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March for Life releases its demands for Trump. The anti-abortion group March for Life is urging President Trump to vow that he will issue a veto letter if any spending bills are introduced that would extend access to abortion. Coming off of a midterm election that resulted in a Democratic House, March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said the organization will focus on “trying to preserve what we have.”

The fact the GOP will maintain control of the Senate should help with that. Still, the group wants the president to signal to the House that he will support the priorities of March for Life and other groups that oppose abortion. That would mean issuing a veto threat if Democrats were to introduce a spending bill that would gut the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding provision that blocks federal funds from going to abortions except in the cases of rape, incest, or if a woman’s pregnancy endangers her life.

Other provisions that should merit such a letter, the group said, would include a plan to gut religious exemptions to medical workers who don’t want to perform abortions, and blocking federal workers from using their healthcare plans to pay for abortions. They are also concerned Congress may try to undo Trump’s anti-abortion actions through the Congressional Review Act, which allows for changes to administrative actions.

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Anti-abortion groups await decision on fetal tissue research. March for Life also highlighted its goal of ending fetal tissue research at the press conference in Washington, D.C. Wednesday. An announcement on that issue is expected soon from the National Institutes of Health, the government’s medical research agency. Tom McClusky, the vice president of government affairs at March for Life, said that he was concerned Trump and Azar, would default to the position of Francis Collins, the NIH director, who hasn’t formally stated his position on the issue. Collins has been at the helm of the NIH since the Obama administration, and has for years been open about his Christian faith, speaking about it publicly and answering questions from reporters about how his faith impacts his work. Still, he has drawn the ire of anti-abortion groups, who say that medical research he supports on stem cells are not in line with their views. When asked about some of these policies in an interview with the Washington Examiner last year, Collins said some of the concerns that have been voiced haven’t been scientifically accurate but that he understood the issues were emotional to many people. “Certainly, I would welcome the chance, as someone who is certainly myself probably closer to the pro-life position than most of my scientific colleagues, to explain why I think NIH’s current position on stem cells is actually about as ethical as one could imagine if you just look at the details of how it is that we’re conducting it,” he said.

Azar warns that ‘disruption’ in healthcare is coming.  Health secretary, Alex Azar warned that the changes the administration had ahead would be “disruptive” to the healthcare system. “I’m a limited-government an advocate as anyone can be… but when the government has set the rules, when a system has oriented around that set of rules, it does take the government to change those rules of the road to help facilitate a competitive marketplace,” Azar said. “And that may seem big government-y, it may seem disruptive, and it will seem disruptive because you have very significant entrenched financial interests who are not at all pleased with the disruption that the president and I are planning to bring to the healthcare system.”Azar had just presented a plan that the Trump administration had put forward on how to encourage free-market reforms in healthcare and remove government barriers. Outside healthcare groups have balked at proposals that the Trump administration has put forward on drug prices, including a plan to let insurers inside of Medicare have more power over which drugs they offer. “I always find it remarkable that people are so vested in the status quo that they do not stop complaining about, but they aren’t willing to be part of changing it,” Azar said.

Analysis: Government spending on healthcare is already higher in the US than other socialist countries. One of the most popular talking points on the Left involves arguing that every other “major country on Earth” guarantees healthcare to all, which the United States does not. The talking point is an implicit suggestion that Americans are somehow more cruel than their comparatively civilized and humane counterparts on the world stage. It is accompanied by an argument for a massive increase in government spending on healthcare — to the tune of $32 trillion. But this sidesteps a crucial reality: U.S. public spending on healthcare not only already exceeds the average of comparable countries, but also of highly socialized systems including Canada and the U.K.

Wisconsin Republicans lock in Medicaid work requirements to block incoming Democratic governor. Wisconsin Republican state lawmakers have approved a Medicaid work requirement during the legislature’s lame-duck session in an effort to block the incoming Democratic governor from abandoning the changes set by his GOP predecessor. The vote, which occurred early Wednesday morning, makes official a provision that will require certain Medicaid beneficiaries to work, volunteer, or take classes for 80 hours a month. If enrollees fail to follow the requirement for 48 months in a row they will be dropped from coverage. All Democrats and one Republican, Rep. Todd Novak, voted against it. The changes have the support of GOP Gov. Scott Walker, who lost re-election this year to Gov.-elect Tony Evers and will be leaving office in five weeks. The Trump administration approved the work requirement plan Oct. 31, but Evers said he planned to stop the policy from going into effect. The legislature’s move will allow the work requirements to go forward.

Despite investments, California’s Obamacare enrollment lags slightly. Enrollment in California’s Obamacare exchange is falling slightly behind compared with last year, even though state officials have heavily supported the healthcare law. As of Nov. 30, enrollment was 1,290,500, a drop of just under 1 percent down from the 1,302,000 customers who signed up for plans around the same time last year. Democrats in Congress have warned that sign-ups would fall behind in the Obamacare exchange that most of the rest of the country uses, called healthcare.gov. That site is operated by the federal government, and Democrats have accused the Trump administration of trying to sabotage the healthcare law because it has slashed the budget for organizations that help people enroll, cut ads, and reduced the sign-up period from three months to six weeks. And enrollment there has lagged by a larger percentage than in California, by about 11 percent. But California has not pursued the same actions as the Trump administration. It is spending $110 million on advertising and outreach, and has kept the sign-up deadline to three months. It also has banned the sale of short-term plans.

How California officials explain the slight shortfall. California officials noted in a release that they delayed state marketing of open enrollment until after Election Day, meaning that two weeks of open enrollment had kicked off before that point. James Scullary, a Covered California spokesman, stressed that enrollment should be compared with 2016 figures instead, because there was an election that year as well and marketing operated similarly. When compared to those numbers, the pace of enrollment for new customers is slightly ahead. In 2016, 80,000 new customers picked plans, compared with 90,500 this year. The office did not provide total enrollment for 2016 in time for deadline, and the numbers were not recorded in the press release archives. A release from Covered California theorized that awareness about the law may be a factor for the slowdown, because last year the media extensively covered the debate over “repeal and replace” in Congress. That year, however, overall enrollment in the California exchange after the final deadline fell by roughly 2.3 percent.

Lower exchange enrollment doesn’t necessarily mean a boost in the uninsured. It’s possible in each of these cases that people are choosing to purchase health insurance directly through an insurer instead of on the healthcare.gov website, or that former customers are getting coverage through a job instead.

Nearly two-thirds of Obamacare plans have narrow networks: study. An analysis by the healthcare firm Avalere Health found that 72 percent of plans sold are health maintenance organizations and exclusive provider organizations, a similar percentage as the ones sold for 2018. The rest are preferred provider organizations and point of service organizations, which have a broader number of providers they cover. Using narrower networks is one way that insurers keep costs at bay. “Provider networks are getting narrower, which means it is more important than ever that patients understand what kind of plans they are buying,” Chris Sloan, director at Avalere, said in a statement. “Unknowingly enrolling in a narrow network plan could lead to patients being unable to see their preferred doctor or go to their most convenient hospital.”

Critical spending deal hinges on Trump, Schumer. House and Senate lawmakers Tuesday were no closer to finding a year-end spending deal that will ultimately depend on negotiations between President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. who have yet to hold talks. Congress this week is poised to pass a two-week extension of government funding for a small group of bills that cover about a quarter of the federal budget.  The extra time, lawmakers hope, will provide enough opportunity for Democrats to work out a deal with Trump on how much money to include for the construction of a southern border wall. Prior to the two-week extension deal, government funding had been set to expire Dec. 7. Now lawmakers have until December 21. The spending stalemate between Democrats and Republicans has not ended yet.

Hoyer: ‘We don’t have our own tea party now’ with new progressive Democrats. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., argued Tuesday that House Democrats do not have their own version of the Tea Party rumbling through the left-wing factions of the party after the November election. The incoming House majority leader pointed to the House Freedom Caucus, a group of roughly three dozen conservatives, and their unwillingness in the past to negotiate with GOP leaders, most notably former Speaker John Boehner. He said that there is nothing like that facing the House Democrats and that they are largely united. “We don’t have our own tea party now. You’ll see that,” Hoyer told the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit. “You’ll see that nobody in our caucus now — and I don’t think there’s going to be any significant number now and I don’t think there’s going to be any significant number tomorrow, January being tomorrow, where you’re going to have people say ‘either my way or no way.'” “We’ll see if we have anybody like that,” Hoyer added, arguing that the party has consensus on many issues, including healthcare and infrastructure.

AgileHealthInsurance is selling short-term health plans that extend for three years. The company made the announcement Tuesday, saying that customers could enroll in the plans and didn’t need to re-apply. The Trump administration extended the plans for this duration, undoing a rule that was put in place toward the end of former President Barack Obama’s term. States such as Alabama, Florida, and Kentucky have already implemented the provision. These types of plans do not tend to cover medical care for people with pre-existing conditions, such as cancer or diabetes, but the company is providing the option of adding a “pre-existing conditions waiver.” This means that any medical conditions discovered after the start of the initial policy will be covered for the rest of the terms, the company said in a statement.

CVS offers locked-in drug costs amid new federal pressure over Aetna deal. CVS Health will begin to provide clients a locked-in, average cost per covered drug and pay for any additional inflation in treatment expenses, a move that comes as middlemen pharmacy benefit managers face increasing pressure from the government. CVS Health’s new pricing model will enable clients, which often are corporations and other large business entities, “to clearly see the net cost of their pharmacy benefit and select their PBM provider based on that criteria,” President Derica Rice said in a statement. “We see a real opportunity to offer clients a simpler economic model.” The company will account for inflation in drug costs, as well as the possible shift to cheaper generics and the amount of expected rebates, in providing its clients a guaranteed average cost per prescription.

American kids are ‘political chips’ in gun control battle, Aetna CEO says. America’s partisan standoff over gun regulation has made pawns of the nation’s youth, Mark Bertolini, the former CEO of insurer Aetna, said Tuesday. “Let’s just make these changes and make them now,” Bertolini said at a Washington, D.C., conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal. “We should never feel like our children are political chips in a battle over legislation.” Aetna donated $200,000 to a firearm reform rally and banned political donations to individuals with a favorable rating from the National Rifle Association after two of its employees were killed during a shooting in a gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016. Bertolini said he called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky after the Pulse shooting to urge him to advance firearm legislation. “It hasn’t worked,” he said. “We’re still in this place.”

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