Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Republicans Nix Trump's Idea To Require Drug Prices In TV Ads As Lawmakers Wrap Up Work On Spending Package
Stat: Trump Wants Drug Prices In TV Ads. The Latest Roadblock? Republicans
President Trump’s splashiest idea for lowering the cost of prescription drug prices was to force pharmaceutical companies to include the prices of their products in TV and other advertisements. But when Capitol Hill had a chance Thursday to help him achieve that goal, lawmakers failed. And counterintuitively, it was House members in the president’s own party who ultimately nixed the provision. In fact, it was a Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, pushing the measure hardest. (Florko, 9/13)
The Hill: House GOP Blocks Trump-Supported Drug Pricing Provision From Spending Bill
Lawmakers and aides said that House Republicans objected to including the provision in the final version of the funding bill, which was finished by House and Senate negotiators on Thursday. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), one of the sponsors of the provision, blamed pharmaceutical companies for exercising their influence to block the measure. “When are we going to stand up to Big Pharma?” Durbin asked. (Sullivan, 9/13)
Politico: Congress Dares Trump To Shut Down The Government In New Spending Deal
GOP leaders believe they’ve found a way to thwart President Donald Trump’s latest shutdown threats: Send him a funding bill that’s impossible to resist. Capitol Hill leaders on Thursday announced a mammoth fiscal 2019 spending deal that achieves one of the Trump administration's top priorities — the Pentagon’s first on-time spending bill since 2008. But there’s a catch. The same package also funds some of the government’s most sprawling agencies at levels that are billions of dollars more than Trump requested. And if Trump refuses to sign it, much of the government, including parts of the Pentagon, would shutter. (Ferris, 9/13)
The Washington Post: Congress Planning To Avert Government Shutdown
Government funding runs out on Sept 30. Congress is working to send Trump a number of must-pass spending bills for 2019 before then — including crucial measures funding the Pentagon and Health and Human Services Department. On Thursday, the House overwhelmingly passed a $147 billion three-bill package funding Veterans Affairs, military construction and numerous other programs, sending it to Trump for his signature. (Werner, 9/13)
CQ: Labor-HHS-Education: $178 Billion Measure Boosts NIH, Pell
The final appropriations bill for the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services would provide nearly $178.1 billion in regular fiscal 2019 discretionary funding, splitting the difference between the two chambers with almost $1 billion more than the current year.The measure would provide $10.7 billion more than President Donald Trump requested for the agencies overall in fiscal 2019, more than three-fourths of which would have come from education programs. But Trump is expected to sign the measure, given it is packaged with the massive Pentagon appropriations bill, as well as stopgap funding to avoid a partial shutdown of government operations through Dec. 7, after the midterm elections. (Siddons, 9/13)
In other news from Capitol Hill —
Modern Healthcare: HHS' Work On Anthem's Emergency Coverage Policy Leaves Senators Dissatisfied
HHS Secretary Alex Azar sidestepped questions from two Democratic senators about whether his agency and the Labor Department have investigated and taken enforcement action against Anthem and other insurers that allegedly violated consumer rights by denying coverage for emergency care. In a letter to Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md. and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Azar said states are generally responsible for insurance regulation and enforcement, citing one investigation where federal officials probed denied emergency care case. (Meyer, 9/13)
