First Edition: July 10, 2017
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Senate GOP Bill Aims To Add Psych Beds; Squeeze On Medicaid Signals Their Undoing
A little-discussed provision in the Senate health care bill is designed to boost the number of hospital beds for psychiatric care, providing a long-sought victory for mental health advocates. The provision would amend an obscure Medicaid funding rule that has sharply limited the number of beds for those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or other mental illnesses.Yet leading mental health groups say they see no reason to celebrate. (Szabo, 7/10)
Kaiser Health News:
Medicaid Cuts Will Drive Up Cost Of Private Coverage, Montana Insurers Say
Montana was among the last states to expand Medicaid, and its Obamacare marketplace has fared reasonably well. It has 50,000 customers, decent competition and no “bare counties,” where no insurers want to sell plans. The Republicans who make up two-thirds of Montana’s congressional delegation have said they want to repeal the current health care law because it’s causing health insurance markets to “collapse.” (Whitney, 7/10)
California Healthline:
The Union That Roars: Nurses Aren’t Giving Up On California’s Single-Payer Push
To some, the California Nurses Association’s political tactics in pushing for a single-payer health system seemed a bit, well, extreme. Never mind the raucous demonstrations it brought to the state Capitol in recent weeks, the “shame on you” chants in the hallways, the repeated unfurling of banners in the rotunda despite admonitions from law enforcement. (Bartolone, 7/10)
The Associated Press:
Battles Over Health Care, Budget Await Congress' Return
Congress is still trying to send President Donald Trump his first unqualified legislative triumph, nearly six months after Republicans grabbed full control of Washington. Now, lawmakers are returning from their July 4 recess with an added objective — averting some full-blown political disasters. (Fram, 7/10)
Politico:
Senate GOP Returns From Break No Closer To Obamacare Deal
Senate Republicans appear miles away from their long-sought repeal of Obamacare, returning to Washington on Monday with just a few weeks to put the pieces back together before they could be forced to abandon their partisan attempts at a health care overhaul altogether. (Everett, 7/9)
The Washington Post:
Senate GOP And White House Plan Final, Urgent Blitz To Pass Health-Care Law
The White House and Senate Republican leaders are planning a final, urgent blitz to pressure reluctant GOP senators to pass an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act before their month-long August recess. Aware that the next 14 days probably represent their last chance to salvage their flagging endeavor, President Trump, Vice President Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) intend to single out individual senators and escalate a broad defense of the evolving proposal, according to Republicans familiar with their plans. (Snell, Sullivan and Costa, 7/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Following Recess, GOP Health-Care Push Gets Trickier
The focus on possible steps to take if Senate Republicans can’t unite around a health bill is the strongest sign yet of the growing pessimism about the fate of the GOP legislation and the party’s seven-year pledge to topple the ACA. Some Republicans now say a vote to pass a bill could stretch beyond August, if there is a vote at all. (Armour, 7/9)
The Wall Street Journal:
Mitch McConnell Bobs And Weaves Through Health-Care Fight
President Donald Trump’s ability to land his first major legislative achievement, on health care, now rests with a Republican who kept a studied distance from the party’s nominee during the campaign and since: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentuckian didn’t campaign with the president and rarely mentioned him. Shortly before the 2016 election, Mr. McConnell told businesspeople in his state that if they expected him to talk about the presidential race, they “might as well go ahead and leave.” Since the election, his most public engagement with the president has come in his admonitions to lay off Twitter. (Hughes, 7/9)
The New York Times:
G.O.P. Support Of Senate Health Repeal Erodes During Break
A week that Senate Republicans had hoped would mobilize conservatives and shore up support for their measure to repeal the Affordable Care Act instead ended with eroding enthusiasm, as usually reliable Republican senators from red states blanched at its impact on rural communities. With Congress set to return on Monday after a week’s recess, Republican lawmakers are increasingly aware that their seven-year promise to dismantle President Barack Obama’s largest policy achievement is deeply imperiled. (Steinhauer and Pear, 7/8)
Politico:
Time Away From Washington Deepens GOP Misgivings About Health Plan
It was a grim week for the Republican effort to repeal Obamacare. The few GOP senators who hosted town hall meetings over the Fourth of July recess were hammered by constituents for trying to undo the health care law. Reliable conservatives like Sens. Jerry Moran and John Hoeven outlined their opposition to the current version of the Senate repeal bill. Even Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged at a luncheon back home in Kentucky that the effort might fail. (Haberkorn, 7/7)
Reuters:
Republicans Voice Growing Doubts On U.S. Healthcare Bill's Fate
Republicans expressed increasing pessimism on Sunday about the prospects for the healthcare bill in the U.S. Senate aimed at rolling back Obamacare as lawmakers prepared to return from a week-long recess. One prominent Republican lawmaker, Senator John McCain, said he thought the Republican bill would probably fail. (Abutaleb, 7/9)
The Washington Post:
Republicans Increasingly Uncertain Of A Legislative Victory Before August
The Republican Congress returns to Capitol Hill this week increasingly uncertain that a major legislative victory is achievable in the three weeks before lawmakers leave town for their month-long summer recess. Most immediately, GOP leaders and President Trump are under enormous pressure to approve health-care legislation — but that is only the beginning. Virtually every piece of their ambitious legislative agenda is stalled, according to multiple Republicans inside and outside of Congress. (DeBonis and O'Keefe, 7/8)
The Associated Press:
2 GOP Senators Suggest Bill To Repeal Health Care Law 'Dead'
The initial GOP bill to repeal and replace the nation's health law is probably "dead" and President Donald Trump's proposal to just repeal it appears to be a "non-starter," two moderate Republican senators indicated Sunday as their party scrambled to salvage faltering legislation. "We don't know what the plan is," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. "Clearly, the draft plan is dead. Is the serious rewrite plan dead? I don't know." Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said it may now be time for Republicans to come up with a new proposal with support from Democrats. (Yen, 7/10)
The Associated Press:
Trump Tweets Push For Healthcare Bill As 2 More GOP Senators Say It's 'Dead'
President Trump used Twitter on Sunday afternoon to urge Republicans to follow through on their pledge to get rid of the healthcare law pushed by his predecessor. (7/9)
The Washington Post:
Ted Cruz Is Suddenly In The Hot Seat To Help Pass A Health-Care Bill
During a week most Republican senators spent in the political equivalent of the witness protection program, Sen. Ted Cruz willingly stood trial before his constituents all across this sprawling state over his push to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act. He debated a self-described “dirty liberal progressive.” He met a psychologist who told him that he and his colleagues were “scaring the living daylights” out of her. He encountered protesters in a border town, a conservative Dallas suburb and this liberal stronghold. (Sullivan, 7/9)
The Associated Press:
West Virginia's Capito In A Spot With GOP Health Care Bill
West Virginia has one of the country's lowest median incomes. It's home to some of the worst rates of drug overdose deaths, smoking, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and disabilities. Around 3 in 10 West Virginians are on Medicaid, making it the state most dependent on the health insurance program for the poor, disabled and nursing home residents. Capito says she cares deeply about health care but that changes and reforms to Medicaid are necessary. (Virtanen and Fram, 7/8)
Politico:
Why A GOP Senator From Trump Country Opposes The Senate Health Bill
Shelley Moore Capito is the most popular politician in a deep-red state that loves President Donald Trump and distrusts big government. And yet the West Virginia Republican is threatening to torpedo the GOP’s best shot at dismantling Obamacare, one of Trump’s top domestic priorities. (Cancryn, 7/9)
The Associated Press:
Sanders Urges West Virginian To Oppose GOP Health Plan
Sen. Bernie Sanders has ventured into a stronghold for President Donald Trump to urge West Virginia's Republican senator to resist efforts to repeal much of Barack Obama's health care law. Speaking to hundreds of supporters Sunday in Morgantown, Sanders said if GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito's opposes her party's health care bill, it would "make all of the difference" in derailing the legislation. (Schreiner, 7/9)
USA Today/Cincinnati Enquirer:
Bernie Sanders: 'I Beg Senator McConnell To Listen' On Health Care
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders hoped to draw big crowds in Covington Sunday. More than 2,000 people showed up at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, including the Covington Mayor, who introduced Sanders, I-VT.Sanders and the crowd wanted to send a message to Republicans, particularly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in his home state. That message: Don't destroy the Affordable Care Act. (Wartman, 7/9)
Los Angeles Times:
With Senate Republicans At An Impasse Over Obamacare, Many Ask: Now What?
Senate Republicans, having hit an apparent impasse in their long campaign to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, return to Washington this week in search of a way forward, with support dwindling, time running out and deep divisions within their ranks. Options are limited as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) assesses the legislative landscape for his Obamacare replacement, which has virtually no hope of passing unless it is substantially amended. (Mascaro and Levey, 7/10)
The New York Times:
Why Obamacare’s Loudest Critics Aren’t As Loud Anymore
Members of Congress returning home for the July 4 recess last week were met with rallies, sit-ins and Independence Day demonstrators, as activists on the left intensified their push to defeat Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The groups on the right that once fueled the party’s anti-Obamacare fervor might as well have been on vacation. (Zernike, 7/8)
The Associated Press:
Medicaid Cut In GOP Health Bill Worries The Nursing Home Set
Amy Bernard and her brother kept their mother out of a nursing home as long as they could, until Parkinson's and dementia took their toll and she was seriously injured in a fall. Bernard is happy with her mother's nursing home care, but it comes at a steep price: $7,000 per month, an amount that would be way beyond the older woman's means if not for Medicaid, which picks up $3,000 of the tab. (Spencer, 7/8)
NPR:
Medicaid Cuts Could Threaten Mental Health Access For The Poor
It was about a year ago that Ornella Mouketou walked into the emergency room at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and told them she wanted to end her life. She was in her early 20s, unemployed and depressed. "I was just walking around endlessly. I was walking around parks, and I was just crying all the time," she says. "It was like an empty black hole." (Kodjak, 7/9)
NPR:
Medicaid Spending On Addiction Treatment Has Risen Sharply
This week, as senators have decamped from Washington for the Fourth of July recess, the future of the Senate's Affordable Care Act replacement plan — and by extension, Medicaid — remains uncertain. Just days before the recess, a report from the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank, detailed big increases in Medicaid spending on opioid addiction treatment under the Affordable Care Act. It's a trend that could be reversed if the Senate's plan passes. (Fentem, 7/7)
The New York Times:
The Hidden Subsidy That Helps Pay For Health Insurance
As Republican senators work to fix their troubled health care bill, there is one giant health insurance subsidy no one is talking about. It is bigger than any offered under the Affordable Care Act — subsidies some Republicans loathe as handouts — and costs the federal government $250 billion in lost tax revenue every year. (Zernike, 7/7)
The Associated Press:
Survey: US Uninsured Up By 2M This Year As Gains Erode
The number of U.S. adults without health insurance has grown by some 2 million this year, according to a major new survey that finds recent coverage gains beginning to erode. The new numbers highlight what's at stake as Congress returns to an unresolved debate over Republican proposals to roll back much of former President Barack Obama's health care law. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/10)
NPR:
Americans Don't Want Senate's Health Care Plan, But It's Unclear What They Do Want
Americans really, really don't like the Senate bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Only 17 percent of U.S. adults approve of the health care bill, according to a recent NPR/Marist/PBS NewsHour poll. In fact, a majority of Americans now approve of the ACA, also known as Obamacare — but just nine months ago, that wasn't true. So what do they want? (Kurtzleben, 7/10)
NPR:
FAQ: How Would The Senate Health Care Bill Affect You?
When covering the GOP efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, we tend to focus on the big picture: billions of cuts in Medicaid spending, say, or millions of fewer people with health coverage. But the real impacts would be felt in states, cities and towns, and they would vary a lot depending on where you live, how old you are and your particular health concerns. (7/10)
The Wall Street Journal:
‘People Are Dying Here’: Federal Hospitals Fail Tribes
At the Indian Health Service hospital in Pine Ridge, S.D., a 57-year-old man was sent home with a bronchitis diagnosis—only to die five hours later of heart failure. When a patient at the federal agency’s Winnebago, Neb., facility stopped breathing, nurses responding to the “code blue” found the emergency supply cart was empty, and the man died. In Sisseton, S.D., a high school prom queen was coughing up blood. An IHS doctor gave her cough syrup and antianxiety medication; within days she died of a blood clot in her lung. (Frosch and Weaver, 7/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Families Speak Out: Stories Of Indian Health Service Patients
The Indian Health Service is responsible for providing medical care to about 2.2 million tribal members across the U.S., but the system is in crisis after IHS hospitals repeatedly failed inspections, shut down services or lost access to crucial federal funds. The facilities, which operate in some of the poorest areas of the country, have rendered dangerous care and caused unnecessary deaths, according to federal regulators, agency documents and interviews. (Frosch and Weaver, 7/7)
The Associated Press:
Tough Question For Hospitals: Who's Too Risky To Release?
Four days before Alexander Bonds ambushed and killed a New York City police officer, he was in a hospital emergency room getting a psychiatric evaluation. The hospital released him the same day. Now the hospital's actions are under a state review ordered by the governor. St. Barnabas Hospital says it handled Bonds appropriately and welcomes the inquiry. (Peltz, 7/8)
The Washington Post:
26 Key Bioterrorism Jobs The Trump Administration Has Not Yet Filled
Biological threats pose some of the gravest health risks in our increasingly interconnected world. They can be naturally occurring, such as outbreaks of Ebola infections, or bioterrorism, such as the anthrax attacks in 2001. A study reported this week renews worries about human-made biological agents. Scientists synthesized an extinct horsepox virus closely related to smallpox, the deadliest microbe in human history. Smallpox has been eradicated, but the work raises the possibility that it would be relatively straightforward to synthesize the smallpox virus. (Sun, 7/7)
The New York Times:
The Patient Wants To Leave. The Hospital Says ‘No Way.’
Why would an older person essentially discharge himself from a hospital, defying a physician’s recommendation and signing a daunting form that acknowledges he is leaving A.M.A. — against medical advice? Attend the tale of William Callahan. (Span, 7/7)
USA Today:
Steve Scalise Treated At Hospital With One Of Worst Ratings In D.C.
The Washington hospital where Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise was taken for his gunshot wounds last month has scored extremely low in safety ratings, including for infections which the House majority whip is now being treated for. Medstar Washington Hospital Center scored a D in hospital safety ratings by Leapfrog Group and just two out of five stars in the ratings done by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website. (O'Donnell, 7/8)
The Washington Post:
The Fascinating Legal Argument At The Heart Of The Martin Shkreli ‘Pharma Bro’ Trial
Not much Martin Shkreli has done the past two weeks has helped him in a trial that could put him behind bars for 20 years for eight counts of securities and wire fraud. He was personally rebuked by the judge for speaking to reporters about his case inside the Brooklyn courthouse and on the streets outside where jurors could potentially hear him. He has mocked prosecutors on a live stream on his Facebook page and called them a “junior varsity” team to news outlets. One day, he strolled into a room filled with reporters and made light of a witness who had just testified against him. (Merle, 7/8)
The Associated Press:
Goal Of Nation’s First Opioid Court: Keep Users Alive
After three defendants fatally overdosed in a single week last year, it became clear that Buffalo’s ordinary drug treatment court was no match for the heroin and painkiller crisis. Now the city is experimenting with the nation’s first opioid crisis intervention court, which can get users into treatment within hours of their arrest instead of days, requires them to check in with a judge every day for a month instead of once a week, and puts them on strict curfews. Administering justice takes a back seat to the overarching goal of simply keeping defendants alive. (Thompson, 7/9)
The Washington Post:
Why This Ohio Sheriff Refuses To Let His Deputies Carry Narcan To Reverse Overdoses
No one has come up with a solution to the opioid epidemic that has decimated Rust Belt states, but for people who overdose, Naloxone is about as effective an antidote as there is. The results of the opioid antagonist, which is sprayed up a person's nose and reverses the effect of opioid overdoses, have been likened to resurrecting someone from the dead. Paramedics and firefighters routinely carry the easy-to-administer medication in their vehicles. For police officers in the nation's hardest hit areas, like southwest Ohio, the Food and Drug Administration-approved nasal spray, known by the brand name Narcan, can be as common as handcuffs. Even some librarians have learned to use the drug to revive people who overdose in their stacks. (Wootson, 7/8)
The Associated Press:
Missouri Bill Targets Ambulance Calls To Abortion Clinics
Missouri Republicans want to make it a crime for abortion clinic staff to ask ambulances to respond to calls at their facilities without sirens or lights, a move that abortion-rights advocates say is unnecessary and another veiled attempt to restrict access to abortion providers. (7/7)
The Washington Post:
Scientists Synthesize Smallpox Cousin In Ominous Breakthrough
Scientists in Canada have used commercially available genetic material to piece together the extinct horsepox virus, a cousin of the smallpox virus that killed as many as a billion human beings before being eradicated. The laboratory achievement was reported Thursday in a news article in the journal Science. (Achenbach and Sun, 7/7)
Reuters:
‘Stem-Cell Tourism’ Needs Tighter Controls, Say Medical Experts
Stem cell tourism — in which patients travel to developing countries for unproven and potentially risky therapies — should be more tightly regulated, according to a group of international health experts. With hundreds of medical centers around the world claiming to be able to repair tissue damaged by conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, tackling unscrupulous advertising of such procedures is crucial. (7/8)
The Washington Post:
The Price Of A Sunburn Is Higher Than You May Realize
Not so long ago, people like my Aunt Muriel thought of sunburn as a necessary evil on the way to a “good base tan.” She used to slather on the baby oil while using a large reflector to bake away. Aunt Muriel’s mantra when the inevitable burn and peel appeared: Beauty has its price. (Hanson, 7/8)
The Washington Post:
U-Md. School Of Pharmacy To Provide Training For Medical Marijuana
The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy will begin offering training to prepare prospective workers for the medical marijuana industry. The move puts the Baltimore school in league with few other established universities and colleges, including the University of Vermont College of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology, seeking to bring educational standards to a growing national industry that grapples with evolving science and uncertain legal standing. (Cohn, 7/9)
The New York Times:
London Hospital Reconsiders Decision To Turn Off Sick Baby’s Life Support
In an abrupt shift, a London hospital said on Friday that it would reconsider its decision to turn off life support for Charlie Gard, a brain-damaged and terminally ill British infant, in light of “fresh evidence” about a potential treatment. (Bilefsky and Chan, 7/7)
The Associated Press:
Charlie Gard Case Heads To UK Court In Light Of New Evidence
A British court will assess new evidence in the case of 11-month-old Charlie Gard as his mother pleaded with judges to allow the terminally ill infant to receive experimental treatment. Great Ormond Street Hospital applied for the court hearing to be held Monday amid “new evidence relating to potential treatment for his condition.” (7/10)
USA Today:
Terminally Ill Charlie Gard's Case Gets Another Hearing In A British Court
The parents of terminally ill Charlie Gard told USA TODAY on Sunday that they hope the courts will reverse course and allow their 11-month-old son to receive experimental treatment in the United States. Another court hearing is scheduled for Monday in the controversial case that raises bioethical issues and caught the attention of President Trump and Pope Francis. (Hjelmgaard, 7/9)