Senate Task Force Considers Ways To Unravel Obamacare Coverage Rules
Key to this discussion is how to handle regulations that require plans to cover a set of essential health benefits as well as preexisting condition protections. Outlets also cover other news about the American Health Care Act.
The Hill:
Senate GOP Examining Ways To Repeal ObamaCare Insurance Rules
Senate Republicans are looking into repealing ObamaCare regulations on what services an insurance plan must cover, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Thursday. Leaving a meeting of the Senate's healthcare working group, Cornyn was asked if senators are looking at their ability to repeal ObamaCare's essential health benefits. "I'd say yes, we're looking at it," Cornyn replied. (Sullivan, 5/11)
The Associated Press:
Senate Conservatives: Ease Obama Health Care Law Protections
Conservative senators are pushing to diminish insurance coverage requirements imposed by President Barack Obama's health care law as Senate Republicans try fashioning legislation overhauling the nation's health care system. Their ideas include erasing Obama consumer protections, such as barring higher premiums for people with pre-existing medical conditions, but allowing states to opt into them. (5/11)
Politico:
Tax Credits May Provide Rallying Point For Senate Obamacare Repeal
Senate Republicans are working on a potential breakthrough that could help push through an Obamacare repeal bill – by making insurance subsidies look a lot like Obamacare. There’s growing support for the idea of pegging the tax credits in the House repeal bill to income and making aid more generous for poorer people. But those moves — while they may win consensus among Senate moderates — are unlikely to sit well with House conservatives. (Haberkorn, 5/11)
NPR:
House Republicans Defend Health Bill Against Accusations It Hurts Rape Victims
At a town hall meeting in Willingboro, N.J., on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Tom MacArthur was confronted by angry constituents who demanded to know how the Republican health care bill that he helped write would affect rape victims. A young man named Joseph said he understood that the bill would allow insurance companies to deem rape a pre-existing condition and deny coverage to people who have been raped. (Kodjak, 5/11)
Politico:
Poll: Just 21 Percent Approve Of House’s Obamacare Repeal Bill
Less than a quarter of American voters surveyed in a new poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University approve of the legislation passed last week by the House of Representatives to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Fifty-six percent of those polled said they disapprove of the legislation, dubbed the American Health Care Act, while just 21 percent said they support it. The support for the legislation represents an improvement over the 17 percent who said they supported the iteration of the bill that failed to pass the House in March. (Nelson, 5/11)
In other national health care news —
Politico:
Addiction Specialists Blast Price Comment On Opioids
Addiction specialists and public health officials on Thursday chided Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price for belittling the use of medications considered the standard of care for the treatment of opioid addiction. The remarks irked specialists already worried by the Trump administration's law-and-order stance on drug control and its tentative plans, leaked to POLITICO last week, to gut the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. And ousted Surgeon General Vivek Murthy — fired by President Donald Trump last month — chimed in about the scientific evidence on Twitter. (Allen, 5/11)
Reuters:
U.S. Hepatitis C Cases Soar On Spike In Heroin Use
U.S. health officials said new cases of hepatitis C rose nearly 300 percent from 2010 to 2015, despite the availability of cures for the liver disease, fueled by a spike in the use of heroin and other injection drugs, according to a report released on Thursday. (Berkrot, 5/11)
ProPublica and NPR:
Focus On Infants During Childbirth Leaves U.S. Moms In Danger
The ability to protect the health of mothers and babies in childbirth is a basic measure of a society's development. Yet every year in the U.S., 700 to 900 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes, and some 65,000 nearly die — by many measures, the worst record in the developed world. (Martin and Montagne, 5/12)