The Associated Press: Congress Deals Pair Of Blows To 'Obamacare'
Two Republican senators abandoned their fight Wednesday for legislation this year to help contain premium costs by resuming federal subsidies to insurers, as Congress dealt a pair of blows to President Barack Obama's health care law. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Tennessee's Lamar Alexander ran into opposition from both parties to inserting the language into a must-pass bill preventing a weekend federal shutdown. They said they'd pursue the effort early next year, though there is no guarantee it would succeed. (Fram, 12/20)

The Hill: Collins Lets McConnell Slide On Promise To Shore Up Insurance Markets In 2017 
Collins acknowledged on Wednesday that McConnell and Vice President Pence won’t be able to keep their promise to enact the insurance stabilization legislation in exchange for voting for tax reform. Collins and Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in a statement Wednesday that they will introduce the insurance market stabilization proposal “after the first of the year when the Senate will consider the omnibus spending bill” and other priorities such as reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program and funding for community health centers. (Bolton, 12/20)

Modern Healthcare: CSRs Out Of End-Of-Year Spending Bill
Democrats, who initially supported the Alexander-Murray bill as a block, lost their will to push for it as open enrollment came and went and insurers locked in 2018 rates that include the CSRs. Collins and Alexander emphasized that they believe McConnell will bring their legislation to the floor in 2018. "It looks like the Christmas present of lower health insurance premiums will now have to be a Valentine's Day present," Alexander said. (Luthi, 12/20)

Politico: Republicans Drop Obamacare Fix In Rush To Avert Shutdown
The two chambers had been on a collision course for days over the subsidies bill, with House rank-and-file Republicans staring down Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Even with the Obamacare flash point out of the picture, House Republican leaders will have a hard sales job to persuade their fractured conference to swallow another kick-the-can spending bill. And in the Senate, the suggestion of including provisions that would provide temporary leeway for certain defense funding is already deterring Democratic support. (Ferris, Caygle and Haberkorn, 12/20)

Nashville Tennessean: Government Shutdown: Alexander-Murray Health Care Proposal Delayed, Removing Obstacle To Avoiding Government Shutdown
Senate Republican leaders had considered attaching the health-care proposal to the short-term spending bill to keep the government running through mid-January. But that approach ran into resistance from hardline conservatives in the House, who balked at approving what they consider a giveaway to insurance companies. (Collins, 12/20)

The Hill: WH: Trump Wants Congress To Pass Bipartisan ObamaCare Fixes In January
President Trump supports the passage of bipartisan legislation designed to shore up ObamaCare, the White House said Wednesday. “Yes,” a senior White House official said when asked if Trump wants the bills passed in January. The official expressed confidence that Republicans could overcome opposition in the House, where conservatives are objecting to the fixes. (Fabian, 12/20)

Bloomberg: Obamacare Votes Promised To Collins This Year Are Delayed 
A vote on extending a program that provides health insurance to low-income children will also likely slide into 2018, even as several states face a funding squeeze that could leave many families without coverage. (Edney, Litvan and Rausch, 12/20)

The Hill: Broken Health Care Pledge Tests Collins-McConnell Relationship 
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will be a crucial swing vote for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) next year, but it may be tougher to strike deals with her after McConnell failed to fulfill a pledge on health care. The moderate senator told reporters this month that she had an “ironclad” commitment from McConnell and Vice President Pence to pass legislation by the end of the year to stabilize ObamaCare premiums. She wanted that assurance before committing her vote for tax reform. (Bolton, 12/21)

The Hill: Senate Republicans Look To Address Concerns About Abortion Language In ObamaCare Bills 
Senate Republicans are looking for ways to ensure that two ObamaCare funding bills they're trying to pass don't put money toward insurance plans that cover abortions. "There were some questions that were raised in the pro-life community, and we want to make sure we get those addressed so that all conservatives feel comfortable voting for this transition out of ObamaCare, which is what this is all about," said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). (Hellmann, 12/20)

The Associated Fact Check: Trump Says 'Obamacare' Is Repealed. It Isn't.
President Donald Trump has prematurely declared "Obamacare" dead and displayed a misunderstanding of where the money comes from to make the health law work. A look at his remarks Wednesday about the tax plan he will soon sign into law and its effect on President Barack Obama's health insurance overhaul. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/20)

The New York Times Fact Check: Trump Falsely Claims To Have ‘Repealed Obamacare’
“When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed,” Mr. Trump said in a cabinet meeting. “We have essentially repealed Obamacare, and we will come up with something that will be much better. ”Mr. Trump’s suggestion that he kept two key campaign promises with one bill is not accurate. Effectively, the tax bill does repeal the individual mandate beginning in 2019. The mandate is a core component of the Affordable Care Act and fines people who do not have health insurance. But the tax bill leaves every other vital part of the current health care law intact. (Qiu, 12/20)

The Hill: Trump: GOP Tax Bill 'Essentially' Repeals ObamaCare
Despite Trump’s claim, the tax bill does not repeal ObamaCare entirely. People will still be able to purchase insurance through individual marketplaces, Medicaid expansion is preserved and consumer protections remain in place. But health-care experts worry that without the mandate, premiums in the individual insurance market could spike, competition could decrease and more people will become uninsured. (Fabian, 12/20)

Bloomberg: Trump Says Republican Tax Bill ‘Essentially’ Repeals Obamacare
Removing the individual mandate doesn’t undo other essential elements of Obamacare. The law still requires insurers to sell policies to sick people at the same prices as healthy people, and provides subsidies for low-income families to make health plans more affordable. Trump also boasted that he successfully downplayed the provision to avoid media coverage of the change. “We didn’t want to bring it up. I told people specifically ‘be quiet with the fake news media because I don’t want them talking too much about it,’” Trump said. “But now that it’s approved I can say: the individual mandate on health care, where you had to pay not to have insurance -- think of that one, you pay not to have insurance -- the individual mandate has been repealed.” (Epstein and Tozzi, 12/20)

Georgia Health News: Major Pillar Of ACA Receives Death Blow From Lawmakers
The idea of compelling people to have health insurance has been the most unpopular part of the ACA, and Republicans have regularly attacked it. Yet ACA proponents have noted that the concept was originally floated by some conservatives, and it became law in Massachusetts under Republican Gov. Mitt Romney before it became part of the federal Obamacare legislation. The idea generally was to support the financial viability of the health care system by having more people insured. (Miller, 12/20)

Boston Globe: Despite Action By Congress, Mass. Individual Mandate Remains
Massachusetts is largely shielded from a key provision of the sweeping tax bill approved by Congress on Wednesday, a measure that guts the requirement that Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. This state has its own mandate that individuals sign up for insurance, which went into effect a decade ago. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/20)

Houston Chronicle: Penalty For Skipping Insurance Will End But Could Mean More Uninsured 
Tucked into the language of the newly-passed tax bill are a handful of words that could knock down a pillar of the Affordable Care Act, accomplishing in part what nearly eight years of political opposition and dozens of Congressional votes have failed to do. Starting in 2019, the penalty for failing to have health insurance is reduced to zero, which in essence eliminates the individual mandate of the law known as Obamacare, but does not repeal it. (Deam, 12/20)

Modern Healthcare: Independent Doctors Get Sweet Deal Under GOP Tax Cut Bill
While many healthcare industry groups are unhappy about the Republican tax cut bill, primary-care physicians and dentists in independent practices may be smiling. That's because the bill, which passed Congress Wednesday, sharply reduces the personal income tax rate for owners of pass-through entities such as partnerships, Subchapter S corporations, and sole proprietorships. That's how most physician and dental practices are organized. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, owners of pass-through entities will receive a 20% deduction on their taxable income, dropping their maximum effective tax rate from the current 39.6% (or 37% under the bill) to about 29.6%. (Meyer, 12/20)

In other news on the overhaul —

Politico Pro: GOP Fails To Pressure Hospitals On Community Benefits
Despite Republicans’ boasts about closing tax loopholes, there’s one sector that the sweeping tax reform bill mostly leaves alone: The tax-exempt hospital sector, which enjoys billions of dollars in tax breaks even as big hospitals raise prices and perform less free care. (Diamond, 12/20)

Sacramento Bee: CA Health Insurance Costs Expected To Rise Under GOP Tax Plan
Despite successfully beating back Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the future of the federal health care law appears uncertain after congressional Democrats were unable to defeat a provision of the GOP tax plan that dismantles the foundation on which Obamacare is built. Republicans’ $1.5 trillion tax bill scraps the so-called individual mandate in Obamacare that requires most Americans to have insurance or pay a tax penalty. (Hart, 12/20)

Politico: State Officials Panicked Over Children’s Health Program
Families are becoming increasingly panicked about children losing health insurance without new funding from Congress, state officials warned Wednesday as a new report showed nearly 2 million kids could be dropped from coverage next month. Roughly 1.9 million children across the country could lose insurance in January if Congress fails to renew Children's Health Insurance Program funding, according to a new report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Another 1 million could lose coverage by the end of February if the congressional stalemate drags on. (Pradhan, 12/20)

The Washington Post: Kids’ Health Insurance Hangs In Balance, And Parents Wonder What’s Wrong With Congress
The lingering uncertainty in Congress over the fate of the Children’s Health Insurance Program has left Ashlee and Levi Smith torn between optimism and anxiety. As the parents of two young children who have relied on the government-backed health-care plan, the Smiths are unsure whether they should stretch their finances to put their boys, 3 and 3 months, on a private plan — or have faith that a polarized Congress will work it out. “$1,200 for the four of us,” Ashlee Smith, 26, said, estimating the plan’s monthly cost from their two-bedroom townhouse outside Salt Lake City, where she crafts necklaces as part of the family business. “We can’t pay that and save for a mortgage, or save anything at all.” (Samuels, 12/20)

CQ HealthBeat: Delay In Children's Health Funding Worries States And Advocates
Children's advocates and state officials are dismayed that long-term funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program may be delayed until next year, with a short-term fix likely to keep states going until then. Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, hinted at a further delay in a press release earlier Tuesday about a separate stall in action on market stabilization legislation. (Raman, 12/20)

PBS NewsHour: Here’s When States Could Run Out Of Money To Fund The Children’s Health Insurance Program
Nine million children nationwide receive health care coverage through the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But many of them could soon be uninsured if Congress doesn’t vote to reauthorize its funding. (Santhanam, 12/200

The New York Times: Unless Congress Acts, Nearly 2 Million Children Could Lose Health Coverage In January
If Congress does not renew federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, also known as CHIP, more than 1.9 million children in 23 states could lose health coverage in January, according to a new analysis by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. (Park, 12/20)

Modern Healthcare: Congress' CHIP Patch Accelerates Rate States Will Run Out Of Money 
Half of all states will run out of their Children's Health Insurance Program funding in January, up from an original projection of 16. All told, 31 states are in jeopardy of seeing the funding vanish sooner than expected, according to a new analysis from Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families. The short-term budget fix passed by Congress on Dec. 8 reallocated $2.9 billion in federal CHIP funds to 20 states that were to run out of money before the end of the year. CHIP funding expired Sept. 30. The stopgap measure was advanced by Republican Reps. Tom Emmer (Minn.) and Ryan Costello (Pa.), whose states were among those with shortfalls. (Luthi, 12/20)

Meanwhile, community health centers are in a similar situation —

The CT Mirror: Congress’s Inaction Threatening Community Health Center Funding
Despite broad bipartisan support, Congress missed its Sept. 30 deadline to reauthorize money for the Community Health Center Fund, which represents the largest chunk of federal funds going to the centers. ...Community health centers also have received money through the annual federal budget — $1.5 billion last year — and that remains unresolved because Congress hasn’t passed a budget for the current fiscal year. (Rigg, 12/20)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Targets Certain Words, And The Bureaucracy Pushes Back
The Trump administration is waging a linguistic battle across official Washington, seeking to shift public perception of key policies by changing the way the federal government talks about climate change, scientific evidence and disadvantaged communities. The push drew fresh attention after employees at the Department of Health and Human Services were told to avoid certain words — including “vulnerable” “entitlement” and “diversity” — when preparing requests for next year’s budget. But the effort to disappear certain language and replace it with other terms is much broader, sparking resistance from career officials in multiple federal agencies, outside experts and congressional Democrats. (Eilperin and Sun, 12/21)

Stat: FDA Chief Has No Qualms About Using Words Like 'Evidence-Based'
A report that the Trump administration discouraged officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using seven words — including “vulnerable” and “evidence-based” — in its budget submissions sparked outrage over the weekend in the scientific and public health community. It also got us wondering: How often — and in what context — do these words get used in other government agencies focused on health and science? (Robbins, 12/20)

The Hill: Health Panel Dems Demand Answers From Azar On Banned Words 
Democrats on the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday released a letter asking Alex Azar, the Trump administration's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, how he would deal with a reported prohibition on the use of certain words at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Given your pending nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services, we seek your reaction to this reported new administration policy, as well as additional information about how you would plan to address these communications restrictions if confirmed,” the Democrats wrote. (Weixel, 12/20)

The Washington Post: Fueled By Drug Crisis, U.S. Life Expectancy Declines For A Second Straight Year
American life expectancy at birth declined for the second consecutive year in 2016, fueled by a staggering 21 percent rise in the death rate from drug overdoses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. (Bernstein and Ingraham, 12/21)

NPR: Life Expectancy Drops As Opioid Deaths Surge
"I'm not prone to dramatic statements," says Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics. "But I think we should be really alarmed. The drug overdose problem is a public health problem and it needs to be addressed. We need to get a handle on it." (Stein, 12/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Overdose Deaths Drive Down U.S. Life Expectancy—Again
The last time the U.S. experienced a back-to-back fall in life expectancy, in 1962 and 1963, a bad flu season was to blame, Bob Anderson, chief of mortality statistics at CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, said in an interview. The previous consecutive-year decline was in 1925-26, which was likely due to infectious disease, he said. (Whalen, 12/21)

Stat: Life Expectancy In The U.S. Is Falling — And Overdose Deaths Are Soaring
Heart disease was the leading cause of death, followed by cancer, unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide. One key point: Unintentional injuries climbed to the third leading cause of death in 2016, swapping spots with chronic lower respiratory diseases. It’s worth noting that most drug overdose deaths are classified as unintentional injuries. (Thielking, 12/21)

Bloomberg: U.S. Life Expectancy Drops For Second Year Amid Opioid Crisis
Despite the bleak picture of recent years, Americans have enjoyed big gains in life expectancy over the long term from public health improvements, new medical treatments, and expanded access to care. Life expectancy at birth is almost a decade higher today than it was in 1960, an era before social programs like Medicare and life-extending drugs like statins. (Tozzi, 12/21)

The Washington Post: CDC Releases Grim New Opioid Overdose Figures: ‘We’re Talking About More Than An Exponential Increase’
The national opioid epidemic escalated in 2016, driven by an unprecedented surge in deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opiates, according to new data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 42,000 Americans died of opioid overdoses in 2016, a 28 percent increase over 2015. The number of people fatally overdosing on fentanyl and other synthetic opiates more than doubled, from 9,580 in 2015 to 19,413 in 2016. Deaths due to heroin were up nearly 20 percent, and deaths from other opiate painkillers, such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, were up 14 percent. (Ingraham, 12/21)

In other news on the opioid crisis —

The New York Times: As Overdoses Mount, Cities And Counties Rush To Sue Opioid Makers
Citing a spike in overdose deaths, growing demands for drug treatment and a strained budget, officials here in Summit County filed a lawsuit late Wednesday against companies that make or distribute prescription opioids. On Monday, Smith County in Tennessee did the same. And on Tuesday, nine cities and counties in Michigan announced similar suits. Cities, counties and states across the country are turning to the courts in the spiraling opioid crisis. What began a few years ago with a handful of lawsuits has grown into a flood of claims that drug companies improperly marketed opioids or failed to report suspiciously large orders. (Smith and Davey, 12/20)

Boston Globe: Babies Born Exposed To Drugs In New Hampshire Has Skyrocketed Over Past Decade, Researcher Says
Over the course of a decade, the number of babies born already exposed to drugs in New Hampshire quintupled, according to a researcher at the University of New Hampshire. ...The syndrome appears most often in babies whose mothers were taking opioids during pregnancy, said Kristin Smith, a family demographer at UNH and the author of the report. (Meyers, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times: Gene-Editing Breakthrough Found To Minimize Hearing Loss In Mice Could Help Humans
Scientists are one step closer to using CRISPR-Cas9 to cure some types of hearing loss. In a paper published Wednesday in Nature, researchers describe how they used the CRISPR-Cas9 complex to alter a faulty gene associated with a form of inherited, progressive hearing loss in the tiny ears of newborn mice. (Netburn, 12/20)

NPR: Experiments In Mice Suggest Role For Gene Editing For Deafness
While cautioning that much more research is needed, the scientists said they hope the technique might someday be used to prevent deafness in children born in families with a history of genetic hearing loss. Before that could happen, however, extensive tests would be needed to determine whether the treatment is safe — and whether it would actually work in humans. "We're hopeful that our results will help guide the development of such strategies," says David Liu, a genetic engineer at Broad Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The results were reported Wednesday in the journal Nature. (Stein, 12/20)

The New York Times: Why Sitting May Be Bad For Your Heart
Sitting quietly for extended periods of time could be hurting your heart, according to a surprising new study. It finds that the more people sit, the greater the likelihood that they will show signs of injury to their heart muscles. We all have heard by now that sitting for hours on end is unhealthy, even if we also occasionally exercise. People who sit for more than about nine or 10 hours each day — a group that includes many of us who work in offices — are prone to developing diabetes, heart disease and other problems, and most of these risks remain relatively high, even if we exercise. (Reynolds, 12/20)

The New York Times: Can A Cup Of Hot Tea A Day Help Preserve Eyesight?
Having a cup of hot tea every day may reduce your risk for blindness. Researchers have found that a daily cup of hot tea reduces the risk for glaucoma, a disease in which a buildup of fluid in the eye can damage the optic nerve and lead to gradual vision loss. (Bakalar, 12/20)

Boston Globe: The Rain, It’s Plain, Has No Effect On Pain
Since antiquity, a belief has persisted that our joints ache more in rainy weather. But after comparing huge databases on doctor’s appointments and daily rainfall totals from weather stations across the United States, a team of Harvard University researchers has found no correlation between the two. (Meyers, 12/20)

Miami Herald: U.S., Cuba Collaborate On Lung Cancer Research
Patients in a clinical trial in Buffalo, N.Y., visit a cancer research institute for monthly doses of a Cuban lung cancer vaccine while scientists in Havana, 1,375 miles away, run their own trials to see if they can make the vaccine even more effective. These are the two bookends of a unique collaboration between researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and scientists at Cuba’s Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM) that began in 2011 after a Cuban researcher visiting the United States offered to give a talk about the Havana center’s work. (Whitefield, 12/20)

The New York Times: A Salad A Day May Be Good For Brain Health
Eating leafy greens may help slow mental decline. Researchers studied 960 men and women ages 58 to 99 who completed food frequency questionnaires and had two or more cognitive assessments over an average of almost five years of follow-up. (Bakalar, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times: Kale And Other Leafy Vegetables May Make Your Brain Seem 11 Years Younger
In research that gives new meaning to the expression "salad days," a study published Wednesday finds that older people who ate at least one serving of leafy greens a day had a slower rate of decline on tests of memory and thinking skills than did people who rarely or never ate these vegetables. The study was published in the journal Neurology.After almost five years, regular consumers of such veggies as kale, spinach, collard greens and lettuce enjoyed a mental edge that was the equivalent of 11 years in age. (Healy, 12/20)

Kaiser Health News: The Long Goodbye: Coping With Sadness And Grief Before A Loved One Dies
For years before her death at age 96, Nancy Lundebjerg’s mother underwent a long, slow decline. Arthritis made it hard for Margaret Lundebjerg to get around. After two hip surgeries, she needed a walker when she was out and about. Incontinence was a source of discomfort, as was the need to rely on aides to help her perform daily chores. (Graham, 12/21)

ProPublica: A Prescription for Reducing Wasted Health Care Spending
Earlier this year, the Gallup organization set out to identify the top concerns everyday Americans have about money. Researchers asked more than a thousand people across the country, "What is the most important financial problem facing your family today?" Their top answer: the cost of health care. Increases in medical costs have substantially outpaced economic growth for decades. In recent months, ProPublica has shown that it doesn't have to be this way. (Allen, 12/21)

The Associated Press: Virginia Governor-Elect Names Health Appointments
Virginia Gov.-elect Ralph Northam has named Dr. Daniel Carey as his incoming secretary of health and human resources. Northam announced Wednesday that Carey, the Chief Medical Officer at Centra Health, will help Northam’s administration expand Medicaid, combat the opioid epidemic and improve mental health care. Northam also named Dr. Jennifer Lee, a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as head of the Department of Medicaid Assistance Services, which administers Medicaid. (12/20)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Northam Picks Lynchburg Cardiologist Dr. Daniel Carey To Lead Health Care Push
Gov.-elect Ralph Northam chose a Lynchburg cardiologist to lead his health and human resources team as Democrats prepare for an all-out attempt to expand Virginia’s Medicaid program after four years of futile efforts to extend health coverage to hundreds of thousands of uninsured Virginians. Dr. Daniel Carey, a cardiologist and chief medical officer at Centra Health in Lynchburg, will serve as secretary of health and human resources under Northam, a pediatric neurologist who made Medicaid expansion a top priority in his campaign for governor this year. (Martz, 12/20)

Dallas Morning News: 2 More Flu-Related Deaths In What Could Become 'One Of Our Worst Seasons' In Dallas County  
Two additional flu-related deaths were reported Wednesday in what could become one of Dallas County's worst flu seasons. A 73-year-old and an 80-year-old were the second and third people to die after complications from the seasonal flu. Last week, a 98-year-old died after contracting the illness. On a national scale, this season is on track to be one of the worst in years, and Dallas looks like it might be following suit, said Zachary Thompson, director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department. (Ballor, 12/21)

Arizona Republic: Seasonal Flu In Arizona Up 758 Percent From Last Year, Report Shows
It's official: The flu is widespread in Arizona two months before its typical peak. The Arizona Department of Health Services said there have been 2,976 reported cases between mid-October and Dec. 20. (Janetsky, 12/20)

Chicago Sun Times: Drink Water At Vets' Home Linked To Deaths? 'Absolutely,' Rauner Says 
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday defended his administration’s response to a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at a state veterans’ home, saying he’d “absolutely” drink the water there .“Absolutely, absolutely,” Rauner said when asked by a reporter about drinking the tap water at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy, where 13 residents have died from Legionnaires’ disease since July 2015. (Sfondeles, 12/20)

The Associated Press: Judge: Plastic Surgery Was Wrongly Denied For 3 HIV Patients
A cosmetic-surgery firm that denied breast reduction surgery to three men with HIV violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to consider the medical facts regarding each patient before deciding whether surgery could be safely performed, a judge said Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres issued the written opinion against Advanced Cosmetic Surgery of New York, which has offices in Manhattan and Long Island. (12/20)

St. Louis Public Radio: Proposed Missouri Law Relieves Firefighters From Proving They Got Cancer On The Job
Among the threats firefighters come in contact with are cancer-causing agents that can end careers and lives.Margie Griffin was one of three firefighters’ widows at a Wednesday press conference where Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens made a pitch for legislation that promises to make it easier for Missouri firefighters and paramedics to qualify for workers' compensation benefits if they get cancer. (Edgell, 12/20)

KQED: Another Gas Leak Reported At Aliso Canyon Facility
The Southern California Gas Co. says a gas leak occurred at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility in Porter Ranch just before 5 p.m. Monday night. This comes just two years after one of the nation’s largest accidental gas leaks at the same facility. (McNary, 12/20)

Kansas City Star: Bartlett Grain Fines For Kansas Explosion Slashed By OSHA
The federal government sharply reduced fines and dropped the severity of citations in a pending settlement of labor complaints brought after a deadly explosion at an Atchison, Kan., grain elevator six years ago. Bartlett Grain Co., based in Kansas City, agreed to $182,000 in fines, safety audits and improvements at all of its 20 grain handling facilities in six states, said an announcement by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (Davis, 12/20)

The New York Times: Requiem For The Individual Mandate
The individual mandate, an idea inspired by conservative intellectuals but ultimately embraced by Democratic lawmakers as an essential part of the Affordable Care Act, will soon be dead. The provision would be eliminated under the tax bill passed on Wednesday. Left behind would be a policy structure that relied on the mandate to push the young and healthy to buy health insurance and thus strengthen the marketplace for millions of Americans. The Affordable Care Act, which adopted the mandate as a central provision, will remain the law, and President Trump far overstated matters when he said that “we have essentially repealed Obamacare.” (Margot Sanger-Katz, 12/21)

The Washington Post: Trump Just Told The Truth
On Wednesday, the 335th day of his presidency, Donald J. Trump did something most extraordinary and uncharacteristic. He told the truth. The president, celebrating his $1.5 trillion tax cut with fellow Republicans at the South Portico of the White House, was midway through his remarks when he veered sharply off message. “I shouldn’t say this,” Trump said, “but we essentially repealed Obamacare.” ... Republicans, in rushing the tax bill to passage, kept fairly quiet about the fact that they were killing the “individual mandate” and thereby removing the engine that made the Affordable Care Act work. In doing so, they threw the health-care system into chaos without offering any remedy. And Trump just claimed paternity of the destruction. (Dana Milbank, 12/20)

Huffington Post: Top Republican Brags About His Party’s Sabotage Of Obamacare
Imagine it’s 2005, and a top Republican lawmaker boasted about closing Social Security Agency bureaus, making it tougher for seniors to get their checks. Or imagine it’s 2009, and a leading Democrat bragged about cutting supplies for Army units in Iraq, hobbling the war effort. Crazy, right? Well, it’s 2017, and the second most powerful Republican in the U.S. Senate just crowed about how he and his colleagues have wrecked part of the Affordable Care Act, undermining a program that helps millions to get insurance. (Jonathan Cohn, 12/20)

The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare’s Failed Cost Controls
When the authors of the Affordable Care Act promised to “bend the cost curve” in health care, it was typical Washington doublespeak. Voters likely heard those words as a promise that costs would go down, but the intended meaning was merely that they would rise more slowly than before. Yet even by that meager standard, ObamaCare is a failure. Costs are rising faster than before, and there’s no real prospect of a reversal. The key provisions of the law that were supposed to produce savings and efficiencies either haven’t worked or will never be implemented. (Joseph R. Antos and James C. Capretta, 12/20)

Bloomberg: Republicans Behaving Badly On Health Care
Republicans had pledged for years that they would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. They wouldn't strand millions without health care. But they are now doing just that: repealing a key piece of the legislation in an attempt to collapse the individual market. ... Like it or not, people strongly tend to hold incumbents responsible for government actions, and justified or not -- and now, it certainly will be -- voters will tend to hold Republicans responsible for whatever happens with health care. (Jonathan Bernstein, 12/20)

Raleigh News & Observer: Any Move To Cut Medicare And Social Security Will Backfire On Republicans
With the tax cut for millionaires and big business passed by Republicans, economists of differing political persuasions seem to be agreeing that a day of reckoning will come somewhere down the road, when those permanent tax cuts for the big corporations are making them richer than ever and the ones for the middle class – relatively paltry – will expire. As the huge cuts begin to take a toll on the budget, Ryan and his Republican mates, or their successors, will start looking at what falls under the general category of “entitlement reform.” Translation: They’ll go after Medicare and Social Security. (Jim Jenkins, 12/20)

The New York Times: Congress Refuses To Do Right By Children’s Health Care
As Republican lawmakers celebrate the passage of a tax bill that will make the wealthiest Americans richer, many lower-income families are faced with the real possibility that their children will soon lose their health insurance because Congress didn’t care enough to renew funding for it. The Children’s Health Insurance Program has enjoyed bipartisan support since its creation in 1997. It covers about nine million kids from families who are not affluent by any stretch of the imagination but happen to earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. (12/20)

USA Today: Millions Depend On The Children’s Health Insurance Program. Save It Before It Is Too Late
Across the nation, nearly 9 million children rely on the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for their health care in a given year. However, the families of the 174,000 Pennsylvania children currently enrolled in CHIP are about to receive notices informing them that their insurance is being canceled. The failure to reauthorize CHIP is a betrayal of the trust placed in Congress. ... Since its inception at the national level, CHIP has enjoyed bipartisan backing. While there is room for disagreement on many issues, agreement on the value CHIP has been and should remain a bright spot of consensus. (Sen. Bob Casey, 12/20)

San Jose Mercury News: Protect Poor Kids’ Health Care, GOP Lawmaker Tells Congress
Together, we have ensured more patients are able to see a doctor, have expanded dental care for low-income children and have improved the efficiency of our health care system. Unfortunately, that progress is in danger due to federal gridlock, and the consequences will hit California’s lower-income children and pregnant women especially hard. (Catharine Baker, 12/20)

The Washington Post: The Government Abuses Its Power Over Pregnant Teenagers — Again
In October, the government tried and failed to keep an undocumented teenager in federal custody from ending an unwanted pregnancy. Yet officials appear to have learned little from 17-year-old Jane Doe’s victory in court over the government’s effort to keep her from the abortion clinic. Again, it has fought tooth and nail — and failed — to prevent two more pregnant teenagers from getting the medical care they desired. (12/20)

The Washington Post: My Senate Confirmation Was Put On Hold After I Shared My Views On Guns
Last week, I withdrew my name from consideration to be assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. My appointment had been put on indefinite hold by the Senate Armed Services Committee, and I felt the Defense Department needed to fill the position without undue delay. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines deserve the full complement of Pentagon appointees to support them. I am sorry not to be able to assist Defense Secretary Jim Mattis .... But unfortunately, I do not possess one credential the committee wanted to see: I do not support the unrestricted ownership of semiautomatic assault weapons by civilians. (Dean L. Winslow, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times: Hey, Congress — Don't Mess With California's Eggs
Nearly a decade ago, California became the first state in the nation to pass a law requiring that hens, veal calves and pregnant pigs be raised in cages that gave them space to move. ... the state Legislature passed a companion law (AB 1437) mandating that any farmer in the country who wanted to sell eggs in California had to comply with the welfare standards set for hens in the state. ... One of the law’s most vocal Congressional opponents is Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who represents the largest egg-producing district of the largest egg-producing state in the country. He’s pushing the Protect Interstate Commerce Act (H.R. 3599), which would prohibit any state from setting more restrictive standards for out-of-state agricultural products than the federal government imposes nationally or the producer’s own state mandates. (12/21)

The Washington Post: Northam’s Incentive To Pull A Gilmore
[Virginia Gov.-elect Ralph] Northam also soft-peddled Medicaid expansion, warning of the program’s rising costs and the need to contain them. It was Northam at his best — conciliatory, comforting, professional. Progressives went ballistic. Tom Perriello, whom Northam walloped in the Democratic primary in June, demanded a vote on expansion before the 2019 elections, casting expansion as “a policy that is morally right & good for VA economy.” ... But sharing power means compromise. Compromise would seem to indicate that a straight up-or-down vote on Medicaid expansion isn’t possible. Republicans will never go for it, and in the event of a tie vote, legislation expanding Medicaid would die. (Norman Leahy, 12/20)

Oregonian: A FamilyCare Closure Would Devastate Oregon's Most Vulnerable
Hands On Medicine is a small independent primary care clinic in North Portland committed to serving both Medicaid patients and those covered by private insurance. Most of our Medicaid patients are insured by FamilyCare, one of 16 "coordinated care organizations" around the state that receive public dollars from the state to cover health care for low-income Oregonians. ... I can speak to the disastrous consequences it would have for Hands On Medicine, our patients, and indeed the 115,000 citizens insured by FamilyCare in the Portland metro area. (Jacob Aiello, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times: Can Pot Blunt The Opioid Epidemic? We Don't Know Because The Federal Government Blocks Research.
An epidemic of opioid abuse is ravaging the United States and, as we look for ways to respond to it, some see cannabis as part of the solution, while others see it as part of the problem. This is just one area in which unbiased scientific research is necessary, but outdated federal legislation, having concluded almost 50 years ago that there is no medical value to cannabis, is blocking all meaningful efforts to understand the real benefits and risks of the plant. (Daniele Piomelli and Bob Solomon, 12/21)