First Edition: January 17, 2017
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Drugmakers Manipulate Orphan Drug Rules To Create Prized Monopolies
More than 30 years ago, Congress overwhelmingly passed a landmark health bill aimed at motivating pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for people whose rare diseases had been ignored. By the drugmakers’ calculations, the markets for such diseases weren’t big enough to bother with. But lucrative financial incentives created by the Orphan Drug Act signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 succeeded far beyond anyone’s expectations. More than 200 companies have brought almost 450 “orphan drugs” to market since the law took effect. (Tribble and Lupkin, 1/17)
Kaiser Health News:
Top Price Contributor Allegedly Leaned On Employees To Support PAC
President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet pick Tom Price counts among his top contributors a Georgia company and its CEO, who sent managers an email demanding donations “IMMEDIATELY” to a political action committee supportive of GOP candidates and causes, according to documents reviewed by Kaiser Health News. The PAC was operated by Georgia-based MiMedx, whose CEO Parker H. “Pete” Petit is among the top individual contributors to Price, a Georgia congressman and Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary. Federal campaign finance records show MiMedx, through its PAC, chief executive and his relatives, has contributed more than $40,000 to Price’s campaign and joint fundraising committees since 2014. (Taylor and Jewett, 1/16)
Kaiser Health News:
GOP Vows To Defund Planned Parenthood. Reality Makes That Hard.
Just as Republicans are discovering that undoing the health law could be complicated, so, too, is separating the controversial reproductive health care provider from its federal funding. Efforts to hastily jettison Planned Parenthood from federal ledgers could actually jeopardize GOP efforts to repeal the health law. One problem is that Planned Parenthood gets its funding from several different government sources. According to the group’s most recent annual report, covering 2015, Planned Parenthood affiliates, got $553.7 million from federal, state, and local governments, accounting for almost half of total funding. (Rovner, 1/17)
Kaiser Health News:
Large Employer Health Plans Could Also See Some Impacts From Obamacare Overhaul
If you think that because you get health insurance through your job at a big company, you won’t be affected if Republicans overhaul Obamacare, think again. Several of the law’s provisions apply to plans offered by large employers too (with some exceptions for plans that were in place before the law passed in March 2010). (Andrews, 1/17)
California Healthline:
Crucial California HIV Program In Disarray After Contract Switch
A change in contractors for a state-run AIDS program has resulted in enrollment delays and left some patients unable to get necessary medications and timely medical care, according to legislators and nonprofit organizations across California. The AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which helps more than 30,000 low-income HIV and AIDS patients pay for medications and insurance premiums, switched pharmacy and enrollment contractors in July. (Gorman, 1/13)
The New York Times:
Trump Promises ‘Insurance For Everybody’ As Health Law Replacement
“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Mr. Trump said. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.” In the interview, Mr. Trump provided no details about how his plan would work or what it would cost. He spoke in the same generalities that he used to describe his health care goals during the campaign — that it would be “great health care” that left people “beautifully covered.” (Shear, 1/15)
The Washington Post:
Trump Spokesman Says Obamacare Replacement Will Harness Marketplace Competition
A spokesman for Donald Trump sought Monday to elaborate on the president-elect’s plans to replace the Affordable Care Act, vowing that the new administration would lower health-care costs by infusing more competition into the marketplace, including by allowing insurers to sell health plans across state lines. (Wagner, 1/16)
The Washington Post:
Trump Vows ‘Insurance For Everybody’ In Obamacare Replacement Plan
President-elect Donald Trump said in a weekend interview that he is nearing completion of a plan to replace President Obama’s signature health-care law with the goal of “insurance for everybody,” while also vowing to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid. (Costa and Goldstein, 1/15)
Politico:
Trump, Price And Hill GOP At Odds On Obamacare
Donald Trump and his pick to lead the Obamacare repeal effort, Rep. Tom Price, share a vision that the current health care system needs to be completely uprooted. But the two men have articulated wildly divergent visions for what comes next — and that's making it hard for Hill Republicans to figure out where to start on a coherent replacement plan once Obamacare is gone. (Everett and Haberkorn, 1/16)
Wall Street Journal:
Vice President-Elect Mike Pence Says Lawmakers Can Replace Health-Care Legislation By April
Vice President-elect Mike Pence said Sunday the incoming Trump administration would move to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with new health-care legislation by April. “The short answer is, yes, we can do it,” he said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “The president-elect made it very clear to leaders in the Congress this week that he wanted to do both at the same time.” (Timiraos, 1/15)
The Associated Press:
Early Win On Budget Pressures GOP To Deliver On Health Care
Republicans have won a gateway victory in Congress in their seven-year trek toward scuttling President Barack Obama's health care law. Now with Donald Trump a week from taking the presidential oath, achieving that goal is possible, but the pressure is on for them to deliver a final product. (1/14)
The Washington Post Fact Checker:
GOP, Democrats Offer Dueling Talking Points About People Losing Their ‘Health Care’
Either tens of millions of people will lose their “health care” if Obamacare is repealed — or millions have already lost their health care. How is an intelligent voter supposed to understand this? Let’s explain what’s going on here. (Kessler, 1/17)
The New York Times:
Fear Spurs Support For Health Law As Republicans Work To Repeal It
President-elect Donald J. Trump and congressional Republicans appear to have accomplished a feat that President Obama, with all the power at his disposal, could not in the past seven years: They have galvanized outspoken support for the Affordable Care Act. People who benefit from the law are flooding Congress with testimonials. Angry consumers are confronting Republican lawmakers. And Democrats who saw the law as a political liability in recent elections have suddenly found their voice, proudly defending the law now that it is in trouble. (Pear, 1/17)
The Associated Press:
Thousands Rally To Resist Republican Health Law Repeal Drive
Thousands of people showed up in freezing temperatures on Sunday in Michigan to hear Sen. Bernie Sanders denounce Republican efforts to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law, one of dozens of rallies Democrats staged across the country to highlight opposition. (Williams, 1/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Rallies Held Across The Country To Support Affordable Care Act
More than 6,000 people packed into a community-college parking lot here for a rally with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) designed to help protect the Affordable Care Act against Republican assault. ... The rally, one of more than 40 taking place across the country Sunday, showcases an important pillar of Democrats’ strategy as they fight to stave off a repeal of President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law. They hope to pressure Republicans to scale back their plans by generating displays of public support, including from those who might lose insurance. (Hackman, 1/16)
The Washington Post:
A Cross-Country Bus Tour Aims To Help Save The Endangered Affordable Care Act
Liberal groups are launching a two-month bus tour starting from Washington on Tuesday, an effort to muster public support for the Affordable Care Act even as Republicans begin to undo it. The “Save My Care” tour — which plans to travel to as many as 20 states, from Maine and New York to Arizona and Nevada — will be accompanied by a multistate digital and print advertising campaign in “the high six figures,” according to one of the organizers. The Alliance for Healthcare Security, a coalition of groups that include Doctors for America and the Service Employees International Union, is leading the effort. (Eilperin, 1/15)
Los Angeles Times:
'We Are Not Going Back': California Democrats Protest GOP Efforts To Dismantle Obamacare
Democratic leaders on Monday urged Californians to fight GOP efforts to dismantle Obamacare, saying lives and jobs were at stake. “We are not going back. Understand that,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said of Republican efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s healthcare overhaul law. “They want to go from affordable care to chaos. They want to make America sick again. We are not going to let that happen.” (Mehta, 1/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Healthcare Advocates To Rally In L.A. To Protect Affordable Care Act
Hundreds of nurses, other healthcare workers and patients are expected to turn out at a noon rally to protest the national effort by Republican lawmakers to rescind the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat who opposes the repeal, is scheduled to appear with healthcare activists outside Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights. Organizers of the rally, which includes Service Employees International Union and other labor groups, warn that a repeal of the law without a replacement will strip coverage from 5 million Californians and throw the healthcare system into chaos. (Zahniser, 1/15)
The Washington Post Fact Checker:
Bernie Sanders’s Claim That ‘36,000 People Will Die Yearly’ If Obamacare Is Repealed
For context, more than 2.6 million people died in the United States in 2015, or nearly 7,200 per day. So Sanders is suggesting repeal of the law would increase the number of deaths by 1.4 percent. Sanders obtained the figure of 36,000 from a calculation by ThinkProgress, a left-leaning website, according to his aides. Essentially, ThinkProgress assumed that repeal will result in 29.8 million people losing their insurance and that one person will die for every 830 people who lose their insurance. That yields a number of 35,903. (Kessler, 1/14)
The Washington Post:
Cancer Survivor Who Once Opposed Federal Health Law Challenges Ryan On Its Repeal
The distance between health-policy ideology and life-or-death health care narrowed to a few feet at a nationally televised town hall meeting this week when a small-business man from Arizona stood up and faced House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. “Just like you, I was a Republican,” Jeff Jeans began. Standing on the stage, the Wisconsin congressman broke into a grin as Jeans said he had volunteered in two Republican presidential campaigns and opposed the Affordable Care Act so much that he'd told his wife he would close their business before complying with the health-care law. But that, he said, was before he was diagnosed with a “very curable cancer” and told that, if left untreated, he had perhaps six weeks to live. Only because of an early Affordable Care Act program that offered coverage to people with preexisting medical problems, Jeans said, “I am standing here today alive.” (Goldstein, 1/14)
The New York Times:
‘Repeal And Replace’: Words Still Hanging Over G.O.P.’s Health Care Strategy
In March 2010, on the day before President Obama was to sign the Affordable Care Act into law, a group of senior Republican aides huddled in Senator Mitch McConnell’s Capitol suite to try to come up with a catchy slogan to use against it. Many conservatives were simply advocating a vow to repeal the new law, but Republican strategists worried that pressing for repeal without an alternative could backfire. So they batted around a few ideas before Josh Holmes, then a top communications adviser to Mr. McConnell, tossed out the nicely alliterative phrase “repeal and replace.” (Huse, 1/15)
Politico:
Republicans Move To Spend Billions On Obamacare — Before They Kill It
On their way to killing Obamacare, Republicans are leaning toward funding up to $9 billion in health care subsidies this year to keep the program afloat — even though they sued the Obama administration to stop those exact payments. The move is the most significant sign yet that the GOP is serious about propping up Obamacare temporarily to provide a smooth transition to a yet-to-be disclosed Republican replacement. (Haberkorn, 1/13)
USA Today:
Obamacare Repeal Threatens Public Health Funding To States
The funding for many state public health and prevention programs is in jeopardy along with insurance for 20 million people as Congress moves to repeal the Affordable Care Act. While the ACA requires insurers to cover mammograms, colonoscopies and other preventive care, a less prominent provision authorized a federal fund to prevent the soaring incidence of chronic diseases including diabetes and heart disease. It also funds education targeting college suicides, smoking and low-income new mothers. The ACA’s Prevention and Public Health Fund has survived about 60 votes in Congress, and it was tapped to help pay for the recently enacted 21st Century Cures Act, which funds pharmaceutical research and development and opioid treatment. (O'Donnell, 1/16)
Los Angeles Times:
13.5 Million Californians Are Covered By Medi-Cal. Here's How Trump's Plan Could Cost The State
Along with his vow to repeal Obamacare, President-elect Donald Trump has promised to restructure Medicaid, the nation’s low-income health program — a move that could be acutely felt in California, where 1 in 3 residents receive health coverage through the state version, experts say. Medi-Cal enrollment surged by 5 million over the last three years to a total of 13.5 million under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. (Karlamangla, 1/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Chief Senate Parliamentarian Will Play Crucial Role In Health Care Legislation
Late last year, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) told a group of senior GOP lawmakers that the person they needed to watch in the Senate in 2017 was Elizabeth. “Elizabeth Warren?” one lawmaker asked. “No,” Mr. Ryan replied, according to a lawmaker in the room, “Elizabeth, the Senate parliamentarian.” Elizabeth MacDonough, the sixth person and first woman to hold the title of chief Senate parliamentarian, will play a crucial role in determining what can be included in legislation enabling the Senate to roll back major parts of the Affordable Care Act with just a simple majority, rather than the 60 votes usually needed. (Peterson, 1/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Q&A: What The Republicans Are Doing With The Health Law
Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have said one of their priorities is to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 health law that expanded insurance coverage to millions of Americans. Now, the Republicans are moving forward, and the outcome could bring big changes to the health system. Here are some questions and answers about the goals and complexity of their effort. (Peterson and Armour, 1/13)
The Associated Press:
IRS Letters Warn Millions About Health Insurance Penalty
If you haven't signed up for health insurance, you may soon be getting a not-too-subtle nudge from the taxman. The IRS is sending personalized letters to millions of taxpayers who might be uninsured, reminding them that they could be on the hook for hundreds of dollars in fines under the federal health care law if they don't sign up soon through HealthCare.gov. It's an unusual role for a revenue-collection agency. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/14)
Politico:
Ryan And Trump Set For Medicare Showdown
Since the election, Paul Ryan has accommodated and deferred to Donald Trump on all sorts of issues they don’t see eye-to-eye on. But when it comes to Ryan’s career-defining cause — overhauling Medicare and other entitlements — the speaker has held his ground. The clashing philosophies between the GOP's two top pols — Trump once called Ryan's doctrine "political suicide" — is about to come to a head. Left unresolved, it threatens to sink tax reform, a top priority for both men. (Bade, 1/17)
The New York Times:
Trump Health Secretary Pick’s Longtime Foes: Big Government And Insurance Companies
The assuredness that defined Mr. Price as a surgeon has carried into his political career. He has always listened politely to other viewpoints but never swerved from his policy mission to protect his former profession from what he views as heavy-handed government intrusion. Many who knew Mr. Price as a doctor here in Atlanta’s affluent northern suburbs praise his commitment to his patients. But his legislative record shows that over eight years in the Georgia Senate and 12 years in Congress, he has advocated at least as much for physician groups and health care companies — seeking to limit damages in malpractice cases, for instance, and voting against legislation that would have required the government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries. (Goodnough, 1/16)
Reuters:
Trump Team Defends Health Pick Tom Price Over Ethics Charge
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's transition team defended his nominee for health and human services (HHS) secretary, Tom Price, from charges that he bought shares in a company days before introducing legislation that would have benefited the firm. A Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday for Price, a Republican congressman from Georgia who, if confirmed, would be a lead agent in carrying out Trump's plans to overhaul President Barack Obama's signature health care law. (Holland, 1/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
Donald Trump Looking Beyond Traditional Medical Experts For FDA Commissioner
President-elect Donald J. Trump is reaching beyond traditional medical experts in his search for a new Food and Drug Administration commissioner, scheduling meetings for the FDA job with two Silicon Valley investors backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel. The two are James O’Neill, a managing director of the investment firm Mithril Capital Management, and Balaji S. Srinivasan, a venture capital board member who founded the genetic-counseling firm Counsyl Inc. (Burton, 1/13)
The Washington Post:
Outgoing CDC Chief Talks About Agency’s Successes — And His Greatest Fear
Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been a central player and one of the most public figures in fighting infectious diseases in the United States. Appointed to his position in 2009 by President Obama, the 56-year-old New York native has led the Atlanta-based CDC longer than any director since the 1970s. His tenure has been tested by major disease outbreaks, including the 2009 global H1N1 swine flu pandemic and deadly respiratory virus known as MERS, the Ebola and Zika epidemics, and a growing domestic overdose crisis. (Sun, 1/16)
The Washington Post:
The United States Already Has A Vaccine Safety Commission. And It Works Really Well, Experts Say.
This week, President-elect Donald Trump met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading proponent of a scientifically discredited conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism. Afterward, Kennedy said that he and Trump had discussed creating a commission on vaccines, which Kennedy would chair. The United States already has a commission on vaccines. A top U.S. public health official said Friday that it relies on an array of medical, scientific and community experts to set policy on vaccines, and does so in an open and deliberative process. (Sun, 1/13)
The New York Times:
The Other Kushner Brother’s Big Bet
Just days after the 2016 presidential election, a young venture capitalist called an emergency staff meeting.Prepare for a storm of publicity, he told one of the start-ups that he had helped found. There would be questions about his political affiliations and loyalties, he said. There would be questions about the survivability of the start-up, a health insurance company named Oscar Health. The world was about to change, he said. (Benner, 1/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
UnitedHealth Is Poised To Pass Its Earnings Checkup
At a moment of uncertainty for health insurers, there appear to be few risks to UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s strong long-term performance. The country’s largest publicly traded health insurer by market value will report fourth-quarter results on Tuesday. Analyst consensus calls for sales of $47.4 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $2.07, according to FactSet. There shouldn’t be too much drama in the headline numbers. UnitedHealth has lagged behind the earnings consensus just one time since the fourth quarter of 2011. (Grant, 1/16)
The New York Times:
How The Response To Zika Failed Millions
Almost a year ago, the World Health Organization declared the Zika epidemic a global health emergency, calling for an epic campaign against a virus that few had ever heard of. As it spread to almost every country in the Western Hemisphere, scientists and health officials at every level of government swung into action, trying to understand how the infection caused birth defects and how it could be stopped. The W.H.O. ended the emergency status in November, but the consequences of the outbreak will be with us for years to come. So maybe now is a good time to ask: How’d we do? (McNeil, 1/16)
The New York Times:
Physician Aid In Dying Gains Acceptance In The U.S.
Historically, aid in dying has generated fierce resistance from the Catholic Church, from certain disability-rights activists, and from others who cite religious or moral objections. Even the terminology — aid in dying? assisted suicide? death with dignity? — creates controversy. But the concept has long drawn broad support in public opinion polls. (Span, 1/16)
The Washington Post:
New State Rules Are Forcing Opioid Prescribers To Confront ‘Doctor Shopping’
Over the objections of many doctors and their powerful advocacy groups, states are moving to force physicians to check on patients’ narcotic purchasing habits, one of the more effective ways of curbing opioid abuse as the deadly drug epidemic continues. Eighteen states have adopted comprehensive mandates in the past four years requiring doctors who prescribe opioids and other controlled substances to check databases that show whether their patients are getting drugs elsewhere. (Bernstein, 1/14)
The Washington Post:
Pa. Painkiller Prescriptions Drop After Creation Of Monitoring Program
Within months of launching a registry to prevent patients from receiving opioids and other potentially addictive prescription drugs from more than one doctor, Pennsylvania saw a substantial drop in the number of prescriptions for painkillers such as Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet. (Vestal, 1/14)
The New York Times:
A Rampage In Florida Shines A Light On Alaska
A deadly shooting rampage at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport this month has focused attention on the interconnection of public safety and mental illness and raised questions, especially here in Alaska, about one of the thorniest questions of psychology: how to tell if someone is delusional and dangerous, or merely delusional. (Johnson, 1/13)
Los Angeles Times:
'Concierge' Docs Offer 24/7 Access, Spa Treatments And More — For A Price
Every Saturday morning, dozens of cyclists and walkers gather in Redlands outside a restored Victorian to exercise with Dr. Steven Wilson. With its huge bike rack and organic vegetable garden out back, it’s not what you’d expect from your primary care doctor’s office. But this isn’t your typical practice. (Fulmer, 1/14)
NPR:
The Brain Scrambles Names Of People You Love
When Samantha Deffler was young, her mother would often call her by her siblings' names — even the dog's name. "Rebecca, Jesse, Molly, Tucker, Samantha," she says. A lot of people mix up children's names or friends' names, but Deffler is a cognitive scientist at Rollins College, in Winter Park, Fla., and she wanted to find out why it happens. So she did a survey of 1,700 men and women of different ages, and she found that naming mistakes are very common. Most everyone sometimes mixes up the names of family and friends. ... It's not related to a bad memory or to aging, but rather to how the brain categorizes names. (Trudeau, 1/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Pasadena Heart Surgery Patients Warned Of Possible Infections
Pasadena’s Huntington Hospital has sent letters to all patients having open heart surgery in the last four years warning them that they may have been infected with a dangerous bacteria. The hospital is one of many across the country using a device that has been linked to dozens of infections in heart surgery patients, including some who died. (Petersen, 1/13)
Los Angeles Times:
Stolen Laptop May Have Had Data For Thousands Of Patients At Children's Hospital Los Angeles
A stolen laptop may have contained information about nearly 3,600 Children’s Hospital Los Angeles patients, spurring the hospital to warn families who might have been affected. The laptop, which belonged to a physician, was taken out of a locked car during an October burglary, according to the hospital. (Reyes, 1/16)