Medicare ‘Buy-In’ Proposal — A Toned Down Alternative To Single-Payer — Gains Momentum With Moderate House Democrats

The Hill: Dem Single-Payer Fight Set To Shift To Battle Over Medicare ‘Buy-In’ 
Momentum is building among House Democrats for a more moderate alternative to single-payer health-care legislation. The legislation, which would allow people aged 50 to 65 to buy Medicare, is being championed by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), who supported House Minority Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for Speaker in exchange for a commitment to work on his bill when Democrats take control of the House early next year. (Weixel, 11/29)

The Hill: Dem Senator Murray Calls For Trying Again On Bipartisan ObamaCare Fix 
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Wednesday called for reviving bipartisan efforts to reach a deal to fix ObamaCare after an agreement she was part of collapsed last year. “Mr. Chairman, I'm really hopeful that we can revive discussions in the new Congress and find a way past the ideological standoffs of the past,” Murray said to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), her Republican partner in forging last year’s deal, at a hearing on health care costs. (Sullivan, 11/28)

In other national health care news —

The Hill: Conservative Groups Write Letter Opposing Trump Move To Lower Drug Prices 
A coalition of 55 conservative groups has written a letter calling on the Trump administration to withdraw a proposal to lower drug prices, warning of creating “price controls.” The letter from the groups represents a break between President Trump and conservative allies over the drug pricing proposal unveiled in October, which departs from the traditional Republican position on drug prices. (Sullivan, 11/28)

The Wall Street Journal: CVS Completes $70 Billion Acquisition Of Aetna
CVS Health Corp. completed its nearly $70 billion acquisition of Aetna Inc., forging a new industry giant and starting the clock ticking on ambitious goals of curbing health-care costs and improving consumers’ experience. The combined company faces significant challenges in bringing together its diverse set of health assets, including CVS’s sprawling network of pharmacies, a pharmacy-benefit manager and Aetna’s employer insurance, Medicare and Medicaid managed-care businesses. Aetna will be operated as a stand-alone unit, and CVS will continue using the brand in reference to its insurance products. (Wilde Mathews and Al-Muslim, 11/28)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Entire Trump Tweet On Immigrant Aid Is Wrong
President Donald Trump is spreading a false claim from supporters that people who are in the United States illegally receive more in federal assistance than the average American gets in Social Security benefits. Everything about the tweet he passed on to his 56 million listed Twitter followers Tuesday is wrong. (11/29)

The Associated Press: Opioid Case Has New Complication: Babies Born In Withdrawal
The long-running federal court case seeking to hold drugmakers responsible for the nation’s opioid crisis has a new complication: How does it deal with claims covering the thousands of babies born to addicts? Attorneys representing the children and their guardians want their claims separated from the federal case in Cleveland that involves hundreds of local governments and other entities such as hospitals. They will argue that Thursday before a federal judicial panel in New York. (Mulvihill, 11/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Amazon Makes Inroads Selling Medical Supplies To The Sick
Amazon.com Inc. is selling medical products to patients based on one of the most private corners of the health system: electronic medical records. A growing number of doctors around the U.S. can direct a patient to Amazon to buy blood-pressure cuffs, slings and other supplies via an app embedded in the patient’s private medical record. Hospitals that use the app say the goal is to replace the handwritten shopping lists doctors often hand people, which are easy to lose, and to spare frazzled patients lengthy searches through pharmacy shelves. (Evans, 11/29)

The Associated Press: Younger School Entry Could Set Stage For ADHD Diagnosis
The youngest children in kindergarten are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in early grades, a study shows, an intriguing finding for parents on the fence about when to start their child in school. The study found younger students, especially boys, are also more likely to be started on medications for ADHD and kept on the drugs longer than the oldest children. The medications are generally safe, but can have harmful side effects. (11/28)

The New York Times: Study Warns Of Cascading Health Risks From The Changing Climate
Crop yields are declining. Tropical diseases like dengue fever are showing up in unfamiliar places, including in the United States. Tens of millions of people are exposed to extreme heat. These are the stark findings of a wide-ranging scientific report that lays out the growing risks of climate change for human health and predicts that cascading hazards could soon face millions more people in rich and poor countries around the world. (Sengupta and Pierre-Louis, 11/28)

The Washington Post: Scientists Call For A Halt To Genetically Editing Embryos, Rebuke Chinese Researcher
“At this summit we heard an unexpected and deeply disturbing claim that human embryos had been edited and implanted, resulting in a pregnancy and the birth of twins,” said the summit’s organizing committee, which called for independent verification of He’s claims that have so far not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. “Even if the modifications are verified, the procedure was irresponsible and failed to conform with international norms,” the organizers said in the summit’s highly anticipated consensus statement that is usually seen as setting the tone and direction for the fast-changing field. (Johnson and Shih, 11/29)