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TICK-TOCK GOES THE HEALTH INSURANCE TAX CLOCK: Health insurers and businesses are hopeful that Congress will suspend Obamacare’s tax on health insurance in its spending bill due Dec. 20.
There isn’t much time, but the tax has a history of getting put on hold, and with bipartisan support. To sum it up quickly: The health insurance tax went into effect in 2014 and then lifted in 2017. It came back for 2018 and then was off again this year. It’s called the Health Insurance Tax, and it’s just one of the many taxes that was supposed to pay for Obamacare.
The tax is slated to come back in 2020, but there’s a new report out that could help bolster the case to lawmakers that it should be suspended again. It comes from nonpartisan actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who found the tax not only raised the cost of health insurance in 2018, but also did so enough to contribute to the acceleration in overall health spending that year.
Now, part of that was because spending increased in 2018 at only a slightly faster growth rate than in 2017, of 4.6% compared with 4.2%. Even though the bulk of healthcare spending is on things like hospital care, doctor services, and prescription drugs, the rise in the net cost of health insurance was enough in 2018 to help drive the 0.4 percentage point acceleration.
According to IRS figures, the tax added up to $14.3 billion spread across the different types of plans. In all, the net cost of health insurance rose by 13.2% in 2018, compared with 4.3% the year before.
“The latest National Health Expenditures data is a sobering reminder that the Health Insurance Tax is only adding to the cost burden facing the country and millions of Americans,” Stop the HIT Coalition said in a statement. “Next year alone, small business employees and their families will pay $500 more on average for their health coverage — a cost challenge that Congress can address by suspending the HIT now.”
It’s not clear yet whether the group will be able to persuade Congress to lift the tax in 2020. Even though Democrats have voted in favor of lifting the tax before, the Democrat-controlled House this session, ahead of an election year, will be wary of headlines that show they voted in favor of “repealing” a piece of former President Barack Obama‘s signature healthcare law.
It would clash with their efforts to cast themselves as defenders of the healthcare law, particularly at a time when the Trump administration has joined a lawsuit to have Obamacare thrown out in court.
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.
WE’RE SPENDING MORE ON HEALTHCARE: The CMS actuary report found that healthcare spending for each person living in the United States surpassed $11,000 in 2018 for the first time, bringing the total spending on healthcare to $3.6 trillion. The exact per-person figure is $11,172, an increase of $430 from the year before.
WARREN’S DOCTOR: ‘HEALTHY 70 YEAR OLD WOMAN’: The 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful is first to release her medical records, and is out Friday with a letter from her personal physician, Dr. Beverly Woo of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. To sum it up: A physical from Jan. 14 shows Sen. Elizabeth Warren has hypothyrodism, but takes medication to treat it, and has normal blood and cholesterol results. She weighs 129 pounds, which, at 5 feet, 8 inches tall, gives her a normal body mass index.
DEMOCRATS TO VOTE ON PELOSI’S DRUG PRICING BILL NEXT WEEK: The House will vote on Nancy Pelosi’s Lower Drug Costs Now Act next week. The bill would allow the government to negotiate prices of up to 250 drugs directly with pharmaceutical companies in the hopes of lowering prices of the most expensive medications, including insulin, and would penalize drug companies that refuse to come to the negotiating table.
And a new update to the bill: It would also add benefits to Medicare, including dental, vision, and hearing.
Big pharma opposition: When Pelosi unveiled the bill in September, pharmaceutical companies were quick to call it “radical.” Stephen Ubl, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the plan would threaten medical innovation. In fact, a recent White House report asserted that the bill would keep about 100 drugs from entering the market and thus result in “worse health outcomes” and cost $1 trillion in a decade. The nonpartisan CBO said the bill would keep only eight to 15 drugs off the market, and Democratic leaders said the agency raised its estimate of savings the bill could provide the government from $345 billion to $500 billion over a decade.
VAPING INJURY NUMBERS RISE AND ALL 50 STATES HAVE BEEN AFFECTED: The number of vaping related lung injuries ticked up again to 2,291 and, for the first time, have occurred in D.C. and all 50 states — until now, Alaska had been spared. The Centers for Disease Control also reported that the number of deaths has hit 48 across 25 states.
MILLIONS OF KIDS USE ‘TOBACCO PRODUCTS,’ AND YES, THEY PREFER E-CIGARETTES: About 6.2 million middle and high school students use some type of tobacco product, according to 2019’s National Youth Tobacco Survey released by the CDC. The report found that 4.7 million high school students and 1.5 million middle school students use tobacco, most commonly, e-cigarettes (which regulators count as tobacco products). E-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among high school and middle school students — 27.5% and 10.5%, respectively. They don’t only use e-cigarettes, though. Kids also smoke regular cigarettes, hookah, use smokeless tobacco, and more. The share of high school students who use tobacco products is now the highest it has been since 2000
MEASLES CASES SURGE GLOBALLY AS THE EPIDEMIC SLOWS IN THE US: More than 140,000 people died of measles in 2018, according to the World Health Organization, with the highest number of cases in sub-Saharan Africa. The report comes during a major measles outbreak in Samoa, where more than 4,200 people have been infected and 62 have died.
“The fact that any child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease like measles is frankly an outrage and a collective failure to protect the world’s most vulnerable children,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus, director-general of WHO. Vaccination rates in the countries hit hardest have stagnated for nearly 10 years. WHO and UNICEF estimate that 86% of kids globally received the first dose of measles vaccine through their country’s routine vaccination services in 2018. Just as a reminder, to achieve herd immunity, the vaccination rate should be about 95%. The number of kids to receive the second dose of the vaccine, though, was less than 70% of the population.
The vaccination campaign: The Measles and Rubella Initiative — comprising the American Red Cross, CDC, WHO, UNICEF, and the United Nations Foundation — launched an emergency vaccination campaign in 2001 and so far 2.9 billion kids have been vaccinated globally. The outbreak response also includes efforts to provide timely treatment, and lower the risk of death, especially for related complications like pneumonia. “We can turn the tide against these outbreaks through collective action, robust political commitment, and closing critical funding gaps,” said Kathy Calvin, president of the United Nations Foundation.
The Rundown
Vox with ProPublica and the Texas Tribune The extraordinary danger of being pregnant and uninsured in Texas
The Hill McConnell, Grassley at odds over Trump-backed drug bill
The Washington Post Tufts removes Sackler name from campus, will create endowment to combat addiction
Stat Activists seek to block a Gilead patent extension on a lucrative HIV drug
Kaiser Health News Analysis: Choosing a plan from the impossible health care maze
Calendar
MONDAY | Dec. 9
10 a.m. 1225 I St. NW. Bipartisan Policy Center event on “Advancing Comprehensive Primary Care in Medicaid.” Details.
TUESDAY | Dec. 10
9 a.m. 1225 I St. NW. Bipartisan Policy Center event on “Examining Pharmaceutical Patent Practices & Their Impact on Drug Prices.” Details.
10 a.m. 2123 Rayburn. Health Energy and Commerce’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on “Securing the U.S. Drug Supply Chain: Oversight of FDA’s Foreign Inspection Program.” Details.
10:30 a.m. 2322 Rayburn. Health Energy and Commerce’s Health Subcommittee to hold hearing on “Proposals to Achieve Universal Health Care Coverage.” Details.
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.
