First Edition: June 9, 2017

Kaiser Health News: As Delaware Insurance Options Shrink, Families Are ‘Holding Our Breath’
Andy and Serena Ryan get their health coverage through the state’s Affordable Care Act insurance exchange and are increasingly anxious about it. Serena Ryan, 31, who left her part-time job as a nurse in 2016 to care for and home-school the couple’s two children, ages 5 and 3, calls the coverage a “blessing.” Andy Ryan, 33, is a self-employed marketing consultant. “The health insurance has allowed us to live the way we want, to be at home with the kids and create our own business,” Serena Ryan said. “We know we needed the coverage in case something happened, even though it’s a big expense.” (Findlay, 6/9)

Kaiser Health News: Capitol Hill Dems, HHS Secretary Price Trade Jabs On HHS Budget
In back-to-back appearances on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price sparred with Democrats over the Trump administration’s budget cuts for his department and coming troubles in the individual health insurance market. “President Trump’s budget does not confuse government spending with government success,” Price said, defending a spending plan that calls for substantial funding reductions to Medicaid, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and other HHS agencies. (Bluth, 6/8)

Kaiser Health News: Quantity Over Quality? Minorities Shown To Get An Excess Of Ineffective Care
Minority patients face a double whammy: Not only are they more likely to miss out on effective medical treatments than white patients, but, according to a new study, they’re also more likely to receive an abundance of ineffective services. The study, published in the June issue of Health Affairs, examined 11 medical services identified as “low value” by the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely initiative. That program pinpoints unnecessary, overused medical tests and treatments in an effort to reduce waste and avoid needless risk in the health care system. (Andrews, 6/9)

California Healthline: California’s Aid-In Dying Law Turns 1, But Not All Doctors Have Adopted It
John Minor of Manhattan Beach epitomized the active Californian. The retired psychologist was a distance runner, a cyclist and an avid outdoorsman, says his daughter Jackie Minor of San Mateo. “He and my mom were both members of the Sierra Club,” Jackie said. “They went on tons of backpacking trips — climbing mountains and trekking through the desert. He was just a very active person.” But in September 2014, he fell ill with terminal pulmonary fibrosis — a lung disease that his family says slowly eroded his quality of life. (O'Neill, 6/9)

The Washington Post: Senate Republicans Consider Keeping Parts Of Obamacare They Once Promised To Kill
In their effort to revamp the nation’s health-care system, Senate Republicans are considering preserving or more gradually eliminating key elements of the Affordable Care Act that the House voted to discard, creating an uncomfortable political situation for the party after years of promises to fully repeal the law. Senate GOP leadership told rank-and-file Republican senators during private talks this week that they favor keeping guaranteed protections for people with preexisting medical conditions — a departure from the House approach of allowing states to opt out of a regulation ensuring such individuals are not charged more for coverage. (Sullivan and Snell, 6/8)

The New York Times: A Key Republican Demands Subsidies To Calm Insurance Markets
A powerful House Republican said Thursday that Congress should immediately provide money for subsidy payments to health insurance companies, which have been demanding big rate increases or fleeing from Affordable Care Act markets because of President Trump’s threat to cut off the funds. The Republican, Kevin Brady of Texas, who is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, went out of his way to make clear that he now believes that Congress should continue the subsidies, which compensate insurers for reducing deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for seven million low-income people. (Pear, 6/8)

The Associated Press: Top Republican Seeks Action Now To Steady Insurance Markets
"We should act within our constitutional authority now to temporarily and legally fund (subsidy) payments as we move away from Obamacare," Brady said at a budget hearing. He and his GOP colleagues are trying to roll back President Barack Obama's signature law that provided the financial assistance in the first place. "Insurers have made clear the lack of certainty is causing 2018 proposed premiums to rise significantly," added Brady. That's also a midterm election year, in which every seat in the Republican-controlled House and 33 seats in the GOP-controlled Senate are on the ballot. (6/8)

Politico: Senate GOP Finds A New Problem For Every One Resolved On Obamacare Repeal
Senate Republicans hoping to get the bulk of an Obamacare repeal bill done within the next few days keep finding a new problem for every old one they get closer to resolving. A burst of optimism that they could agree on a more generous version of the House-passed repeal bill was quickly doused by concerns over the cost. An emerging consensus on subsidies to stabilize shaky insurance markets was countered by a threat that crucial abortion restrictions could derail the effort altogether. And looming over it all, lawmakers are still struggling to bridge the deep divide over the future of Medicaid. (Cancryn, Haberkorn, Everett and Pradhan, 6/8)

Politico: Abortion Restrictions Threaten Senate GOP’s Obamacare Repeal Push
"There's still not a clear ruling from the parliamentarian about the House Hyde language ... I don't think we go to contingencies or Plan Bs until we know that. But I do think there's been some gaming out of how you address it if the House language isn't acceptable," said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a GOP leader working on the tax credits. "No taxpayer funding is consistent with the majority of our caucus." (Haberkorn and Everett, 6/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Two Washington State Counties Lack ACA Health Insurer For 2018
Washington state has no insurer willing to offer Affordable Care Act plans next year in two of its 39 counties, opening up a third U.S. region that is poised to be without coverage through the health law’s marketplaces. The latest announcement, from Washington’s state insurance regulator, is likely to add to the political pressure over the status of the ACA’s marketplaces, which are showing growing signs of strain around the country. (Wilde Mathews and Radnofsky, 6/8)

The Associated Press: Pence To Discuss Health Care In Wisconsin Visit
Vice President Mike Pence is traveling to Milwaukee on Saturday for a listening session and speech on former President Barack Obama's health care law. The vice president's office says Pence will meet with business leaders and families in Wisconsin to discuss the "adverse effects" of the law. Pence will be joined by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. (6/8)

Los Angeles Times: Nevada Moves Closer To A Landmark Medicaid-For-All Healthcare Model
With his signature on a novel Medicaid-for-all-type bill, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval could rewrite the way many of his constituents get healthcare, and establish a model that other states might eventually follow in the absence of congressional action to fix or replace Obamacare. He got the bill delivered to his desk Monday. He hasn’t said what he will do with it. If he doesn’t sign or veto it by June 16, it will automatically become law. (Montero, 6/8)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Asks Drug Maker To Stop Selling A Dangerous Opioid
On Thursday, for the first time in its history, the Food and Drug Administration asked a drug company to take an opioid medication off the market. The drug, Opana ER — a form of the painkiller oxymorphone hydrochloride — has been heavily abused and linked to outbreaks of H.I.V., hepatitis C and a serious blood disorder among people who crush the pills into powder and inject it. (Grady, 6/8)

The Washington Post: FDA Seeks Removal Of Opioid Painkiller From The Market
The agency concluded after an extensive review of Endo Pharmaceuticals’ Opana ER that the “benefits of the drug may no longer outweigh its risks.” The company reformulated the drug in 2012 to make it more difficult to snort, but the FDA said that move actually led to more injections — and a major HIV outbreak. (McGinley and Bernstein, 6/8)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Pushes To Get Endo’s Opana ER Painkiller Off The Market
“We are facing an opioid epidemic—a public health crisis, and we must take all necessary steps to reduce the scope of opioid misuse and abuse,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. “We will continue to take regulatory steps when we see situations where an opioid product’s risks outweigh its benefits, not only for its intended patient population but also in regard to its potential for misuse and abuse.” (Whalen, 6/8)

USA Today: FDA Asks Drugmaker Endo To Withdraw Opana ER
The FDA said in its statement that if Endo does not meet its request, it will take steps to withdraw approval of the drug, prescribed when someone needs a long-term pain medication. Endo reformulated Opana ER in a way that the company said would curb the potential for abuse, but an FDA advisory committee voted 18-8 (with one abstention) in mid March that the benefits of the reformulated version no longer outweigh risks of the drug. (Eversley, 6/8)

NPR: FDA Wants Opana ER, A Powerful Opioid, Off The Market
An increasing number of people, the FDA says, are abusing the powerful prescription pills by crushing, dissolving and injecting them. The sharing of needles by these drug users has fueled an outbreak of associated infectious diseases — HIV, hepatitis C and another serious blood disorder. (Stein, 6/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Drug Gangs Open An Online Chinese Connection For Opioids
New York City gang members are increasingly bypassing their usual sources for drugs and buying powerful illicit opioids directly from China online, according to investigators, who say the trend poses tough new challenges for law enforcement trying to crack down on the addiction epidemic. The latest clue came in a package seized after a search warrant was executed in November, investigators say. It contained a kilogram of the opioid drug furanyl fentanyl—and the name of an obscure Chinese company called Shenzhen Unique-Peptide Biotechnology Co. Ltd. (Kanno-Youngs and Whalen, 6/8)

The Washington Post: Opioids, Alcohol, Other Drugs Killed More Marylanders In 2016 Than Ever Before
The increase in drug- and alcohol-related deaths in Maryland in 2016 was the biggest ever recorded in the state, officials said Thursday, the latest sign of an opioid epidemic that has triggered a state of emergency and prompted leaders to dedicate millions in funding to combat addiction. Overdoses killed 2,089 people in 2016, an increase of 66 percent from the previous year, according to data released by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (Hernandez, 6/8)

The Washington Post: Zika Risk For Birth Defects Drops For Each Trimester, CDC Finds
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lays out for the first time the risk for Zika-related birth defects for each trimester of pregnancy. Researchers have consistently highlighted the first trimester as the most dangerous for infections involving the virus, which is spread primarily by mosquitoes and sex, but the CDC's analysis provides a detailed breakdown throughout pregnancy. (Sun, 6/8)

The New York Times: 5% Of U.S. Pregnant Women With Zika Had Baby With A Birth Defect
Five percent of pregnant women with a confirmed Zika infection in the United States territories, including Puerto Rico, went on to have a baby with a related birth defect, according to the most comprehensive report to date from federal officials. The report, published on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also provided for the first time preliminary estimates of this risk by trimester. Previously, there were not enough births following exposure to the Zika virus to make such estimates. (Saint Louis, 6/8)

Los Angeles Times: Microcephaly Or Other Birth Defects Seen In 5% Of Pregnancies Affected By Zika, CDC Says
In this study, the greatest risk was seen in cases where the woman was infected during the first trimester of her pregnancy, and that infection was confirmed with a laboratory test. Among these women, 8% had a fetus or baby with a birth defect. The comparable rate for women from the 50 states was 15%, according to previous research. However, the authors of the new study noted that the number of birth defects was too small for them to be sure that the difference was real and not just a statistical fluke. (Kaplan, 6/8)

NPR: Birth Defects In 5 Percent Of Babies Born To Zika-Infected Women In U.S. Territories
Scientists have had trouble pinning down the risk of Zika to pregnant women. Estimates of birth defects have ranged from 1 percent of pregnancies to more than 10 percent. This latest study, published Thursday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, provides a sharper answer. The study found that even infected women without symptoms of the disease were at risk of giving birth to babies with abnormalities. (Harris, 6/8)

USA Today: Public Health Officials Fear Trump Budget Cuts In Fight Against Zika Virus
Spending cuts in the Trump administration's proposed budget for 2018 will hit the agencies dedicated to fighting the Zika virus as the season for the mosquito-borne illness is starting and when the demand for higher spending is needed, city and county health officials say. Members of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and the March of Dimes are lobbying Congress for more funding that covers a longer period of time to combat Zika, but say they are trying to develop a bigger coalition to make their case (Covington and O'Donnell, 6/8)

The Wall Street Journal: National Institutes Of Health To Boost Grants To Young Scientists
The National Institutes of Health said it would begin redirecting up to about $1.1 billion in research-grant money a year to early- and midcareer scientists to help boost their careers and preserve U.S. science. The agency said it would begin the redistribution immediately with about $210 million annually, but that the amount would steadily increase over five years to about $1.1 billion a year. (Burton, 6/8)

The New York Times: Cancer Drug Proves To Be Effective Against Multiple Tumors
The 86 cancer patients were a disparate group, with tumors of the pancreas, prostate, uterus or bone. One woman had a cancer so rare there were no tested treatments. She was told to get her affairs in order. Still, these patients had a few things in common. All had advanced disease that had resisted every standard treatment. (Kolata, 6/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Teva Pharmaceutical To Nominate Four New Directors
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. will seek to overhaul its board by nominating four new directors, the latest step toward remaking the struggling drug company. Teva, the world’s biggest seller of low-price generic drugs, will ask shareholders to approve the nominees at the company’s annual meeting July 13, said Sol Barer, the board’s chairman. The nominees would replace longtime board members who have decided to step aside or aren’t seeking new terms. (Rockoff, Roland and Jones, 6/8)

NPR: Fetuses React To Face-Like Patterns
Provocative new research suggests that fetuses have the ability to discern faces when they're still in the womb. A study involving 34-week-old fetuses found they were more likely to focus on a pattern of lights that resembled a human face than on the same lights configured to look nothing like a face. (Stein, 6/8)

Reuters: Illinois Bonds Hit Hard After U.S. Judge's Medicaid Ruling
Illinois general obligation bond prices plummeted and yields soared in the U.S. municipal market on Thursday, a day after a federal judge ordered the cash-strapped state to find more money to pay Medicaid providers. Yields on bonds due in 2024 climbed to 5.15 percent in secondary market trading where the yield on a top-rated bond maturing that same year was only 1.42 percent, according to Municipal Market Data. (6/8)

Los Angeles Times: More Than $30 Million In Prop. 47 Savings Will Go To Mental Health And Drug Rehab Programs In The Los Angeles Area
California state officials on Thursday named the 23 government agencies that will receive $103 million in grant funds from a ballot initiative that downgraded six drug and theft crimes to misdemeanors. For the large coalition of supporters behind 2014's Proposition 47, it is a long-awaited step forward. Other states have passed similar laws. But California is the lone state investing the money saved from keeping fewer people behind bars in services to help people stay out of prison. (Ulloa, 6/8)