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Marco Rubio prepares to roll out ‘conservative solution’ to paid family leave. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is introducing legislation next week that is likely to allow parents to draw from their Social Security benefits early in what he is calling a “conservative solution” for paid family leave. Full details of the bill haven’t been disclosed yet, but an aide to Rubio confirmed it would be similar to an idea from the conservative Independent Women’s Forum. Under the plan, the provision to draw from Social Security would be available to each spouse for up to 12 weeks, for a total of 24 weeks, for each child who has been born or adopted. In return, parents would defer their retirement benefits for the amount of time necessary to offset the cost of their parental benefits. In a video released Thursday, provided in advance to the Washington Examiner, Rubio touts his efforts to expand the child tax credit and promises to make passing paid family leave a priority. “Starting and raising a family should not bankrupt working Americans,” Rubio said in the video. “That’s why we need to find a conservative solution to provide paid family leave in a fiscally responsible way.” The Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee is holding a hearing on paid family leave July 11.

Welcome to Philip Klein’s Daily on Healthcare, compiled by Washington Examiner Managing Editor Philip Klein (@philipaklein), Senior Healthcare Writer Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL) and Healthcare Reporter Robert King (@rking_19).  Email [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list.

Major drug makers ignore plea from HHS to not hike drug prices. Several top drugmakers have decided to raise prices this month, a few days after a plea from Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar for restraint. Pfizer has decided to raise prices for more than 40 drugs, with some big ones like Viagra and antidepressant Zoloft getting a price hike of nearly 10 percent. Several other drugmakers also plan to make hikes to their products. The hikes from several drugmakers come a week after Azar appeared before the Senate Finance Committee to discuss healthcare affordability. Azar told the panel that he has been disappointed by price hikes and wanted to put drug companies on notice. “We are hitting July 1, the traditional time for drug price increases,” Azar told the panel. “I hope they will exercise restraint as we come across this period.” Critics have said the blue print does not do enough to tackle a drug maker’s ability to set a list price for a product at any rate they choose. “The problem is the price and, as evidenced by this week’s news, the price is controlled by manufacturers,” said Will Holley, spokesman for the nonprofit Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, which gets funding from insurer and hospital groups.

HHS spent 500 hours facilitating congressional visits in June instead of helping migrant kids in its custody. The Department of Health and Human Services is being inundated with last-minute tour requests from mostly Democratic members of Congress to such an extent that it has forced the federal agency to spend hundreds of hours facilitating visits for lawmakers instead of helping migrant children in its custody. “To date, nearly 500 work hours have been spent facilitating congressional visits to facilities for more than 70 Members of Congress,” Matt Bassett, assistant secretary for legislation at HHS, wrote in a letter to Senate and House Judiciary Committee Chairs Chuck Grassley and Bob Goodlatte. “Many of these hours would otherwise have been spent by ORR field and grantee staff verifying parental relationships to prevent child trafficking, facilitating check-in calls between parents and children, facilitating and reviewing foster family home studies, coordinating the delivery of food and medical supplies, and many other duties vital to the health and welfare of the children,” Bassett added in the Monday-dated letter that was released Tuesday afternoon. More than 70 congressmen and 60 congressional staffers visited HHS facilities in June.

Azar recommends screening of newborns for fatal genetic disease. HHS Secretary Alex Azar has recommended states implement screening for spinal muscular atrophy, a rare and fatal genetic disease in which breathing muscles fail. Advocacy groups have been urging screening for all 4 million infants in the U.S. because the Food and Drug Administration recently approved a treatment for the illness, which must be administered early to keep neurons from dying. Babies are screened for 34 other conditions when they are born.

Abortion rights groups hit Susan Collins with ads on SCOTUS vote. Full-page ads focused on abortion rights are running in Maine newspapers beginning this week to pressure Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to vote against President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. The ads, paid for by the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America, will run in print and on the homepages of the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel, Bangor Daily News and Lewiston Sun Journal. They read, “Trump has been loud and clear in saying he’d pick Supreme Court Justices to end Roe v. Wade. We believe him. Don’t you, Sen. Collins?” Collins, who has supported abortion rights throughout her political career, has said she is concerned about Roe’s future. and her vote is pivotal in the process because her party holds 50 seats. On Sunday, she said she would not support a nominee who has demonstrated a “hostility” toward the 1973 decision and said a candidate who would overturn Roe “would indicate an activist agenda that I don’t want to see a judge have.”

Abortion rights groups say Senate should only confirm SCOTUS nominee who believes there’s a constitutional right to abortion. A collection of abortion rights groups laid out their standard for what President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court should view regarding abortion and Obamacare. Officials said that they don’t want a nominee to say that the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling is “precedent,” noting that justices have said in confirmation hearings they will respect precedent then ignore it. “Clearly saying precedent alone can no longer be an acceptable answer or standard by which senators can accurately judge,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Laguens said that instead abortion rights groups will want a nominee to uphold a “personal liberty standard.” “The Senate must only confirm a justice who firmly declares that the constitution protects individual liberty and the right of all people to make personal decisions about their bodies and relationships, including the right to have contraception, the right to an abortion and to marry the person who you choose,” she added. Planned Parenthood joined NARAL Pro-Choice, National Women’s Law Center and Demand Justice at the press conference. The message comes as Sen. Susan Collins, a pro-abortion rights Republican, recently said she felt comfortable voting to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch due to his assurances about respecting precedent.

Supreme Court front-runner encounters conservative skepticism. A U.S. circuit court judge who is seen inside the White House as a front-runner for the Supreme Court nomination is drawing criticism from conservatives who fear he would be more likely than others on Trump’s list to gravitate toward the court’s ideological middle if appointed. Sources close to the nomination process, including at least two influential conservative groups, have told the White House counsel’s office they are concerned about D.C. Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The former clerk to Kennedy was added in November to a list of judges the president has promised to draw from for Supreme Court nominations, and he has since emerged as one of four top contenders for the latest vacancy. The debate over Kavanaugh first began when he was added to that list, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The move was immediately met with protest from anti-abortion groups who had reservations about the Bush appointee and what his reasoning might look like if given the opportunity to overturn Roe. “There are concerns in the pro-life community that his decisions in some cases mean he’s not as solidly pro-life as we would like him to be,” a source close to the White House told the Washington Examiner. “I want to make clear that I admire Judge Kavanaugh and that my criticisms of him are only at the margins, when compared with other potential nominees,” Quin Hillyer, a veteran conservative columnist who has written extensively on the courts.

Liberal groups take aim at a leading Supreme Court candidate’s religious beliefs. As the battle over the Supreme Court vacancy continues to heat up, liberal advocacy groups and some Democrats are honing in on federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett and raising concerns about her ability to balance her role as a justice with her Catholic faith. A number of liberal groups launched campaigns on Twitter on Monday in opposition to Barrett, warning that, if nominated and confirmed to the Supreme Court, she would jeopardize Roe and Obamacare. But some of the groups also charged that Barrett will put her religious views over her role as a justice and suggested that, because of she is a devout Catholic, Barrett should not hear cases involving abortion or same-sex marriage. “Amy Coney Barrett believes judges should be bound by their religious faith — not the law,” Friends of the Earth warned its supporters. “She doesn’t belong on our nation’s highest court.” “Amy Coney Barrett has been perfectly clear — she wants to overturn #RoevWade. She also belongs to a group that both refers to woman as ‘handmaids’ (no, we’re not joking) & believes that husbands are in charge of their wives. She’s on Trump’s #SCOTUS shortlist,” NARAL Pro-Choice America tweeted. “A religious group in which members take an oath of loyalty to each other and are supervised by a male ‘head’ or female ‘handmaiden.’ That looks like a cult. Now she wants a seat on SCOTUS for the sole purpose of overturning Roe v. Wade. The answer is NO,” Richard Painter, President George W. Bush’s former ethics chief who is running for the Senate as a Democrat in Minnesota, tweeted. Comey is no stranger to attacks on her faith. During her confirmation hearing for her appeals court position, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told Barrett “the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s a concern.” Feinstein’s comments were condemned by the heads of Notre Dame and Princeton University, as well as by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and rallied conservatives who saw the comments as imposing a religious test on court nominees.

New Jersey will allow transgender people to alter birth certificates without proof of gender reassignment surgery. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy approved legislation Tuesday that will permit transgender individuals to legally alter the sex that is recorded on birth and death certificates. The law Murphy signed demands that New Jersey’s Registrar of Vital Statistics provide an amended birth certificate to transgender individuals and no longer requires them to provide documentation of sex reassignment surgery. “Today is an important day for New Jersey as we continue to strive toward equality for all of our residents, regardless of sex or gender expression,” Murphy, a Democrat, said in statement. “Allowing vital records to match gender identity is an important step forward that will allow transgender individuals to control the disclosure of their transgender status.” The bill was rejected twice by former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie during his time in office.

RUNDOWN

Louisville Journal-Courier Kids wrongly denied care under Bevin’s Medicaid cuts, dentists say

CNN Deaths from bacterial disease spiked during Maria

Politico Victims blame FDA for food recall failures

New York Times Obamacare is proving hard to kill

Associated Press Governor says that hospital tax could cover Maine Medicaid expansion

Bloomberg How private equity keeps states invested in medical billing practices they’ve banned

Kaiser Health News Texas clinics busting traditional silos of physical and mental healthcare

STAT News As drug resistance grows, combining antibiotics could turn up new treatments

Axios CVS: We haven’t stopped price cuts on drugs