The New York Times: Before Supreme Court Weighs In, Obama Makes His Case For Health Law
President Obama on Tuesday condemned opponents of his signature health care law as “cynical” partisans seeking to deprive Americans of a benefit that has become an integral part of the country’s social safety net, building a tough political case against Republicans as the Supreme Court weighs whether to strike down a key element of the Affordable Care Act. “This is now part of the fabric of how we care for one another — this is health care in America,” the president said in a speech to the Catholic Health Association, an organization that championed the law and has written a brief asking the high court to uphold it. “It seems so cynical to want to take health care away from millions of people.” (Hirschfeld Davis and Shear, 6/9)

Los Angeles Times: Obama Gives Sweeping Defense Of Healthcare Law As Supreme Court Ruling Looms
President Obama reentered the political battle over healthcare Tuesday, delivering an extended defense of the Affordable Care Act as the Supreme Court prepares to issue its ruling on a case that could strip away health insurance from millions of Americans. ... Obama’s address, to a gathering of hospital leaders from the Catholic Health Assn., comes at a pivotal moment as his signature domestic achievement faces its gravest threat since being narrowly upheld by the Supreme Court three years ago. (Levey, 6/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Obama Defends Health-Care Law In Speech
The speech drew criticism from Republican opponents of the health law, which they call “Obamacare.” “The president’s spin doesn’t change the fact Obamacare is a deeply flawed law that no one read before Democrats rammed it through Congress on a highly partisan basis,” said Michael Short, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. (Radnofsky, 6/9)

Kaiser Health News: Obama, Championing The Health Law, Says It Shows The Country ‘We Want To Be’
Obama’s tone was much more conciliatory than it was the day before, when during a news conference wrapping up the G-7 meeting in Germany he said of the case now before the Supreme Court, “Frankly, it probably shouldn’t even have been taken up.” (Rovner, 6/9)

Politico: Obama Makes Moral Case For Preserving His Health Care Law
Peppered with religious and historical references, Obama’s speech was part victory lap and part plea: an assertion of the law’s success, even as the courts and the Republican-controlled Congress threaten to dismantle the overhaul. Saying broadening access to health care had been the goal of historic leaders “from Teddy Roosevelt to Teddy Kennedy,” Obama asserted that health care is “not a privilege, it is a right.” (Wheaton, 6/9)

USA Today: Obama Defends Health Care Law Amid Supreme Court Case
Despite years of political and legal challenges, President Obama said Tuesday his health care law has insured millions, saved lives, and is a success that is here to stay. "After a century of talk, after decades of trying, after a year of sustained debate, we finally made health care reform a reality here in America," Obama told a supportive crowd with the Catholic Health Association. (Jackson, 6/9)

NPR: Obama Defends Health Care Law As Supreme Court Ruling Nears
President Obama defends the health care reform law as the Supreme Court prepares to issue a ruling in a case that could dismantle it. The law still remains controversial politically. (Horsley, 6/9)

The Associated Press: Ahead Of Court Ruling, Obama Says Health Law Now U.S. Reality
Obama poked fun at opponents who have issued “unending Chicken Little warnings” about what would happen if the law passed. None of those predictions have come true, Obama argued. “The critics stubbornly ignore reality,” he said. Anticipating his speech, however, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed Obama’s claims as “jousting with reality again.” (6/9)

CNN: Barack Obama Hits 'Cynical' GOP On Health Care
President Barack Obama accused Republican critics of his signature health care law of cynicism, demonstrating how hard he's willing to fight for the law as the Supreme Court prepares to decide the fate of one of its key components. (Bradner, 6/9)

The Washington Post: How The Next Few Weeks Could Determine The Fate Of Obama’s Legacy
June is shaping up as a time of reckoning for President Obama — and his legacy. Over the next three weeks, he could record significant wins on three of his most ambitious initiatives. Or have each of them blow up in his face. And those outcomes are largely outside of the president’s control. ... At the Supreme Court, the nine justices will soon rule on a crucial provision in the president’s landmark 2010 health-care law, with the insurance plans of more than 6 million people in the balance. ... White House allies acknowledged that the president and his advisers are acutely aware of the stakes. The health-care law is considered Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. (Nakamura and Eilperin, 6/9)

CNN: Obama Looks To Save His Legacy From The Supreme Court
It's the constitutional law professor in the Oval Office versus the Supreme Court, again. President Barack Obama's politicized, difficult relationship with the court's conservative wing is back in the spotlight, as his patience threatens to snap over the latest attempt to destabilize the health care law at the center of his political legacy. (Collinson, 6/9)

Politico: Obama And GOP Amp Up Rhetoric As Supreme Court Nears Obamacare Decision
Three weeks before an expected Supreme Court ruling that could strike down Obamacare subsidies for 6.4 million Americans, President Barack Obama and Republican foes began to blame each other for the possible damage. In recent days, Obama has given back-to-back, passionate defenses of the Affordable Care Act as a fulfillment of the American social contract to ensure access to health care to everyone. Republicans on Capitol Hill, who hate the law but are wary that the ruling could strip benefits from millions of voters in predominantly Republican states, are pledging not to fix the damage of a Supreme Court ruling without eliminating the law’s more onerous provisions. (Haberkorn and Wheaton, 6/9)

The Associated Press: GOP Ready To Attack Obama Health Law As HHS Chief Testifies
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell is ready to defend President Barack Obama's health care law before congressional Republicans who consider it a failure and who hope the Supreme Court will void one of its cornerstones — federal subsidies that help millions afford coverage. Burwell was scheduled to testify Wednesday before the GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee as Obama's five-year-old health overhaul remains a partisan flashpoint likely to reverberate through next year's presidential and congressional elections. (Fram, 6/10)

USA Today: Over-The-Counter Birth Control Gets Boost In Congress
There is growing agreement among senators that women should have over-the-counter access to birth control pills, but that is where the consensus stops and familiar political battle lines over women's health care emerge. A group of Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., unveiled a bill Tuesday that would allow birth control pills approved by the Food and Drug Administration to be sold without a prescription. (Davis, 6/9)

CQ Healthbeat: Consensus On Broad Mental Health Bill Remains Elusive
A revamped version of broad mental health legislation that stalled in the last Congress hasn’t won the support of some Democrats who backed a competing measure last year, with the holdouts poised to introduce targeted legislation on specific issues beginning Tuesday. California Democrat Doris Matsui plans to drop a House bill designed to clarify what information health care providers can share with family members and caregivers of patients with mental illness, according to her office. The bill would require the Health and Human Services Department to issue regulations consistent with guidance released last year and launch education programs for providers, administrators and patients and families. (Attias, 6/9)

Meanwhile, a showdown looms over funding of a VA hospital project in suburban Denver -

The Washington Post: With Days To Go Before Funding Runs Out, Will Congress Give VA A Lifeline On Troubled Denver Hospital?
In a few days, the Department of Veterans Affairs will run out of money to keep workers on the job at the over-budget hospital under construction in suburban Denver. And once again, Congress and the agency could be heading toward a showdown over how to fix a boondoggle whose cost is now estimated at three times its original budget. A resolution needs to come very soon, but with little trust left between political leaders and VA officials, it looks like the project is in line to get another Band-Aid rather than an infusion of cash the agency wants to finally finish the hospital. (Rein, 6/10)

News Service of Florida/Orlando Sentinel: Feds Ask Judge To Reject Mediation With Gov. Scott In Health-Care Lawsuit
A day after Gov. Rick Scott sought mediation in a lawsuit about health-care funding, attorneys for the federal government asked a judge Tuesday to reject the request. Scott filed the lawsuit this spring arguing that the Obama administration was trying to link continuation of Florida's Low Income Pool health-funding program with expansion of Medicaid. Federal officials later said they would approve a two-year continuation of the so-called LIP program at lower funding levels than during the current year. (6/9)

Miami Herald: Feds Push Back, Ask Judge To Deny Scott's Request For LIP Mediation
Florida's Medicaid director met in person with federal healthcare regulators on Monday to continue negotiations over the extension and redesign of a $1 billion government program that pays hospitals for treating uninsured and under-insured patients, according to a legal brief filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Pensacola. Those ongoing meetings are just one of the reasons cited by a deputy assistant U.S. attorney in a filing urging a federal judge to deny Florida Gov. Rick Scott's motion to compel a mediation of state-federal negotiations over a program known as the Low Income Pool or LIP. LIP is scheduled to end on June 30, coinciding with the close of Florida's fiscal year. Without agreement to renew the program, Florida legislators cannot craft a budget that ensures state hospitals receive funds to provide medical care for needy residents, according to the state's motion to compel mediation, which was filed on Monday -- the same day Justin Senior, Florida's Medicaid director, met with federal regulators. (Chang, 6/9)

Orlando Sentinel: Lawmakers Seek To Ease Tensions In Testy Budget Talks
A day after a Senate leader snubbed a House economic development budget proposal, lawmakers in both chambers looked to calm tensions in Florida's most protracted budget process in more than two decades. Locked in a special session because of a disagreement over health care spending, legislators in charge of the health care portion of the budget were all smiles Tuesday, even as they came to an impasse on the most contentious part of the talks. (Rohrer, 6/9)

The Tampa Tribune: Budget Negotiators Agree To Disagree On Charity Care Funding
A new way of funding the state’s charity care will be “bumped” up from subcommittee negotiators to the Legislature’s budget chairs, House Speaker pro tem Matt Hudson said Tuesday night. The Low Income Pool (LIP), now being litigated in federal court, is the $2.2 billion pot of federal-state money used to reimburse Florida hospitals for unpaid care, often to uninsured patients who show up in emergency rooms. Legislators will have to use more general revenue to fill that fund as the federal government drastically cuts its contribution. (Rosica, 6/9)

The Tampa Tribune: Harrison Voted His Conscience, Not Party, On Health Insurance
State Rep. Shawn Harrison of New Tampa is reliably Republican, standing for traditional conservative ideals. He wants to keep government out of our lives as much as possible. He believes in lower taxes, job creation and state funding for some faith-based initiatives. On those points, he isn’t any different than the other four GOP state representatives from Hillsborough County. He did stray from the pack on one important point, though. He was one of four House Republicans statewide — and the only one from Hills­borough — to vote in favor of the Senate plan to expand health care coverage for the state’s neediest people. (Henderson, 6/10)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Medicaid Expansion Said To Be Off Table In Tax And Budget Negotiations
Legislators locked in increasingly tense discussions about how to balance the budget and end the longest legislative session in Kansas history say there is no longer any serious talk about expanding Medicaid eligibility this year. Currently, non-disabled adults without children aren’t eligible for the state’s Medicaid program, called KanCare, no matter how poor they are. (McLean, 6/9)

Modern Healthcare: Arkansas Cancels Cost-Sharing For Poorest In Medicaid Expansion
Arkansas will not, for the time being, impose cost-sharing for Medicaid expansion beneficiaries below the federal poverty level. The state won a federal waiver in 2013 to use new funding available under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that helps residents earning up to 138% of the poverty level buy private plans on the new insurance exchange rather than enroll in traditional Medicaid coverage. (Dickson, 6/9)

Politico: Kentucky Election Could Blot An Obamacare Bright Spot
Red-state Kentucky’s broad embrace of Obamacare has been a comforting success story for the White House. But now the Affordable Care Act is the central issue in the state’s off-year governor’s race, and a Republican victory could be a portent for 2016, when GOP presidential contenders will run on a renewed vow to repeal the act. (Cheney, Pradhan and Wheaton, 6/9)

Orlando Sentinel: Amid State's Health-Care Fight, Potential New Crisis Looms
About 1.3 million Floridians could lose federal subsidies for their Obamacare health plans if the U.S. Supreme Court deems them unconstitutional in a ruling that could come as early as this month. But the Florida Legislature, which just killed a plan to offer more coverage to the uninsured, isn't developing any proposals to deal with the potential fallout of the decision, which some warn could raise the cost of health care for Floridians on private plans, too. (Rohrer, 6/9)

USA Today: FDA Panel Backs New Cholesterol Drug
Food and Drug Administration advisers Tuesday recommended that an injectable cholesterol-lowering drug be approved, but the panel of experts said more data is needed about its ability to reduce heart attacks or strokes in the long run. (Szabo and Winter, 6/9)

The Associated Press: FDA Panel Backs First-In-Class Cholesterol Drug
Federal health advisers on Tuesday recommended approval for a highly anticipated cholesterol drug from Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, but with the caveat that more data is needed about its long-term ability to reduce heart attacks. The expert panel recommended by a 13-3 vote that the Food and Drug Administration approve the injectable drug, called Praluent. (Perrone, 6/9)

CQ Healthbeat: Draft Rule On Civil Penalties For 340B Drug Program Nears Release
The first of two proposed measures related to the 340 drug discount program could be released soon. The Office of Management and Budget has completed its review of a proposed rule. Drugmakers and hospital groups have for years been at odds about the operation of the 340B program, designed originally with an aim of helping provide medicines to people lacking insurance. The proposed rule expected to be unveiled soon addresses civil penalties for drugmakers and ceiling prices for the program. The Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the 340B program, also submitted a broad proposed guidance document for OMB review last month. That remains under review, according to the OMB web site. (Young, 6/9)

Reuters: Drug Switch Study Bolsters Case For Copies Of Biotech Medicine
New clinical data has bolstered the case for using cheaper copies of expensive biotech drugs by showing that patients with rheumatic diseases can be safely and effectively switched from original-brand medicine to a lower-cost version. While the first copies of a blockbuster antibody drug for rheumatoid arthritis are now on sale in Europe, such so-called biosimilars have so far been used mainly in new patients, given doubts about how existing patients might react to a switch. (6/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Hysterectomy Device Will Be Covered By Insurer Despite Danger Of Uterine Cancer’s Spread
Health Care Service Corp., the nation’s fourth-largest health insurer, will continue to cover laparoscopic power morcellators after considering a policy that would have curbed the surgical tools used in hysterectomies, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. (Kamp, 6/9)

Bloomberg: The U.S. Economy Can't Hire Health Care Workers Fast Enough
Somebody call a doctor. Job openings in the healthcare industry soared in April to a new record high in more than 14 years of data, while hiring barely budged. It's great news for industry professionals who are seeking work or a pay raise. (Jamrisko, 6/9)

The Washington Post's Wonkblog: This Image Perfectly Sums Up What’s Wrong With American Health Care, According To The Internet
Breaking Bad's first episodes aired in 2008. Since then Obamacare happened, bringing with it a handful of reforms to the way the nation's healthcare system works. The system may have improved somewhat since 2008 when Walter first got his cancer diagnosis, but there's still no question that the U.S. stands out on both healthcare spending, and on outcomes, as this widely circulated OECD chart shows. (Ingraham, 6/9)

The Texas Tribune: Appeals Court Upholds Texas' Abortion Restrictions
In a blow to the state's abortion providers, federal appeals judges on Tuesday upheld a state law requiring nearly all Texas facilities that perform the procedure to meet hospital-like standards. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state's requirement that abortion clinics meet ambulatory surgical center standards — which include minimum sizes for rooms and doorways, pipelines for anesthesia and other infrastructure — did not impose an undue burden on a "large fraction" of Texas women seeking abortions. (Ura, 6/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Federal Appeals Court Upholds Strict Texas Abortion Law
A federal appeals court upheld a Texas law that requires abortion clinics to qualify as “ambulatory surgical centers,” a decision opponents say will shut down most clinics in the state. The plaintiffs, a group of abortion clinics and doctors, argued that the 2013 law unconstitutionally restricts the right to obtain an abortion. (Campoy, 6/9)

USA Today: Federal Appeals Court Backs Strict Texas Abortion Law
The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans came in a lawsuit challenging requirements that clinics providing abortions provide hospital-level operating room standards. The court said clinics failed to show that many women would be unconstitutionally burdened by the law. The Center for Reproductive Rights said it will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices had put the 2013 law on hold last year, sending it back to the appeals court for review. (Bacon, 6/9)

Los Angeles Times: Controversial Texas Abortion Law Upheld By Federal Appeals Court
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel struck down the surgical center requirements statewide and the admitting privileges requirement for two facilities last summer, but Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, who now serves as the state's governor, filed an immediate appeal. In its Tuesday ruling, the 5th Circuit overturned Yeakel's ruling, but made an exception for a facility in McAllen, Texas, on the grounds that is the only abortion facility in the area. (Queally, 6/9)

NPR: U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Texas Abortion Restrictions
A U.S. appeals court upheld sweeping abortion restrictions in Texas on Tuesday, putting many of the state's clinics at risk of closure. (Totenberg, 6/9)

The Associated Press: Court Upholds Key Parts Of Texas' Strict Anti-Abortion Law
Owners of traditional abortion clinics, which resemble doctor's offices more than hospitals, say they would be forced to close because the new rules demand millions of dollars in upgrades they can't afford. That would mark the second large wave of closures in as many years in Texas, which had 41 abortion clinics in 2012, before other new restrictions took effect that require doctor admitting privileges. (6/9)

Bloomberg: Texas Allowed By Judges To Close Almost All Abortion Clinics
Women’s rights advocates vowed to seek an emergency order from the U.S. Supreme Court to keep the clinics open if they can’t persuade the New Orleans-based appeals court to postpone enforcement of the restrictions. The clinics may be forced to close within a month if the Texas law is allowed to take effect. (Blumberg, 6/9)

The Texas Tribune: Interactive Map: Find Texas' Remaining Abortion Clinics
Abortion clinics across the state have closed as a result of strict regulations on the procedure approved in 2013 by the Republican-led Texas Legislature. In August 2013, before the rules took effect, there were 40 licensed abortion providers in Texas. By October 2014, the number of licensed abortion facilities able to perform the procedure had dropped to eight. On Tuesday, a ruling by the three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the state to continue enforcing the requirements that doctors performing abortions have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of a clinic, and that clinics meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers. (Aaronson, 6/9)

The San Jose Mercury News: Mandatory Vaccine Legislation Easily Clears Assembly Health Committee
An incendiary bill that would reverse California's liberal vaccine exemption law was overwhelmingly approved Tuesday by the state Assembly Health Committee, the sole Assembly panel that will take up the measure. (Seipel and Calefati, 6/9)

The Sacramento Bee: California Vaccine Bill Clears Committee
A California bill mandating full vaccination for schoolchildren now awaits an Assembly floor vote after passing the Assembly Health Committee on a 12-6 vote Tuesday. Senate Bill 277 would end the “personal belief exemption” that allows parents to enroll kids in school without having the full slate of vaccines. It allows for medical exemptions, with a recent amendment seeking to make it easier for physicians to sign off on those opt-outs, though bill opponents insisted the exemptions would remain out of reach for many. (White, 6/9)

The Associated Press: California Lawmakers Pass Vaccine Bill Amid Emotional Debate
California lawmakers on Tuesday approved a hotly contested bill that would impose one of the strictest vaccination laws in the country, after five hours of highly emotional testimony that brought hundreds of opponents to the Capitol. (Horowitz, 6/9)

The Boston Globe: Debate Renewed On Nurse Staffing
The state is poised for the first time to mandate a minimum level of nurse staffing in hospitals, reigniting a debate over patient safety and health care costs. The Health Policy Commission, the agency that monitors medical costs and related issues, will vote Wednesday on regulations requiring hospitals to staff intensive care units so that each registered nurse is responsible for no more than two patients. If approved, the rules would implement a law passed last year. (Dayal McCluskey, 6/9)

The Miami Herald: Florida House Advances Plan To Deregulate Hospital Expansion
Determined to show that more competition will lead to better access to healthcare, a Florida House committee gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a plan to eliminate the controversial law that requires state approval for the building of new hospitals. The House Health Innovation Subcommittee voted 9-3 along party lines to eliminate the so-called “certificate of need” process that requires state regulators to review and approve the construction of any new hospitals, the replacement of existing hospitals, or the development of certain expansive medical services such as organ transplants. (Klas, 6/9)

Georgia Health News: Cold Feet: WellStar Calls Off Merger With Emory
In a move that caught the health care industry by surprise, WellStar Health System has broken off talks to create a mega-merger with Emory Healthcare. The merger discussions had gone on for months and were aimed at producing a giant hospital-based system – the biggest in Georgia and perhaps the Southeast. (Miller, 6/9)

Health News Florida: HCA Hospitals, Humana In Contract Dispute
Humana has sent letters to its Florida customers alerting them that as of July 10, HCA hospitals will no longer be part of the insurer’s network. When it comes to insurance disputes, this is the heavyweight division. Humana, based in Louisville, has close to 1 million Medicare patients in Florida plus hundreds of thousands of business and individual customers who sign up through insurance agents or the federal Marketplace for subsidized plans under the Affordable Care Act. (Gentry, 6/9)

Kaiser Health News: Organ Donation: State Efforts Have Done Little To Close The Supply Gap
In the U.S., an average of 21 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant, and the wait times can range from four months for a heart to five years for a kidney, dependent on the how sick the patient is, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and the Gift of Life Donor Program. But public policies have done little to close this gap between supply and demand, according to a study published earlier this month in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Gillespie, 6/10)

Stateline: Adult Dental Coverage Expanding Slowly In Medicaid
Federal law requires state Medicaid programs to include dental care for children, and the Affordable Care Act extended that requirement to private insurers. But the federal health law did little for adults. ... "The ACA was a big flop when it comes to adult dental coverage,” said Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, vice president of the American Dental Association (ADA). Even so, some states have stepped up coverage for at least some adults on Medicaid. Virginia added a dental benefit for pregnant women in March. Colorado introduced limited adult dental coverage for the first time last year. Also last year, California, Illinois, Massachusetts and South Carolina reinstated benefits that had been cut in the years since the recession began in 2007. Indiana began offering expanded adult dental benefits this year. (Vestal, 6/10)

The Associated Press: San Francisco Approves Health Warning On Sugary Drink Ads
San Francisco supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve health warnings on ads for sugary sodas and some other drinks, saying such beverages contribute to obesity, diabetes and other health problems. It’s believed that San Francisco would be the first place in the country to require such a warning on ads for soda if it receives a second approval from the Board of Supervisors next week and the mayor does not veto it. (Har, 6/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Soda’s New Enemy: San Francisco
Likening the fight against soda to the old public-policy wars over tobacco, San Francisco city officials unanimously voted Tuesday on a package of ordinances that would make it the first in the U.S. to require health warnings on ads for sugary drinks. Before it can be enacted, the proposal first has to pass another vote before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors next week, and then goes before the mayor. Advocates hope the passage will spark similar legislation in cities and states across the country. ()Audi and Esterl, 6/9)

The Associated Press: Casino Union To Icahn: Benefit Elimination 'Not OK'
Casino workers from Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal went to billionaire investor Carl Icahn's New York offices, saying the casino's elimination of health insurance and pension plans is "not OK." Icahn is in the process of taking over the casino's parent company, Trump Entertainment Resorts. (6/9)

The Associated Press: NYC Health Department Proposes High-Sodium Warning On Menus
New York City's Health Department wants all chain restaurants to warn customers about products that are high in salt. The department is proposing at a meeting of the Board of Health on Wednesday that all chain restaurants add a salt-shaker-like symbol on menus next to products that contain more than the recommended daily limit. That's 2,300 milligrams of sodium, about 1 teaspoon of salt. If the city Board of Health votes to consider the proposal, a final vote could come as soon as September and the warnings by December. (Peltz and Barr, 6/9)

The Associated Press: NY Lawmakers Vote For Single-Use Tattoo Needles
New York lawmakers have voted to require single-use needles and inks by tattoo and piercing studios. They would also require customers sign consent forms stating the materials were sterile and unpackaged in front of them. Bill sponsors say there are no current rules holding tattoo and piercing specialists accountable for materials used, while diseases can be easily spread when needles and ink are re-used. (6/10)

The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare Omen?
Does the White House think it is going to lose this year’s big ObamaCare subsidy case at the Supreme Court? We’re beginning to wonder given President Obama’s increasing show of pique when he talks about the law. On Monday in Austria, Mr. Obama responded to a question about the looming decision in King v. Burwell by treating the Supreme Court like first-year law students for even considering the case. (6/9)

The New York Times: Saving Affordable Health Insurance
The Affordable Care Act, which has helped millions of people get health care, is now fully woven into the nation’s social fabric. As President Obama said Tuesday, there is something “deeply cynical about the ceaseless, endless, partisan attempts” to roll back the progress already made. His remarks at a forum of the Catholic Health Association come only weeks before the Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling that could, if the administration loses, eliminate federal tax subsidies in 34 states that have made it possible for millions of Americans to buy health insurance. Mr. Obama was right when he said on Monday that the court probably shouldn’t have even taken the case. Unfortunately it did, and no one can predict how the deeply divided court will rule. (6/10)

The Huffington Post: SCOTUS Optimism
June marks the end of the Supreme Court's yearly session, and it is when all the biggest decisions get handed down. This year, there are many important decisions we'll be hearing about all month long, but the biggest two (or the two with the biggest political overtones, at any rate) will likely be held back until the very end of the month. They are Obergefell v. Hodges and King v. Burwell. The first will settle once and for all the question of marriage equality for same-sex couples, and the second will determine whether millions of Americans will lose their health insurance subsidies or not. (Chris Weigant, 6/8)

The Washington Post's Plum Line: Obama: Health Law Has Now Been ‘Woven Into The Fabric Of America’
In a speech today before the Catholic Health Association in Washington, President Obama didn’t directly mention the Supreme Court case that could gut subsidies for millions of people in three dozen states on the federal exchange. But he telegraphed the political argument he and Democrats will make in the aftermath of such a Court ruling. (Greg Sargent, 6/9)

The Washington Post: Obama To Supreme Court: You Wouldn’t Dare Kill Obamacare
President Obama uttered more than 3,600 words on the stage of Washington’s Marriott Wardman Park ballroom on Tuesday, but his message could be summed up in three: You wouldn’t dare. He was speaking not to the hundreds of hospital administrators assembled for the Catholic Health Association’s conference but to five men not in the room: the conservative justices of the Supreme Court, who in the next 21 days will declare whether they are invalidating the most far-reaching legislation in at least a generation because of one vague clause tucked in its 2,000 pages. (Dana Milbank, 6/9)

Politico: Reward Physicians For Keeping Patients Healthy
When President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act five years ago, he did so without knowing whether the law would eventually prove effective. Fortunately, in large part, it has, and those who doubted the ACA — myself included — were reminded of its success when the Department of Health and Human Services recently reported that 16.4 million previously uninsured Americans have gained insurance under it. This includes 14.1 million adults and 2.3 million young adults. In short, there’s much to celebrate, and we should make a point to shine a spotlight on what’s working — and what isn’t. (Howard Dean, 6/9)

Orlando Sentinel: Florida's Health-Care Hypocrisy Carries Big Cost
Florida's health-care debate is over. But our problems remain. In fact, they're growing. As many as 800,000 uninsured Floridians will continue to go without coverage. The state budget is a mess — with as much as $400 million of your tax dollars now being siphoned away from schools, roads and other needs to plug holes created by the rejected federal money. Businesses could face millions in fines because the federally provided health care now won't be available for their employees. Hospitals could lose $200 million. The state will lose out on tens of thousands of jobs. And on and on — all because members of the Florida House claimed they were outraged at the idea of costly entitlements, especially for "able-bodied" adults. (Scott Maxwell, 6/9)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Only Democrats Are To Blame For Obamacare Mess
If the Supreme Court were to decide not to allow retroactive legislating and uphold Obamacare as written, terrible things would happen to America. We might, for instance, find out what health insurance in fabricated, state-run “marketplaces” actually costs. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the 37 states that have declined to set up exchanges would see an average spike of 287 percent should the King v. Burwell decision not go the Obama administration’s way. It would be 650 percent in Mississippi — an amount that only proves that exchanges have not made insurance markets more competitive or more affordable as promised. Actually, the cost of insurance in federally run exchanges is already 287 percent higher. The difference is picked up by taxpayers. And you know who’s to blame for that, right? (David Harsanyi, 6/8)

Bloomberg: Would The Poor Prefer Cash Instead Of Medicaid?
Medicaid is the nation's largest means-tested transfer program, and even conservatives generally acknowledge that it makes its recipients better off. ... What, in other words, is the value of the transfer to the people who are getting health care through Medicaid? In a new paper, Amy Finkelstein, Nathaniel Hendren and Erzo F.P. Luttmer note that the Congressional Budget Office values the transfer at the amount of money the government is spending on Medicaid. ... they looked at data from the Oregon Medicaid Study to try to get a more nuanced assessment of the actual value to the people the benefit is supposed to be for. Here's what they came up with: "Our baseline estimates of the welfare benefit to recipients from Medicaid per dollar of government spending range from about $0.2 to $0.4, depending on the framework, with a relatively robust lower bound of about $0.15." (Megan McArdle, 6/10)

Bloomberg: The Vanishing U.S. Abortion Clinic
Abortion clinics are closing in the U.S. at a record pace. In four states — Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming — just one remains. American women were having fewer abortions before clinic closings accelerated in the last couple of years. So no one can be sure how much the push to restrict clinics is connected to falling abortion rates. But the new strategy adopted by abortion opponents, and the court battles it has set off, may define how far abortion rights can be limited without being overturned. (Esmé E. Deprez, 6/9)

Orlando Sentinel: Stop Pricing Health Care By Blank Check: My Word
Aside from health care, there is no other product sold where you must first incur the obligation to pay before you learn the price. The system is rigged to prevent price competition. Your cost may be many times higher than your neighbor's cost for the same service at the same hospital, lab or physician. Billing is determined by how much can be extracted from each patient case by case. Sky-high hospital, physician and lab bills necessarily result in unaffordable insurance premiums. To cure our health-cost misery, the analysis must reach beyond Obamacare and other reform of the health-insurance system to the underlying charges. (Steven I. Weissman, 6/10)

The New York Times' The Opinionator: Death Without Dignity
The California Senate’s passage of the End of Life Option Act last week, which would allow terminally ill people to choose to end their lives, filled me with both joy and sadness. The bill — which needs the approval of the State Assembly and Gov. Jerry Brown to become law — would have made all the difference when I tried to help my friend Robin kill herself five years ago. (Annabelle Gurwitch, 6/10)

JAMA Forum: The “Doc Fix” Is Over, But Unresolved Concerns Linger
Although Washington and the physician community were expressing euphoria over the end of the SGR, these unresolved issues are concerning. But moving away from a billing system that reimburses for microunits of service and that indiscriminately increases or decreases unit reimbursement across all physicians irrespective of their own behavior is worth some downside risk. Physician groups and others are rightly raising concerns about the process that will be used to determine which alternative delivery systems warrant bonus payments, as well as the metrics that will determine bonuses and penalties for those remaining in a fee-for-service payment system. What is useful to remember is that the payment under the SGR and until MIPS debuts in 2019 implicitly assumes that there are no variations in quality, efficiency, or value in the clinical care provided by physicians—or at least none worth paying for. These assumptions are surely wrong. (Gail Wilensky, 6/9)

USA Today: 4 Lessons From Ebola Wars: Our View
Last year's Ebola outbreak, the worst in history, claimed more than 11,000 lives and tested the world's ability to contain a killer in some of West Africa's most impoverished countries. While the virus has slowed to a trickle of new cases — 25 in Guinea and Sierra Leone in the last week of May, and none in Liberia — few people would credit quick action or smart preparation. (6/9)

The Chicago Sun-Times: Lock Fewer People Up To Improve Illinois Inmate Health Care
Stories of incompetent health care inside Illinois prisons have been legion for many years, and nearly all have been met with derisiveness by the Department of Corrections. Presented with the choice of believing prisoners or their overseers, state officials sided with the bureaucrats and declined to act. That may be about to change.The barbaric state of medical care in state prisons was documented recently by a team of doctors acting as court-appointed experts, and the team’s blistering 405-page report leaves the state with but two choices: either spend more money on medical care of 49,000 inmates or deliver better medical care to a much smaller prison population. (David M. Shapiro, 6/9)

The Philadelphia Daily News: School Nurses Vital To Education
Four years ago, a Philadelphia school nurse literally breathed life into the lungs of a child in respiratory and cardiac distress. She compressed her chest until medics arrived to take over. The child recovered at CHOP and went on to have a successful heart transplant. The front page story on Christmas Day told of the greatest gift her parents would ever receive - their little girl discharged with a brand new heart. That same week, 50 school nurses were laid off. By year's end the district was operating 100 nurses short. A model school health program, emulated nationally, has been limping along since then with nurses trying to serve as many as seven schools and 1,500 students each. Schools already trying to function with skeleton staffs under the district's "Doomsday Budget" saw nurses only one or two days a week. (Eileen Duffey, 6/9)

USA Today: 'Female Viagra' Rocks: Finally, Women Get Their Own Little Blue Pill
Is the female Viagra finally making its way to the market? An advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted 18-6 last week to recommend flibanserin for approval. But this 'pink pill' is not at all like the famous 'blue pill' Viagra, which works by increasing blood flow to the sex organs. Flibanserin, which will be marketed under the name Addyi, works directly on the chemicals of the brain, increasing dopamine and norepinephrine. (Marc Siegel, 6/9)

JAMA: The Americans With Disabilities Act At 25
Twenty-five years ago, on July 26, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a historic moment when the polity gave voice to the nation’s highest ideals. The ADA enshrined in law a social promise of equality and inclusion into all facets of life, while offering an inspiring model that much of the world would come to embrace. As a civil rights law coming in the wake of racial and gender equality legislation, the ADA has had profound symbolic meaning and real-world effects. Its promise of full participation in life stood in marked contrast to the often-impenetrable social and physical barriers that individuals with disabilities faced regarding inclusion in the workplace and public spaces. (Lawrence O. Gostin, 6/9)

JAMA: The Promise Of The Americans With Disabilities Act For People With Mental Illness
When Congress enacts civil rights laws, like the Voting Rights Act enacted in 1965, it adopts principles that represent US ideals and our best selves. When it enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, among the principles it adopted was a commitment to include all individuals with mental illness, including serious mental illness, in the mainstream of society. After a civil rights law is passed, however, it can take decades before its tenets are fully reflected in everyday life; so it is with the ADA and individuals with psychiatric disabilities. Fulfilling the act’s commitment to inclusion will require fundamental changes in treatment and services. (Ira Burnim, 6/9)

JAMA: Why The Americans With Disabilities Act Matters For Genetics
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is arguably the most effective law in the United States protecting people from misuse of genetic information. ... The genome is frequently portrayed as particularly powerful in predicting health and disease, even going to the essence of what it means to be human. As a result, many people understandably fear that this type of information will be misused to deny them access to goods such as jobs and health insurance. Evidence, based largely on anecdotes and survey responses, suggests that these concerns lead some people to avoid useful genetic tests, raising concerns about whether the potential value of genomics research for human health will be fully realized. (Ellen Wright Clayton, 6/9)

JAMA: The ADA, Disability, And Identity
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The civil rights approach to disability incorporated in the ADA challenges the all too prevalent views of US society that people with disabilities are to be the objects of pity, charity, and medical intervention. It also challenges the common view of what constitutes a disability. (Eve Hill and Daniel Goldstein, 6/9)

JAMA: The ADA and the Supreme Court: A Mixed Record
Two of the [Supreme] Court’s ADA cases have been extremely consequential for health policy. In Olmstead v LC (1999), the Court ruled that the unnecessary institutionalization of individuals with disabilities at least presumptively violates the statute. Disability rights advocates have dubbed Olmstead “the Brown v Board of Education of the disability rights movement,” and that decision has spurred a new wave of deinstitutionalization. ... The other Supreme Court ADA case with a direct effect on the medical profession was the Bragdon decision. The defendant in Bragdon, a dentist, refused to fill the tooth cavity of the plaintiff patient after the patient revealed that she had been infected with HIV. After determining that her HIV infection constituted a protected disability, the Court went on to address the defense that filling her cavity would pose a “direct threat” to the health and safety of the dentist, his staff, and his other patients. (Samuel R. Bagenstos, 6/9)