)
Politico: Senate GOP May Keep Obamacare Taxes To Pay For Their Repeal
Senate Republicans are considering keeping some Obamacare taxes for a few more years to pay for their own repeal bill. Many want to make their repeal plan more generous than the House’s effort but are struggling to come up with ways to pay for it. The dilemma is how to balance the expensive effort to drive down premiums with a desire to scrap taxes that would raise money. (Haberkorn, Everett and Cancryn, 6/7)
The Washington Post: White House Touts The ACA’s Demise Even As Insurers Seek Help In Stabilizing Its Marketplace
The event Wednesday on an airport tarmac in Cincinnati was just the latest opportunity for the White House to disparage and undercut a law it officially must carry out. Standing in front of Air Force One along with two small-business owners, President Trump recounted how they “have had their lives completely upended by the disaster known as Obamacare.” One saw her choice of doctors shrink while her premiums and out-of-pocket costs rose, he said. The other has curtailed new investments in his company to maintain employees’ health benefits. “The coverage is horrendous,” the president declared, ticking off insurers’ recent decisions to pull out of federal marketplaces in Ohio, Kentucky and elsewhere. “Obamacare is in a total death spiral. The problems will only get worse if Congress fails to act.” (Eilperin and Phillip, 6/7)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Calls Obamacare A ‘Horrendous’ Disaster
Mr. Trump’s comments came on the heels of lawmakers’ return to Washington Monday, and a White House visit with GOP congressional leaders on Tuesday in which the president said he was confident Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) could “get a bill across the finish line this summer” that would overturn much of the 2010 health law and enact Republican measures in its place. (Radnofsky, Armour and Peterson, 6/7)
Politico: Trump ‘All In’ On Senate Obamacare Repeal
President Donald Trump is increasingly invested in Senate passage of a bill to repeal Obamacare, realizing that a successful vote in the upper chamber will provide a major boost to his domestic agenda, say Republicans who have spent time with him recently. (Everett and Dawsey, 6/7)
The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump's Dodgy Data On Health Care, Stimulus
President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to give new life to a Republican health-care bill that's facing uncertain prospects in Congress, using a speech about infrastructure in Cincinnati to go after "Obamacare," too. He mangled some facts and repeated familiar exaggerations. A look at a few of them. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/7)
Politico: GOP Uncertainty Over Obamacare Drives Out Insurers
Obamacare markets are undergoing a slow-motion meltdown as Republicans stoke a climate of uncertainty while struggling to agree on their own plan for overhauling American health care. The steady march of insurers that have announced plans to exit marketplaces in recent weeks leaves Obamacare customers in wide swaths of the country with potentially no options for purchasing subsidized coverage in 2018. In the latest and most significant blow, Anthem this week announced it will pull out of Ohio next year, leaving at least 18 counties without an insurer selling Obamacare plans. (Demko, 6/8)
The Wall Street Journal: Ethics Office Releases Nearly A Dozen Trump Waivers
The Office of Government Ethics on Wednesday released copies of nearly a dozen ethics waivers for officials working at federal agencies, showing which members of President Donald Trump’s administration are allowed to work on issues they handled before joining the government. (Ballhaus, 6/7)
The New York Times: Lobbyists, Industry Lawyers Were Granted Ethics Waivers To Work In Trump Administration
Lance Leggitt helped collect $400,000 in fees last year while working as a lobbyist to try to influence Medicare policy at the Department of Health and Human Services — an agency where he now serves as chief of staff. Under an executive order signed by President Trump in January, lobbyists were banned from that kind of government work. But Mr. Leggitt is among a half dozen officials across the federal government who have been granted special waivers to disregard ethics rules, according to a new set of documents released Wednesday. (Lipton and Ivory, 6/7)
The Washington Post: Limited Ethics Waivers Reflect New Freedom For Former Lobbyists To Join Government
At the Department of Health and Human Services, at least five former lobbyists other than Leggitt have been tapped to serve. They include Keagan Lenihan, a senior adviser to Secretary Tom Price who last year lobbied on Medicare and Medicaid issues for McKesson Corporation, a pharmaceutical distributor. (Gold and Eilperin, 6/7)
The Associated Press: House To Act On VA Accountability; Dems Wary On Private Care
The House will vote next week on Senate-passed legislation to make firing employees easier for the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs, as the department sought to speed forward on initiatives urged by President Donald Trump to expand private care and boost accountability. Testifying before a Senate panel, VA Secretary David Shulkin urged Congress to act by this fall on additional legislation to give veterans broader access to private doctors. The plan to eliminate administrative restrictions and give the program more money immediately prompted Senate Democrats to criticize aspects of it as unacceptable "privatization." (6/7)
Politico: McCarthy: House Will Send Trump VA Accountability Bill Next Week
If enacted, it will be the first law passed in years to beef up VA accountability. The legislation was inspired by horror stories coming out of the department — including the VA's struggle to dismiss a psychiatrist caught watching pornography while seeing a patient. It’s also part of an ongoing effort to overhaul the VA culture, which came under intense scrutiny three years ago amid reports that veterans were waiting months or sometimes years to receive care. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned over the matter, and ever since, Congress has tried to steady the troubled agency. (Bade and O'Brien, 6/7)
The Washington Post: They Look Like Prescription Drugs, But They’re Actually Deadly Poison, Georgia Authorities Say
The small yellow pills look like prescription drugs from a pharmacy, but Georgia authorities say they're anything but.In recent days, the drugs — which are purchased on the street — have led to dozens of overdoses and as many as four deaths in south and central Georgia, state health officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As the number of overdoses increases, authorities say they're scrambling to keep pace. The state is already battling a growing opioid crisis, authorities say. On Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported six additional overdose cases potentially related to the drug. (Holley, 6/7)
NPR: Early Breast Cancer May Not Carry High Risk
Scientists say they may have solved a big medical mystery: why mammograms don't save more lives. A study involving thousands of breast cancer cases, released Wednesday, concludes that a significant proportion of tumors detected through mammography are not small because they are found early. Instead, the tumors are small because they are biologically prone to slow growth. (Stein, 6/7)
The New York Times: With Melanoma, Lymph Node Removal May Not Improve Survival
In cases of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, doctors will determine its spread by examining a lymph node. If malignant cells are found, the standard treatment is to surgically remove all the lymph nodes in the same area. But a clinical trial has now called this procedure into question. (Bakalar, 6/7)
The Washington Post: Fathers Sing More To Daughters And Roughhouse With Sons, Study Finds
The idea that fathers have a sweet spot for their daughters and are stricter with their sons is something of a cliche. Researcher Jennifer Mascaro wanted to find out to what extent this was true. So she persuaded 52 new dads to give her an intensely intimate glimpse at 48 hours of their lives through recording devices that documented interactions with their children, who were ages 1 to 2. Mascaro and her colleagues at Emory University and the University of Arizona took apart each exchange and coded them to see whether there were any patterns based on the children's genders. The differences were startling. (Cha, 6/7)
The Associated Press: Wisconsin Submits Request To Drug Test Medicaid Applicants
Wisconsin submitted a federal request Wednesday to become the first state in the country to drug test applicants for Medicaid health benefits. Republican Gov. Scott Walker expects President Donald Trump's administration to approve the waiver, which would also impose new requirements on able-bodied, childless adults receiving Medicaid in the state. The request comes as Walker, a one-time GOP presidential candidate, prepares for a likely re-election bid. (Bauer, 6/7)
Reuters: Illinois Gets June 20 Deadline To Boost Medicaid Funding
Illinois must increase payments to Medicaid providers despite an ongoing budget impasse, after a U.S. District Court judge on Wednesday ruled the minimal payments made by the state do not comply with federal consent decrees. Judge Joan Lefkow ordered renewed negotiations between Illinois and health care advocates for the poor, setting a June 20 deadline to be in "substantial compliance" with the decrees. (Pierog, 6/7)
Reuters: Missouri Governor Calls Special Session On Abortion
Missouri's Republican governor on Wednesday said he will convene a special legislative session next week to consider new abortion regulations and counter a local St. Louis law he said made it an "abortion sanctuary city." The session, set to start on Monday, will seek stricter regulations on abortion clinics, including requiring annual inspections and that clinics adopt plans for potential medical complications, Governor Eric Greitens said in a statement. (Kenning, 6/7)
