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GROUPS BLAST WHITE HOUSE AS ‘ANTI-FAMILY’ AHEAD OF MAJOR SUMMIT: Nearly 100 outside groups have slammed the Trump administration for its record on policies affecting families, just ahead of a White House summit on paid leave and childcare.
The summit is set for a half day Thursday and is happening as the White House is poised to lock in a related victory. The House, as part of its defense spending bill, will pass a measure Wednesday that would provide paid parental leave for federal workers. The deal was struck in exchange for adding Space Force as the sixth branch of the military, and is expected to pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Trump.
But outside groups — including liberal groups, labor unions, and organizations who advocate for policies affecting women and children — are angry about the Trump administration’s record on policies that affect families. In a letter going out Wednesday, provided first to the Washington Examiner, they blasts the Trump administration for actions or inactions they consider “anti-family.”
As examples, they take issue with the administration’s immigration record, cite that under Trump 2 million more people have become uninsured, that a rule change would cut off food stamps from 700,000 people, and that gun deaths among children persist.
“For so many of us, when we see and hear words around a summit to help working families, the hypocrisy is just so loud,” said Shilpa Phadke, vice president of the Women’s Initiative at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, which co-hosted a family summit under the Obama administration. She added, “We all just felt so strongly that someone had to put these actions in context and remind the White House that they claim to be champions of families when they are harming families every day, and we are here to hold them accountable for all of those issues.”
Organizations signing onto the letter include AFL-CIO, SEIU, American Federation of Teachers, Children’s Defense Fund, and the National Association of Social Workers.
“Attempts to distract from this record are smoke and mirrors,” they write in the letter. “This White House cannot promote policies that both denigrate people across race, class, ability, and gender and undermine children and families, and then proclaim themselves as the champions of working families.”
White House aides responded to the letter with a list of items they consider pro-family and children. Outside the federal worker benefit ahead, they noted first daughter and senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump has been working with members of Congress on parental leave and attended roundtables about childcare around the U.S. They noted the tax overhaul included a provision that doubled the Child Tax Credit and that the 2019 omnibus expanded block grants for childcare to states.
Good morning and welcome to the Washington Examiner’s Daily on Healthcare! This newsletter is written by senior healthcare reporter Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL) and healthcare reporter Cassidy Morrison (@CassMorrison94). You can reach us with tips, calendar items, or suggestions at [email protected]. If someone forwarded you this email and you’d like to receive it regularly, you can subscribe here.
OPINION: WHY ATTACKING PRIVATE INSURANCE WILL UNDERMINE DEMOCRATS’ SUBURBAN STRATEGY IN 2020: In his latest piece, Washington Examiner executive editor Philip Klein dives into Census health coverage data from a selection of suburban areas considered important to the outcome of the 2020 elections, finding that not only do these communities have lower uninsured rates than exist nationally, but a disproportionate number of those who are insured have private coverage. Take a look.
AS HISTORIC VOTE ON DRUG PRICING BILL TEES UP, WHERE ARE PATIENT GROUPS? The legislation isn’t going past the House, but it promises to drastically lower the price of prescription drugs for patients, so why haven’t patient advocacy groups reacted with fanfare? We asked around, and learned that some organizations did support parts of the bill but not others. We also found out that groups who fear the bill would threaten access to future medicines are unwilling to cross Democrats ahead of the election for a bill that won’t become law, and at a time when a spending deal that includes a slew of healthcare provisions is imminent. Plus, a lot of organizations get some of their funding from the pharmaceutical industry.
PROGRESSIVES ON BOARD FOR DRUG PRICING BILL: Speaker Nancy Pelosi was able to win them over by increasing the minimum number of drugs to be negotiated to double where it started when it was first introduced, to 50. She also reinstituted a provision that would allow the government to issue regulations for rebates in group plans when drug companies hike prices, the Hill and Politico report. The bill is set for a vote Thursday.
Before that change, we had a new CBO score. The score, which is now out of date due to the latest additions, said the government would save $456 billion. It predicted eight fewer treatments and cures would reach the market over 10 years and that 30 fewer would hit the market in subsequent years.
‘CAN’T BUILD A WALL AGAINST A VIRUS’: DOCTORS DEMAND MIGRANTS IN DETENTION RECEIVE FLU SHOTS: About 50 physicians and healthcare professionals stood at the gate of a Customs and Border Protection detention center Monday and Tuesday demanding that agents administer flu shots to detained migrants. Many of the doctors who went to the San Diego-area border down to protest came from all over the country, according to MedPage Today, and had 120 doses of the influenza vaccine ready to go if CBP would allow them into the detention center. “What we’ve proposed is a pilot program,” said Dr. Bonnie Arzuaga, a neonatologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and one of the demonstration’s organizers. “We want to show them that this is feasible, and we have dozens of volunteer physicians and nurses here with us who have volunteered their time, taken time off from work to do this. … All they have to do is open the gates.”
SANDERS HECKLED DURING ‘MEDICARE FOR ALL’ PITCH: In his “Medicare for all” pitch at a union event in Las Vegas, Sanders was heckled by some audience members. One man in the audience yelled: “How are you gonna to pay for it?” After Sanders’ speech, though, Culinary Union president Ted Pappageorge said: “We’re gonna let candidates speak without any kind of heckling. If you want to heckle, go outside and heckle. We want to learn. The town halls are to learn. Frankly not to learn from the hecklers, but the candidates.”
OBAMA ISSUES OPEN ENROLLMENT REMINDER: Former President Barack Obama tweeted out a last-minute reminder that open enrollment for health coverage on the Obamacare exchanges ends Sunday. “I thought it was about time I share my holiday gift list — a few practical items, all $10 or less. The best one? Health care for you or somebody you care about. The deadline to sign up is December 15. Go to http://HealthCare.gov and get covered.”
Trump has not tweeted out any reminders about health plan enrollment, and has called the Affordable Care Act a “disaster,” so it’s not likely he’ll urge Americans to enroll. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma sent a reminder via her Twitter page when the open enrollment period began to encourage people to sign up for coverage, and has tweeted about it a few times since.
The Rundown
Modern Healthcare Supreme Court may side with insurers on risk-corridor payments
Politico ‘A f—ing soap opera’: The health care drama riveting the White House
Bangor Daily News Medicaid expansion enrollment is lagging behind projections in Maine. These are the barriers
The Wall Street Journal New York Life in talks to buy Cigna unit for up to $6 billion
NPR He started vaping THC to cope with chronic pain. Then he got sick
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Black leaders question Mercy’s plan to open health clinic in Ferguson
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | Dec. 11
10 a.m. 1225 I St. NW. Bipartisan Policy Center event on “Modernizing the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute to Promote Value-Based Care.” Details.
SUNDAY | Dec. 15
Final day of healthcare.gov open enrollment.
