GOP’s Replace-And-Delay Strategy To Face Opposition Within Own Party
The Freedom Caucus, which boasts about 40 members, says it is unacceptable to wait three years to replace the health law. Meanwhile, a court has decided to press pause on a court case involving payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act.
Politico:
Freedom Caucus Opposes GOP's Obamacare Replacement Plan
The Republican congressman who made his name as the instigator of John Boehner’s ouster last year was set to take the reins of the House Freedom Caucus on Monday night. And first up on Rep. Mark Meadows’ to-do list: Torpedoing GOP leadership’s tentative plans to take as long as three years to replace Obamacare. (Bade, 12/5)
The Hill:
Court Delays GOP's ObamaCare Suit Until Trump Is In Office
A federal judge on Monday agreed to hit pause until the start of the Trump administration on the House GOP’s long-standing legal challenge of ObamaCare payments. The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Republican leaders, who had requested their case be considered after President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Any actions on the case, known as House v. Burwell, are now postponed until Feb. 21. (Ferris, 12/5)
The New York Times:
Life In Obamacare’s Dead Zone
“I tried to get Obamacare,” [Janet] Foy recalls. “I called the number, and when the woman told me what it would cost me, I just about dropped the phone. She told me I’d needed to make at least $12,000 a year for there to be any help to make it something I might be able to afford. Which still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, even now, that having no money meant I got no help when I really needed it.” She also learned that she could not expect any help from Medicaid, which in her home state remained available only if you fit the criteria sometimes known by the shorthand “poor and” — poor and pregnant, poor and disabled. As a single childless woman, she could forget about it. (Verzemnieks, 12/6)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Bill Speeding Federal Drug Approvals Clears Senate Hurdle
A bipartisan bill to speed government drug approvals and bolster biomedical research cleared its last procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday in an emotional moment for outgoing Vice President Joe Biden. The overwhelming 85-13 vote put the measure on track for final legislative approval by the Senate as early as Tuesday. President Barack Obama has promised to sign the measure, one of the last for the president and the 114th Congress, whose leaders hope to adjourn by week's end after a two-year session that has seen them clash frequently with the president. (12/5)
McClatchy:
Tom Price Linked To Association Of American Physicians, Surgeons
Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican and physician picked by President-elect Donald Trump to oversee the health and availability of essential human services to all Americans, belongs to a medical association whose unconventional views are certain to raise questions during his confirmation hearings next year. Trump nominated Price, re-elected last month to a seventh term, to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.An orthopedic surgeon, he is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, whose 5,000 members consider the group a nonpartisan professional organization dedicated to “preserving the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship and the practice of private medicine.” (Goldstein and Clark, 12/5)
NPR:
CRISPR In Court: Legal Battle Over Patent Rights Set To Begin
The high-stakes fight over who invented a technology that could revolutionize medicine and agriculture heads to a courtroom Tuesday. A gene-editing technology called CRISPR-cas9 could be worth billions of dollars. But it's not clear who owns the idea. U.S. patent judges will hear oral arguments to help untangle this issue, which has far more at stake than your garden-variety patent dispute. (Harris, 12/5)
Stateline:
Fighting Opioid Abuse In Indian Country
Nationwide, Native Americans are at least twice as likely as the general population to become addicted to drugs and alcohol, and three times as likely to die of a drug overdose. In Washington state, Indians die of drug overdoses at a rate of 29 in 100,000, compared to a rate of 12 for whites, 11 for blacks, 3 for Hispanics and 2 for Asians, according to the state Health Department. Compounding the problem, the majority of the nation’s 2.9 million Indians living on and off reservations have little to no access to health care, much less mental health and addiction services. (Vestal, 12/6)