Negotiator-In-Chief Eyes Subsidies As Bargaining Chip To Get Democrats To The Table
The abrupt disappearance of the so-called insurer bailouts could trigger a collapse of the health law's marketplace. “Obamacare is dead next month if it doesn’t get that money,” President Donald Trump said. "What I think should happen and will happen is the Democrats will start calling me and negotiating.”
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump Threatens To Withhold Payments To Insurers To Press Democrats On Health Bill
Nearly three weeks after Republican infighting sank an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump dug back into the battle on Wednesday, threatening to withhold payments to insurers to force Democrats to the negotiating table. In an interview in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said he was still considering what to do about the payments approved by his Democratic predecessor, President Barack Obama, which some Republicans contend are unconstitutional. Their abrupt disappearance could trigger an insurance meltdown that causes the collapse of the 2010 health law, forcing lawmakers to return to a bruising debate over its future. (Bender, Radnofsky and Nicholas, 4/12)
USA Today:
Freedom Caucus Leader Brat Predicts Health Care Passage Within Weeks
Rep. Dave Brat, one of the conservative Freedom Caucus leaders whose resistance helped undermine the Republican health care proposal last month, says White House and congressional negotiators are close to a compromise that he predicts will pass the House in the next three weeks. “Within a few weeks, I think D.C. is going to be a little bit shocked,” he said in an interview with Capital Download. “We’re going to get to yes.” (Page, 4/12)
In other national health care news —
The Wall Street Journal:
Prescription-Drug Shortages Help Push Up Prices Of Similar Drugs
Prescription-drug supply shortages have hurt U.S. medical care in recent years. According to new research, they’ve also caused another side effect—drug-price increases. A shortage of the bladder-cancer drug BCG in 2014 and 2015 led to sharp price increases for a less effective alternative treatment, mitomycin, according to research published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. (Loftus, 4/12)
Bloomberg:
HHS’s Price Urges Doctors To Submit Ideas For Medicare Pay Models
Doctors should step up and recommend more payment alternatives to fee-for-service Medicare, the HHS secretary said April 11. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said innovative payment models could work better than fee-for-service Medicare and might stop doctors from leaving the profession at middle age because they feel “burned out.” (Yochelson, 4/12)
Stat:
How A Low-Level Drug Dealer Caused Two Dozen Overdoses
Last May, a low-level drug dealer named Bruce Griggs was released from an Ohio prison. He had served a short sentence stemming from a possession conviction so routine that his former defense attorney would later have trouble recalling it. Just three months later, though, Griggs would travel 250 miles to Huntington, W.Va., where he would distribute opioids that, in a span of a few hours, triggered two dozen overdoses, overwhelming the city’s emergency response system and serving as a stark symbol of the nation’s opioid crisis. (Joseph, 4/12)
The Associated Press:
Trans Fats Ban Linked With Fewer NY Heart Attacks & Strokes
Local bans on artery-clogging trans fats in restaurant foods led to fewer heart attacks and strokes in several New York counties, a new study suggests. The study hints at the potential for widespread health benefits from an upcoming nationwide ban, the authors and other experts say. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2015 gave the food industry until next year to eliminate artificial trans fats from American products. (Tanner, 4/12)