House Advances Biosecure Act, But Talks Go Awry Over AI In Health Care

Stat: House Passes Biosecure Act, New Chinese Biotech Restrictions 
Congress is poised to pass the Biosecure Act after two years of incremental changes that watered down the bill’s curbs on Chinese biotechs and made the law more palatable for U.S. biopharma companies. (Wilkerson, 12/10)

MedPage Today: Partisan Politics Sidetrack House Hearing On Healthcare Tech Costs
A House hearing Wednesday on the topic of how technology can help lower healthcare costs was sidetracked almost immediately by partisan politics. "Healthcare costs of the United States have long been on the rise, but recent Democrat policies and the radical Biden administration's regulatory agenda have made healthcare costs in America even worse," Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, said in his opening statement. (Frieden, 12/10)

The latest on ACA subsidies —

Bloomberg: Medicare Payments Targeted As GOP Grasps For Obamacare Counterproposal
Republican congressional leaders are considering a Medicare pay cut for hospitals as GOP lawmakers try to come up with a counterproposal to Democrats’ demands to renew Obamacare subsidies, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Wednesday. The policy was included in a list of health care options presented to Republican House members in a meeting on Wednesday, according to a document viewed by Bloomberg. (Cohrs Zhang and Reilly, 12/10)

AP: Senate Poised To Reject Extension Of Health Care Subsidies As Costs Rise
The Senate is poised on Thursday to reject legislation to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits for millions of Americans, a potentially unceremonious end to a monthslong Democratic effort to prevent the COVID-era subsidies from expiring on Jan. 1. Despite a bipartisan desire to continue the credits, Republicans and Democrats have never engaged in meaningful or high-level negotiations on a solution. Instead, the Senate is expected to vote on two partisan bills and defeat them both — essentially guaranteeing that many who buy their health insurance on the ACA marketplaces see a steep rise in costs at the beginning of the year. (Jalonick, 12/11)

Politico: Anti-Abortion Group Warns Against Forcing Vote To Expand Obamacare Subsidies 
The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is warning Republicans against signing onto a new effort to force a floor vote on extending Obamacare subsidies — upping the stakes of a push by GOP moderates to make an end run around leadership on the issue. “Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has vigorously opposed any Obamacare subsidy funding without Hyde protections,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser in the letter sent to lawmakers Wednesday. (Guggenheim, 12/10)

Politico: Trump Still Hasn’t Endorsed A Plan To Avoid Impending Obamacare Hikes For Millions
President Donald Trump has not endorsed a plan to prevent Obamacare rates from spiking in three weeks, leaving Republicans without a clear path ahead of a key vote. On Thursday the Senate is expected to vote down the only GOP plan on the table, an effort by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). Trump hasn’t waded into the fray, instead talking broadly about his preferences without publicly supporting a specific plan. Absent a deal, Obamacare subsidies will spike for millions of Americans in less than a month. (Haslett and Gangitano, 12/11)

Politico: Health Insurers Ask GOP To Fix Their Fraud Problem — And Extend Obamacare Subsidies 
Health insurers are admitting they have a fraud problem. It’s part of a last-ditch attempt to convince Republicans to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies that have juiced profits the last four years. For an industry that has long said fraud claims were overblown, it’s a big turnabout. Republicans don’t seem interested in keeping the subsidies at the levels Democrats increased them to in a 2021 Covid relief law, despite a year-long insurer-led lobbying campaign stressing how the subsidies made insurance affordable for millions. (Hooper, 12/11)

KFF Health News: Health Care Consolidation And Rising Costs Happen, But Obamacare Is Not The Key Culprit
In a recent Meet the Press appearance, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) joined a growing number of Republicans who are speaking out against Obamacare. One of his lines of attack: that the Affordable Care Act fueled health care consolidation. “What Democrats did 15 years ago was they radically changed all health care in America. They moved all physicians under hospitals. They changed all the reimbursement programs. They shifted everything in,” Lankford said Nov. 9. (Appleby, 12/11)

Related news about Medicaid cuts and health coverage —

AP: North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein Halts Medicaid Rate Cuts Amid Litigation And GOP Pushback 
North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein is canceling Medicaid reimbursement rate reductions he initiated over two months ago, preserving in the short term access to care for vulnerable patients while a political fight with Republican legislators to enact additional funding gets resolved. Stein and state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Dev Sangvai said at a Wednesday news conference that the state agency would restore reimbursement rates for doctors, hospitals and other medical providers of Medicaid services, which otherwise generally had been cut by 3% to 10% starting Oct. 1. (Robertson, 12/10)

Bloomberg: New York Warns 950,000 To Lose Health Coverage Under Trump Budget Cuts
Nearly 1 million New Yorkers are expected to lose health coverage as a result of President Donald Trump’s federal budget, a shift that will strain the city’s struggling public hospital system. Under eligibility changes enacted as part of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, an estimated 800,000 New York City residents are expected to lose Medicaid coverage, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a report Wednesday. An additional 150,000 residents will likely lose coverage from the state’s Essential Plan, which provides health care to low-income New Yorkers. (Nahmias, 12/10)