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White House unveils long-awaited media campaign against opioids. Four graphic videos showing true stories in which young people hurt themselves to have doctors prescribe them opioids will begin streaming to the public as part of the White House’s long-awaited media campaign against mass drug overdoses. The videos show how far young people have gone to feed their addiction, including smashing a hand on purpose and crashing a car. The campaign, called the “Truth About Opioids,” emphasizes that “opioid dependence can happen after just five days” and asks young people to “share the truth and spread the truth.” It is a partnership among the Trump administration; the Ad Council, the creators of the well-known ads “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk;” and the Truth Initiative, which has been credited for bringing down smoking through its public awareness campaigns. The White House says that it will be spending $384,000 on the campaign, which will be aided by private donations. The effort will benefit from free ad space provided by media partners and creators donating their time to help produce the ads.

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Join the Washington Examiner for our ‘Examining Opioids’ event June 14. We’ll be speaking with Surgeon General Jerome Adams, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. Breakfast will be served at 7 a.m. RSVP here.

Warren Buffett: ‘We’ve got the right person’ to run new healthcare venture. Leaders of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase say they have found the “right person” to be at the helm of their mysterious healthcare venture. The CEO likely will be revealed in two weeks after “tidying up a couple of things,” Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett told CNBC Thursday. In their search for the candidate, the companies did not run into anyone who “didn’t think significant improvement was both possible and important,” Buffett said. “A number of them might not have wanted to be the one to help us succeed … but nobody disagreed with the mission, the importance of it, or the feasibility,” he said. “But it’s also a very, very tough nut to crack, and it’s going to take significant time. We’ve got the right person.” The companies announced in January that they would work together to provide healthcare for their employees that is “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.” They have shared few details of the plan other than to say they want to improve employee satisfaction and reduce costs. “This is a long-term thing,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said. “We’re not looking for immediate success, but there are a lot of ideas out there. There are a lot of things that can be done better.

Obamacare ‘silver loading’ will be allowed to stay. Blocking insurers from structuring their plans in ways that allow some Obamacare customers to pay as little as nothing for their health insurance coverage would “require regulations, which simply couldn’t be done in time for the 2019 plan period,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a hearing Wednesday. Insurers used the mechanism in most states after Trump ended cost-sharing reduction subsidies. The move blunted price increases for most customers by limiting them mainly to silver-level plans. News reports have speculated for months about whether the Trump administration would ban the practice, commonly known as “silver loading.”

Trump signs VA Mission Act into law to give veterans more healthcare choices. President Trump signed a new veterans bill into law Wednesday that will allow people who have served in the military to seek care at private sector medical facilities, fulfilling a promise he made early in the 2016 election to provide veterans with greater access to healthcare. “All during the campaign, I would go out and say, ‘Why can’t they just go see a doctor instead of standing in line for weeks and weeks and weeks?’” Trump recalled during a signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden Wednesday. Under the law, if a Veterans Affairs hospital is unable to “meet the needs of a veteran in a timely manner, that veteran will the have the right to go right outside to a private doctor,” the president declared, describing the legislation as “so simple and yet so complex.” The VA Mission Act passed Congress last month with broad, bipartisan support, and will be implemented by the leadership team at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

House to vote on slew of opioid bills. Dozens of bills to combat the opioid crisis will receive votes on the House floor during the next couple of weeks, Republican leaders announced. “It will take us two weeks to finish this process, but at the end of the day, we’ll continue to make America safer and more secure and more prosperous,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said when announcing the schedule. McCarthy did not release a final list of bills that will be taken up for a vote, but at least 57 were passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Lawmakers have been working on the bills for months in the face of mounting deaths from opioids, which include illegal drugs such as heroin and prescription painkillers. Latest available data, from 2016, show that more than 42,000 people died of such overdoses.

Alexander says Democrats ‘vulnerable’ on healthcare. Democrats are preparing to go on the offense on healthcare in the fall, by blaming anticipated Obamacare premium increases on Republican ‘sabotage’ of the law. Republicans have been testing different counterarguments to the expected offensive, and one that seems to be taking hold is aimed at blaming Democratic obstructionism. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who had worked with Democrats on a plan to prop up Obamacare to minimize market disruption, employed that argument on Fox News in arguing that Democrats are the ones who should be worried about the politics of healthcare. “I think if people know the facts it’s where Democrats ought to be vulnerable,” Alexander said. “They passed Obamacare without a Republican vote. They refused to repeal and replace it, and just a couple of months ago, President Trump, we, all of us on the Republican side, had offered a bipartisan bill that would have lowered rates up to 40 percent. That’s several thousand dollars on your insurance rate, and the Democrats blocked it.”   

FDA sues soap company that claims to protect against Ebola. The Department of Justice filed a civil complaint against a hand soap and sanitizer company for claiming that its products will protect customers from diseases. The move, filed on behalf of the Food and Drug Administration, seeks to block California-based Innovative BioDefense Inc. from selling its Zylast products, which include not just hand sanitizers but lotions and handwashes as well. The complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, also cites Colette Cozean, the company’s president and CEO. FDA is going after the company on the grounds that it has falsely claimed that its products can protect from deadly illnesses including the flu, Ebola, and norovirus.

Would HHS by any other name smell as sweet? The Trump administration is seeking to reorganize the federal government, including combining welfare programs and renaming the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a report. The White House Office of Management and Budget is expected to release a report in June, which also will suggest cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, per Politico. Despite proposing sweeping changes, the administration will need congressional approval to move programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, from the Department of Agriculture to HHS for oversight, as well as to modify HHS’ name. Sources said HHS’ amended name likely would have “welfare” in the new title. OMB declined to comment, and HHS referred press inquiries to OMB.

RUNDOWN

Boston Globe Treating drug addiction with drugs

Reuters In Missouri, J&J faces biggest trial yet claiming talc caused cancer

The Associated Press More Americans screened over mystery health issues in China

Inside Health Policy CMS to announce insulin price cuts for consumers as early as next week

Axios The coming healthcare wars

Bloomberg Michigan Democrat bets governor’s race on universal healthcare

FierceHealthcare Report dives into ‘chilling effect’ of Trump administration’s ‘global gag rule’
NPR He started vaping as a teen and now says habit is impossible to let go’