First Edition: February 4, 2015
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Medical Debt Still a Problem Under Health Law — Despite Protections
The federal health law was intended to keep a surprise illness or injury from bankrupting Americans. It authorized states to expand eligibility for Medicaid and created online insurance markets where others without employer coverage can buy plans, with federal subsidies available. When calling for the law’s passage, President Barack Obama declared people shouldn’t 'go broke because they get sick.' In 2013, medical debt was the largest cause of personal bankruptcy – 1.7 million people lived in households experiencing bankruptcy because of health costs. But the law hasn’t eliminated the problem. Many states haven’t expanded Medicaid and even those with insurance can rack up big bills, a problem exacerbated by the growing number of plans with high deductibles. (Luthra, 2/4)
The New York Times:
House G.O.P. Again Votes To Repeal Health Care Law
The House passed a bill on Tuesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act for the first time in the new Congress, but Democrats appeared to show more zeal in defending the law than Republicans did in trying to get rid of it. The measure goes now to the Senate, where the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, has said that the chamber will vote on legislation repealing the health law but has not announced a schedule. (Pear, 2/3)
Los Angeles Times:
House Passes New Obamacare Repeal, Directing Creation Of Replacement Law
Pledging anew to replace the federal health law that President Obama signed five years ago, House Republicans passed yet another bill Tuesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The repeal bill, the first of the new Congress, faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Democrats will almost certainly filibuster it. Obama has indicated he will veto the legislation if it makes it to his desk. (Levey, 2/3)
Politico:
3 Republicans Say No As House Again Votes Obamacare Repeal
A trio of Republicans bucked their leadership Tuesday and voted against the GOP’s latest effort to fully repeal Obamacare — the first time any Republican in Congress has ever voted against total repeal. (Mershon, 2/3)
NPR:
House Votes Again To Repeal Affordable Care Act
Tuesday's vote gave House Republican freshmen their first chance at repealing the law, and this is the first full repeal vote since millions of Americans signed up for coverage under the program. (Summers, 2/4)
The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire:
As GOP Votes Again To Repeal Health Law, White House Hosts Beneficiaries
As the Republicans hold their 56th vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, the White House will play host to 10 people who it says demonstrate the health law’s impact on ordinary Americans. “The individuals meeting with the president today highlight how important it is to spread the word and ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to sign up for the health care they need,” a White House official said. (Tau, 2/3)
The Associated Press:
GOP Lawmakers Ready A Plan To Replace Obama Health Care Law
A Republican House committee chairman says he and two GOP senators are preparing to release a plan for replacing President Barack Obama's health care law. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton declined to discuss details Tuesday, but said the proposal will give Republicans a proposal that they can stand behind. The Michigan Republican said he, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina will unveil their proposal Thursday. (2/3)
The Associated Press:
Obama Highlights Health Law; Says Repeal Makes ‘No Sense’
President Barack Obama gathered with beneficiaries of his health care law Tuesday to argue that the persistent effort to wipe it out “makes absolutely no sense,” as the House was poised to take the first repeal vote of the new Congress. (2/3)
USA Today:
Obama Mocks GOP Over Health Care Repeal Effort
President Obama met Tuesday with supporters who have benefited from the health care law, and mocked congressional Republicans for again trying to repeal it. "My understanding is the House of Representatives has scheduled yet another vote today to take health care away from the folks sitting around this table," Obama said. "I don't know if it's the 55th or the 60th time that they are taking this vote, but I've asked this question before: Why is it this would be at the top of their agenda?" (Jackson, 2/3)
The Associated Press:
Anxiety Over Supreme Court's Latest Dive Into Health Care
Nearly five years after President Barack Obama signed his health care overhaul into law, its fate is yet again in the hands of the Supreme Court. This time it's not just the White House and Democrats who have reason to be anxious. Republican lawmakers and governors won't escape the political fallout if the court invalidates insurance subsidies worth billions of dollars to people in more than 30 states. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/4)
USA Today:
With Obamacare On The Line, Supreme Court Gets Literal
The fate of President Obama's health care law depends once again on how the Supreme Court interprets what Congress wrote — a task the justices have applied literally of late to laws affecting air, land and sea. Four words in the 906-page statute will be the focus of the high court's attention March 4, when opponents argue that tax credits received by millions of Americans are legal only in health insurance markets "established by the State." A literal reading of that phrase would seem to exclude health care exchanges operated by the federal government in 34 states. "It's a rather difficult textual argument for the government," said Kannon Shanmugam, who has argued 16 cases at the high court. (Jackson, 2/3)
NPR:
Red States Move To Expand Medicaid Under Obamacare
Republican governors in Indiana, Tennessee, Utah and other states are pushing Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act — something many at first resisted. (Allen, 2/4)
The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire:
Barack Obama Plan To Shift Veterans Choice Act Funds Faces Shelling On Hill
President Barack Obama requested a nearly 8% increase in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs in his 2016 budget on Monday, but he drew far more attention on Capitol Hill for what he said about money Congress had already provided the agency. The administration said it will seek to reallocate part of the more than $16 billion in funds under the Veterans Choice Act passed last summer to help the agency recover from a scandal over long wait times at VA facilities. (Kesling, 2/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Hepatitis Drugs Lift Gilead Sciences’s Results
The two liver-disease drugs, called Sovaldi and Harvoni, notched $3.84 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, exceeding Wall Street estimates and making their launches the best ever for new drugs. For the full year, the two drugs reached $12.4 billion in sales, which combined would have been more than any drug’s revenue in 2013. The new drugs helped Gilead, once known for its HIV/AIDS treatments, to more than double its revenue to $7.31 billion in the quarter and $24.9 billion for the full year from the comparable periods in 2013. The two new drugs have also elevated Gilead into one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies by sales. (Rockoff and Stynes. 2/3)
The New York Times:
Sales Of Sovaldi, New Gilead Hepatitis C Drug, Soar To $10.3 Billion
Gilead Sciences sold $10.3 billion of its new hepatitis C drug Sovaldi in 2014, a figure that brought it close to being the best-selling drug in the world in only its first year on the market. The sales figure, announced on Tuesday in Gilead’s earnings report for the fourth quarter, falls short of the $12.5 billion in sales recorded in 2014 by AbbVie’s autoimmune disease drug Humira, which is believed to be the world’s top-selling pharmaceutical. (Pollack, 2/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Humana Posts Higher Revenue And Expenses
Humana Inc. said its revenue jumped as the health insurer reported growth in membership, while medical expenses also increased. The results fell below analysts’ expectations. The company, which maintained its profit outlook for the year, said it is pleased with its direction even as it contends with Medicare rate reductions, costs associated with the launch of health care exchanges and higher income taxes. (Calia, 2/4)
The Wall Street Journal:
Aetna Raises Outlook As Revenue Beats Views
The company’s profit was in line with analysts’ expectations, while its revenue topped them. Aetna said it now expects at least $7 a share in earnings for 2015, up 10 cents from its previous projection. Aetna, like its rival health insurers, has benefited from higher enrollments driven by requirements under the federal Affordable Care Act. However, the industry has maintained concerns over rising care costs, particularly for expensive new drugs to treat hepatitis C. (Wilde Mathews and Calia, 2/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
HCA Holdings Gives Weak 2015 Earnings Outlook
HCA Holdings Inc. on Tuesday reported better-than-expected results in its fourth quarter but gave a soft earnings outlook for 2015. ... HCA also said its board authorized a $1 billion share-repurchase program. Last month, HCA previewed its results for the fourth quarter and full year 2014, saying its performance had been bolstered by an increase in admissions and emergency-room visits, along with a one-time adjustment from Medicaid payments in Texas. (Dulaney, 2/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Studies Find Tracking Surgical Complications Doesn’t Improve Outcomes
Amid growing interest in rewarding “quality” health care, two new studies found that tracking and comparing hospitals’ rates of surgical complications and deaths doesn’t necessarily improve outcomes. Hundreds of U.S. hospitals voluntarily report data on surgical complications, readmissions, length of stay and mortality to a registry run by the American College of Surgeons, one of the oldest and largest in the country. In return, they receive risk-adjusted data showing how they rank with other hospitals. The surgeons’ group says that each year a hospital participates in its National Surgical Quality Improvement Program “it has the opportunity to reduce the number of complications by 250 to 500 and save 12 to 36 lives.” (Beck, 2/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Measles Vaccine Debate Shifts Tone
Top Republican lawmakers on Tuesday strongly backed routine vaccination of children against deadly diseases, marking a shift in the political debate that has erupted around a multistate measles outbreak. An estimated 102 measles cases in 14 states have been tied to an outbreak that began at a Disneyland Resort in California in December. Experts say this doesn’t present a risk of measles spreading nationwide, because the vast majority of Americans are vaccinated against it. And the outbreak isn’t even the largest in the U.S. in recent years. (Hughes, Peterson and McKay, 2/3)
NPR:
Science Of Vaccines Is Settled — But Politics Are More Complicated
The national conversation about vaccines and whether parents should be required to vaccinate their children has migrated from playgrounds and Facebook pages to the corridors of power. And although the science is settled, the politics are more perilous. NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith reports. (2/3)
Politico:
GOP 2016ers: We Love Vaccines!
A slew of Republicans eyeing the White House rushed to praise the virtues of vaccination on Tuesday — distancing themselves from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who had appeared to question their safety as health officials across the country move to contain an outbreak of measles. It was yet another case where Paul, an ophthalmologist by training who insisted Tuesday that he’d been misunderstood, has found himself isolated on a subject within the likely GOP presidential field. But it also showed that vaccines, like a number of other scientific issues, could prove a delicate topic for Republicans who must cater to a conservative base that is suspicious of anything that smacks of a government demand. (Schreckinger, 2/3)
The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog:
Should Vaccination Be A Choice? In Many States, It Already Is
The question of whether parents should be forced to vaccinate their children spilled into the 2016 presidential race this week as two potential Republican contenders defended and clarified comments they made expressing support for voluntary immunizations. The fraught debate — intensified by a recent multistate outbreak of measles — seems split: between those who think mandatory vaccines are a vital tool in preventing the spread of deadly disease and vaccine skeptics who worry about vaccine risks and say the decision shouldn’t be the government’s to make. (Gershman, 2/3)
The Washington Post:
Parents With Doubts About Vaccinations Face Backlash From Pediatricians, Peers
The letter arrived in the midst of a growing furor about the country’s worst measles outbreak in years. Cindy Shay, a Maryland health-care lawyer, had been taking her children to Bayside Pediatrics in Annapolis for a decade when her doctor wrote last month that he was “no longer able to continue as your child’s pediatrician.” (Hendrix, 2/3)
The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire:
States Have Rejected Many Efforts To Ease Vaccination Mandates
The rise of often-affluent parents who object to vaccinating their children hasn’t led to any major changes in state laws mandating immunizations. Data compiled and analyzed by the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Immunization Action Coalition show that 31 bills have been introduced since 2009 in more than a dozen states to make it easier for parents to opt out of mandatory school vaccines. None have become law despite a push by some parents who believe the immunizations could harm their children’s development. (Tau, 2/3)
The Washington Post:
Vaccine Debate Presents A Political Minefield — As Hillary Clinton Can Attest
The latest tweet from Hillary Rodham Clinton sounded straightforward enough: “The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork.” But the issue of vaccinations has long been politically and emotionally fraught — involving not just public health but also the proper role of government, the prerogatives of parents and medical riddles that have yet to be solved. (Tumulty, 2/4)
NPR:
Once A Vaccine Skeptic, This Mom Changed Her Mind
The ongoing measles outbreak linked to Disneyland has led to some harsh comments about parents who don't vaccinate their kids. But Juniper Russo, a writer in Chattanooga, Tenn., says she understands those parents because she used to be one of them. "I know what it's like to be scared and just want to protect your children, and make the wrong decisions," Russo says. (Hamilton, 2/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Spread Of Measles In L.A. County Appears To Be Slowing, Officials Say
Los Angeles County officials say the spread of measles appears to be slowing, but they're concerned about low vaccination rates in some parts of the county. Interim county health officer Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser said there have been 21 confirmed measles cases in Los Angeles County during the recent outbreak, of which 17 have been associated with Disneyland. Statewide, there have been 92 confirmed cases. (Sewell, 2/3)
The Washington Post:
Mandatory Sick-Leave Bill Sparks Heated Debate At Md. Senate Committee Hearing
A bill that would mandate paid sick leave for Maryland businesses with 10 or more employees drew strong support and criticism Tuesday during a Senate Finance Committee hearing. Advocates said the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Catherine E. Pugh (D-Baltimore), would help employers by allowing their workers to stay home while ill, preventing the spread of disease and getting them back on the job faster. About 40 percent of private-sector workers — or more than 700,000 Marylanders — lack paid sick leave, according to the advocacy group Working Matters. (Hernandez, 2/4)
The Wall Street Journal:
Lawsuit Accuses Arizona Of Placing Foster Children In Jeopardy
Child-welfare advocates filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday accusing Arizona officials of jeopardizing the well-being of nearly 17,000 children in the state’s foster-care system by failing to provide sufficient health-care services and an adequate number of foster homes. The complaint comes as Arizona’s foster-care population rose more rapidly in recent years than any other state in the nation. Some foster children, the lawsuit alleges, slept in offices because they didn’t have homes. (Lazo, 2/3)