Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Rep. Price's Plan To Replace Subsidies; High Cost Cancer Drugs; Biolab Safety
Bloomberg View: An Obamacare Replacement That Works
Tom Price, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is the latest Republican to unveil a conservative health-care plan to replace Obamacare. It's a good plan, although it could be made better -- and it helps to clarify some of the trade-offs involved in health policy. Price's plan would give people tax credits to buy health insurance. The credits would be based on age but not on income. Everyone between 35 and 50 would get $2,100 a year, for example. Both the Affordable Care Act and some other conservative health-care bills, such as the one proposed by Senator Orrin Hatch and colleagues, instead phase out tax credits with income. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 6/3)
JAMA Forum: If King V Burwell Ruling Imperils ACA Subsidies For Millions, Is The Fallout Avoidable?
The Obama Administration has said that it is not working on a contingency plan in the event of the court siding with the plaintiffs in the case, and that, in fact, no such contingency plan is even possible. ... the Administration is suggesting it won’t swerve if headed towards a head-on collision with Congress over the future of health insurance subsidies for 6.4 million people. Obamacare opponents in Congress are also signaling their intentions in this potential game of chicken, introducing a variety of bills that would continue financial assistance under the ACA, but also make certain changes to the health law. (Larry Leavitt, 6/3)
The Washington Post's Plum Line: Morning Plum: The Stakes In Obamacare Lawsuit Just Got A Whole Lot Higher
Prepare to be shocked, shocked, shocked! It’s increasingly looking like Republicans won’t have any contingency plan in place if the Supreme Court guts subsidies for millions in three dozen federal exchange states. (Greg Sargent, 6/3)
Forbes: The Florida Senate's 'Compromise' Is Still Obamacare Medicaid Expansion
Monday marked the start of a special session called to pass Florida’s budget. Right on cue, the heavily hospital-connected State Senate is pushing Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion again. With a slightly modified version now rebranded as FHIX 2.0 (or Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange Program), the Florida Senate is pushing against a resolute House and a Governor that has all but threatened a veto. Florida’s big hospitals are pulling out the stops to put a new shine to the Florida Senate plan. Sadly, the plan simply mirrors the same old Obamacare Medicaid expansion plans from other states. Yet, that has not stopped hospitals from dumping even more money into this fight—on top of the more than 250 lobbyists already deployed to Tallahassee. (Josh Archambault, 6/3)
Bloomberg View: Cutting The Cost Of Cancer
How much should we pay for cancer drugs? The answer, in the past, has frequently been "How much you got in your pockets? That, plus 10 percent." Insurers and patients have been pushing back on the high cost of drugs, negotiating lower rates and switching to generic treatments. But cancer is special. It's hard to be a discriminating shopper when someone tells you that you have 18 months to live. (Megan McArdle, 6/3)
USA Today: Separate Biolab Safety From Security: Our View
Mistakes happen in any business, but in some workplaces — such as nuclear plants, airlines, and laboratories that handle biological agents such as anthrax — the risks to the public are serious enough to require extraordinary care. Of those three, it's the biolabs that do by far the worst job of admitting and learning from their errors. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission routinely holds utilities accountable by publicly disclosing mishaps and the plants that make them on its website. NASA runs a program that grants pilots absolution if they confess errors for a public database that helps other pilots avoid the same mistakes. But a USA TODAY Network investigation found that though the elite labs handling deadly pathogens have made hundreds of life-threatening mistakes, the labs and their regulators routinely fight public disclosure and accountability. (6/3)
USA Today: Biological Labs Operate Safely: Opposing View
As USA TODAY stated, there are "historically low numbers of serious infections among lab workers generally (and) infections spreading into communities surrounding labs have been rarer still." This is a testament to the efforts of hundreds of safety-conscious employees and to the safety protocols that are in place. U.S. regulators and organizations such as ABSA are working to help make biological laboratories safer. (Marian Downing, 6/3)
USA Today: Not All Biolabs Are The Same: Another View
The recent USA TODAY series on safety breaches at biolabs raises important issues that need to be addressed. However, it presents all biolabs as if they are the same, when in fact there are many different types of laboratories that work with select agents — substances that could be used as bioterror agents — including public health laboratories. (Scott J. Becker, 6/3)
