First Edition: June 7, 2017
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
GOP Medicaid Cuts Hit Rural America Hardest, Report Finds
Rural America carried President Donald Trump to his election night upset last November. Trump Country it may be, but rural counties and small towns also make up Medicaid Country — those parts of the nation whose low-income children and families are most dependent on the federal-state health insurance program, according to a report released Wednesday. (Galewitz, 6/7)
Kaiser Health News:
Feds To Waive Penalties For Some Who Signed Up Late For Medicare
Each year, thousands of Americans miss their deadline to enroll in Medicare, and federal officials and consumer advocates worry that many of them mistakenly think they don’t need to sign up because they have purchased insurance on the health law’s marketplaces. That decision can leave them facing a lifetime of enrollment penalties. Now Medicare has temporarily changed its rules to offer a reprieve from penalties for people who kept Affordable Care Act policies after becoming eligible for Medicare. (Jaffe, 6/6)
California Healthline:
A ‘Safe’ Space To Shoot Up: Worth A Try In California?
Tawny Biggs’ seemingly happy childhood in the northern Los Angeles County suburb of Santa Clarita, Calif., showed no outward sign that she would one day struggle with drug addiction. As Biggs tells it, she was raised with two siblings “in a very good family” by an assistant fire-chief dad and a stay-at-home mom. Her after-school hours were filled with hockey and soccer. But paradise was lost sometime during her late teens, when emotional problems, drugs and alcohol turned Biggs into a self-described “nightmare.” One night, when she was amped up on cocaine, her boyfriend gave her a hit of something different to help her sleep: heroin. (O'Neill, 6/7)
The Associated Press:
Senate Republicans Claim Progress On Health Care Legislation
President Donald Trump and GOP leaders insisted Tuesday the Senate will vote soon on legislation to repeal and replace "Obamacare." But even as senators headed toward the make-or-break vote before the Fourth of July, deep uncertainty remained about whether the emerging legislation would command enough support to pass. Meeting with Republican congressional leaders at the White House, Trump praised the House for passing its own version of the health legislation early last month, and encouraged the Senate to do to the same. (Werner and Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/6)
Los Angeles Times:
Crunch Time As Senate Republicans Race The Clock On Obamacare Repeal — And The Rest Of Trump's Agenda
This week was expected to be a pivotal one for the healthcare overhaul, which lawmakers hope to finish before the July 4 break in order to move to other pressing issues. Among them is raising the debt ceiling to avoid defaulting on the nation’s bills, always a thorny political lift. But glum senators emerged from a series of closed-door meetings Tuesday no closer to an agreement than they have been after weeks of private talks. (Mascaro and Levey, 6/6)
The Wall Street Journal:
GOP Senators’ Medicaid Clash Jeopardizes Health Deal
Republican senators left their first decision-making meeting on overhauling the nation’s health-care system Tuesday deeply divided over the fate of Medicaid, a fissure that threatens to thwart their ambitions to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. The divide among Senate Republicans over Medicaid was wide enough that some GOP lawmakers and aides said they now believe it may be impossible to broker a deal to unwind the health law known as Obamacare. Some senators are already preparing to move to another goal, an overhaul of the tax code. (Peterson and Armour, 6/6)
Politico:
McConnell Whips Senate GOP Back In Line On Obamacare Repeal
Though senators said McConnell, his deputies and key chairmen and Senate staff did not present a clear-cut legislative framework to them after two key meetings, the Senate’s proposal for repealing and replacing Obamacare is slowly coming into focus as the Kentucky Republican presses for a vote before the July Fourth recess. Senate Republicans expect their bill to be more generous than the House-passed measure in almost every way: A longer runway for ending the Medicaid expansion, more money for insurance market stabilization to lower premiums and beefed up tax credits for Americans of lower income, senators said. But no decisions have been made on some key policy questions, including on handling Medicaid. (Everett, Haberkorn and Cancryn, 6/6)
Politico:
House Obamacare Repeal Ruled To Be In Compliance With Senate Rules
The House-passed health care bill complies with Senate rules, Republicans said Tuesday, clearing an important procedural hurdle that otherwise could have halted the Obamacare repeal process. The Senate Budget Committee made the announcement Tuesday. The news means the House can send the repeal bill over to the Senate. (Haberkorn, 6/6)
The Washington Post:
Republicans, Stoking Insurer Panic, Cite Uncertainty As A Reason To Pass Health-Care Bill
After Senate Republicans wrapped up their health-care meeting with Vice President Pence, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), one of the body’s few physicians, told reporters that the party got a new sense of urgency after Anthem, an insurer in Ohio’s Affordable Care Act exchange, announced that it was pulling out. Thousands of Ohioans, most in rural areas, could be left uninsured. “We need to stabilize the markets right now,” Barrasso said. “While we were in there, another company pulled out, which shows the continued collapse of the Obamacare market. I mean, it happened during the policy meeting.” (Weigel, 6/6)
The New York Times:
Anthem Will Exit Health Insurance Exchange In Ohio
Anthem, one of the nation’s largest insurers and a major player in the individual insurance market created by the federal health care law, announced Tuesday that it would stop offering policies in the Ohio marketplace next year. Although its departure would leave a small number of people — roughly 10,500 who live in about a fifth of the state’s counties — without an insurance carrier, the move was seized on by Republicans as more evidence that the markets are “collapsing” under the Affordable Care Act. President Trump, meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday, said it was more proof that insurers are “fleeing and leaving” the marketplaces and added that it was essential for Congress to pass a bill repealing the health law this summer. (Abelson, 6/6)
The Washington Post:
Major Obamacare Insurer Pulls Out Of Ohio, Leaving Big Gaps In Coverage
Ohio had one of the country's most competitive insurance marketplaces. In 2016, there were 17 insurers selling on the exchange in Ohio, with four offering plans state-wide. In 2017, there were still 11 insurers participating in the exchange, but 20 counties had only one insurer, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance. (Johnson, 6/6)
The Wall Street Journal:
Anthem’s Exit From Ohio Exchange Ups Ante For GOP Health Overhaul
Anthem said the market remains volatile and it cited the uncertainty surrounding key issues, including federal “cost-sharing” payments that help reduce costs for low-income ACA enrollees. Anthem’s decision was immediately seized on by both sides of the debate over the Republican health bill. Republicans, who have pointed to insurers’ withdrawals and rate increases as signs of trouble with the ACA, said the move was evidence of the need for new legislation. President Donald Trump mentioned the Anthem withdrawal at a White House meeting with congressional Republican leaders on Tuesday. (Wilde Mathews, 6/6)
NPR:
Patients Worry About Health Law's Fate In Arizona
For years, says Corinne Bobbie, shopping in Arizona for a health plan for her little girl went like this: "'Sorry, we're not covering that kid,'" Bobbie recalls insurers telling her. "'She's a liability.'" On the day I visit the family at their home in a suburb north of Phoenix, 8-year-old Sophia bounces on a trampoline in the backyard. It's difficult to tell she has a complex congenital heart condition and has undergone multiple surgeries. (Stone, 6/6)
The Washington Post:
Francis Collins Will Stay On As Head Of NIH
The White House announced Tuesday that Francis S. Collins will stay on as director of the National Institutes of Health, extending Collins’s tenure even as the administration proposes deep cuts to the government’s premier biomedical research center. Collins, a physician and geneticist, has led NIH since 2009. He is renowned for his leadership of the International Human Genome Project, which in 2003 sequenced the complete human genetic blueprint for the first time. (Bernstein, 6/6)
The Wall Street Journal:
Francis Collins To Stay On As Director Of National Institutes Of Health
Dr. Collins, a noted geneticist who once headed the government’s Human Genome project and served previously as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, is 67 years old. He had previously been a professor of internal medicine and human genetics at the University of Michigan, where he worked with collaborators and helped identify genes involved in maladies such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease. President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Collins to be NIH director in July 2009, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. (Burton, 6/6)
Politico:
Trump Will Keep NIH Director
Collins, a guitar-playing, motorcycle-riding, born-again Christian, has written several books on science, medicine, and religion, and is a favorite of many Hill Republicans. (Allen, 6/6)
USA Today:
Trump Profited From Kids Cancer Charity, Report Says
The Trump Organization took in healthy profits in recent years for hosting a charity golf event to benefit children's cancer research, despite claiming the use of the course had been donated Forbes reported Tuesday. Since 2007, President Trump's son Eric Trump has held an annual charity golf event at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y., to raise money for the Eric Trump Foundation on behalf of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Forbes reported. To date, Eric Trump has raised more than $11 million — including $2.9 million last year — for the hospital's research, most of it through the golf tournaments, according to Forbes. (Cummings, 6/6)
Georgia Health News:
Mystery Drug In Georgia Leads To Deaths, Hospitalizations
Powerful yellow pills sold by street dealers in Central and South Georgia have been linked to up to four deaths and the hospitalization of more than a dozen patients, the GBI and health officials said Tuesday. The pills were misrepresented to buyers as the prescription drug Percocet, an opioid pain medication, the Department of Public Health said Tuesday. (Miller, 6/6)
Reuters:
Georgia Investigating Spate Of Opioid Painkiller Overdoses
The Georgia Department of Public Health said Tuesday that emergency responders in the central and southern parts of the state treated dozens of people over a 48-hour period. Some patients were unconscious or had stopped breathing and many had to be placed on ventilators. "Patients reportedly purchased yellow pills alleged to be Percocet, an opioid pain medication," the health department said in a statement. (Woodall, 6/6)
The Associated Press:
DEA Warns Police Of Accidental Overdose Risks In Drug Fight
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday warned of a new problem presented by the nation’s drug abuse epidemic: the threat of law enforcement officers accidentally overdosing. Officers and paramedics are increasingly coming in contact with potent synthetic opioids that can be dangerous and deadly, a troubling side effect of the United States’ opioid crisis. (Gurman, 6/6)
The Washington Post:
8 Things Doctors Are Buzzing About At The Biggest Cancer Meeting
With 38,000 oncologists converging on the sprawling McCormick Place for the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the halls in the convention center are as crowded as Manhattan sidewalks at Christmastime. Watch out or you'll get run over as attendees rush to the next meeting of the minds. (McGinley, 6/6)
The Washington Post:
WHO Creates Controversial ‘Reserve’ List Of Antibiotics For Superbug Threats
The World Health Organization on Tuesday released new recommendations aimed at reducing the use of certain categories of “last resort” antibiotics as part of its ongoing efforts to combat the rise of superbugs. Public health officials pointed to the increasing rate of new strains of pathogens that are becoming antibiotic-resistant, saying these “nightmare bacteria” pose a catastrophic threat. Overuse of antibiotics in livestock as well as in humans is the main cause. (Cha, 6/6)
USA Today:
Study: Even Moderate Drinking Might Be Bad For Aging Brains
Here’s one more reason to think before you drink: even a modest amount of booze might be bad for aging brains. A new study published Tuesday in the medical journal BMJ says moderate drinkers were more likely than abstainers or light drinkers to develop worrisome brain changes that might signal eventual memory loss. They also were more likely to show rapid slippage on a language test, though not on several other cognitive tests. (Painter, 6/6)
NPR:
Water Systems In Hospitals Can Spread Legionnaires' Disease
Nursing homes and hospitals need to do more to protect their patients from catching Legionnaires' disease from contaminated water systems in their buildings, federal health officials warned Tuesday. An analysis of more than 2,800 cases of Legionnaires' that occurred in 2015 found that 553 definitely or possibly occurred in a health care facility such as a nursing home or a hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Sixty-six patients died from the disease. (Stein, 6/6)
Los Angeles Times:
Advocates Denounce VA Delays In Developing Housing For Homeless Veterans At West L.A. Site
A week after officials disclosed a 57% rise in Los Angeles’ veteran homelessness, advocates say the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is delaying housing development on its West Los Angeles campus. A report to be released Tuesday from Vets Advocacy, a non-profit group created to oversee the development, accuses the federal agency of stalling development of a model community for 1,200 homeless veterans on its long-neglected 388-acre campus. (Holland, 6/6)
The Associated Press:
Delaware Protects Abortion Rights, Efforts Stall Elsewhere
As the battle over abortion rights continues to spread from Washington to state capitals, Delaware lawmakers have taken the lead in ensuring that abortion remains legal if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned. The state House on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill eliminating restrictions on abortion in current Delaware law, which has remained on the books despite being superseded for decades by federal law. (6/7)
The Associated Press:
Man With HIV Charged With Murder In Infected Partner’s Death
A married man accused of not telling his longtime girlfriend that he was HIV-positive was charged with murder after the woman died of AIDS. A judge [in Toledo, Ohio] on Tuesday set bond at $1.5 million for Ronald Murdock, who was indicted last week in the February death of 51-year-old Kimberly Klempner. (6/6)