As Midterms Inch Closer, Republican Lawmakers Start To Take Softer Stance On Health Law
Some of those who adamantly opposed any action to shore up the marketplaces have reversed course in a politically charged year.
The Wall Street Journal:
Republican Foes Of Health Law Try A Patch Job Ahead Of Midterms
Republicans opposed to the Affordable Care Act are showing interest in proposals to shore up the health law and lower premiums, driven partly by their concerns that any big jump in insurance costs may hurt them in the midterm elections. State and federal GOP lawmakers are backing or considering reinsurance proposals that aim to curb premiums by offsetting insurers’ costlier claims. That stance is a reversal from last year, when Republicans almost uniformly opposed measures to aid the health law they tried to repeal. (Armour, 2/15)
In other national health care news —
Politico:
How One Conservative State Is Flouting Obamacare
Idaho is going rogue on Obamacare. The Republican-led state has a maverick plan to flout the federal health care law, letting insurers sell plans that don’t meet Obamacare coverage rules and patient protections. And the brazen move — Gov. Butch Otter is plowing ahead on his own, without seeking federal waivers or permission — poses a test for the Trump administration. (Demko and Pradhan, 2/14)
The Hill:
HHS Head Says He Will Uphold ObamaCare As Law
The top federal health official on Wednesday said he will uphold ObamaCare as long as it remains the law. In response to a question about a controversial plan in Idaho to allow insurers to sell plans that don’t meet ObamaCare requirements, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told a congressional panel that he has a responsibility to enforce the law. (Weixel, 2/14)
Stat:
Trump Presses Key Republican To Move On 'Right To Try'
President Trump personally pressed a key House committee chairman to move quickly on right-to-try legislation, asking for a timeline on the bill’s delivery at a separate White House event on infrastructure Wednesday. Rep. Greg Walden, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Trump’s question was “How close are you to getting this done?” “And I said we’re very close. And we are,” Walden told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday, after the meeting. (Mershon, 2/14)
The Hill:
Drug Industry Scrambles After Rare Loss In Budget Deal
Pharmaceutical companies are pushing to repeal or roll back a provision in last week’s budget deal that delivered a rare loss to their industry, according to two lobbyists familiar with the situation. A provision included in the budget deal approved last week raised the share of costs that drug companies have to pick up as part of closing the “donut hole,” a gap in drug coverage for Medicare Part D beneficiaries. (Sullivan, 2/14)
The Washington Post:
‘We Would Literally Not Survive’: How Trump’s Plans For The Social Safety Net Would Affect America’s Poorest
Since the day in January 2010 when teenager Courtney Bias and her 1-week-old daughter were kicked out of her mother’s house, the young family has slept wherever they can: under bridges. On strangers’ floors. In city parks. Today, 25-year-old Bias, her boyfriend and their three young children are renting part of a friend’s apartment outside Baltimore. They scrape by on his wages from construction and landscaping jobs, relying on federal food stamps to help feed their children and Medicaid for doctor’s visits. Bias has also been on a wait list for subsidized housing for the past seven years and was told 2018 would be the year she could finally move into her own apartment. (Dewey and Jan, 2/14)
The Hill:
172 Dems Ask Trump Official To Reject Medicaid Work Requirements
More than 170 House Democrats asked Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar to reject requests from states to require Medicaid beneficiaries to work. "Such actions to tie health coverage to work are motivated purely on the basis of ideology and mistaken assumptions about what Medicaid is and who it covers," the Democrats wrote to Azar. (Hellmann, 2/14)
The Associated Press:
How Best To Treat Opioids' Youngest Sufferers? No One Knows
Two babies, born 15 months apart to the same young woman overcoming opioid addiction. Two very different treatments. Sarah Sherbert’s first child was whisked away to a hospital special-care nursery for two weeks of treatment for withdrawal from doctor-prescribed methadone that her mother continued to use during her pregnancy. Nurses hesitated to let Sherbert hold the girl and hovered nervously when she visited to breast-feed. (2/14)
The New York Times:
Lena Dunham Says She Had Hysterectomy After Endometriosis
The actress and writer Lena Dunham said in an essay published on Wednesday that she had a hysterectomy last fall at age 31 after living for many years with endometriosis, a painful medical condition affecting pelvic tissue. In the essay, in the March issue of Vogue, Ms. Dunham chronicled her decade-long struggle with the disease, her efforts to manage it without surgery and the choice she made to have her uterus removed after the pain left her “delirious.” (Stack, 2/14)
The Washington Post:
How A Transgender Woman Breast-Fed Her Baby
She told doctors that she wanted to breast-feed her baby. She explained that her partner was pregnant but was not planning to breast-feed when the child was born, so she wanted to take it on herself. The 30-year-old, who is transgender, was willing to accept the risks. Following months of hormone therapy last year, doctors say she might be the first reported transgender woman in academic literature to breast-feed, according to a case study published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Transgender Health. (Bever, 2/14)
Reuters:
McDonald's Plays 'Hide The Cheeseburger' In New Happy Meal Health Push
McDonald's Corp is removing cheeseburgers from U.S. Happy Meal menus and shrinking the french fry serving in one "Mighty Meal" as part of a new global plan to cut calories and make its food for children more healthy. The changes announced Thursday come as the world's biggest fast-food chain for the first time established global limits for calories, sodium, saturated fat and added sugar in Happy Meals, which consultants and franchisees say account for roughly 15 percent of sales in the United States. (Baertlein, 2/15)