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Obamacare 2018 signups slightly below 2017. Obamacare enrollment fell slightly this year, with 11.8 million consumers signing up for coverage compared with 12.2 million in 2017, according to an official count from the Trump administration. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma tweeted the 2018 open enrollment, saying it was the “most cost-effective and successful” open enrollment to date. The Trump administration slashed outreach funding and halted insurer payments in the run-up to the 2018 open enrollment period late last year. “Despite delivering the most successful consumer experience to date, Americans continue to experience skyrocketing premiums and limited choice on healthcare.gov,” Verma tweeted Tuesday. Part of the reason for the soaring premiums is President Trump’s decision in October to halt cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers, which prompted them to raise rates. The payments reimburse insurers for a requirement to lower out-of-pocket costs for low-income Obamacare enrollees on the exchange.

Obamacare’s risk pool gets older. Verma pointed to data that showed the risk pool of healthcare.gov signups grew slightly older this year. The share of individuals 55 and older who signed up for healthcare.gov, which is used by residents in 39 states to pick Obamacare plans, increased from 27 percent last year to 29 percent. An insurance risk pool requires a good mix of younger individuals to supplement the older and sicker individuals in the pool. Verma added that 83 percent of consumers nationwide received tax credits.

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‘Silver loading’ pays off. The share of consumers buying bronze plans, the cheapest of Obamacare’s three metal tiers, rose 6 percentage points for 2018 from the 2017 open enrollment. Meanwhile, the number of people purchasing silver plans, which were the most popular and the second metal tier, fell 9 percentage points. That is likely a result of a majority of states using a tool called “silver loading” to offset the loss of CSR payments. The state directed insurers to put the entire cost of the CSRs onto the second-cheapest silver plan, which is the benchmark that the administration uses to determine the amount of income-based tax credits. If the second-cheapest silver plan rises in cost, so do the tax credits. Some enrollees were able to use the tax credits to completely offset the cost of getting a bronze plan, hence the rise in popularity.

CDC finds ‘nightmare bacteria’ on the rise. Hundreds of cases of “nightmare bacteria” have been found in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. New nationwide testing data found 221 instances last year of unusual, antibiotic-resistant genes that previously had been uncommon in the U.S. The CDC released a report Tuesday that looked at the prevalence of such “nightmare bacteria,” which can include superbugs that can’t be killed by all or most antibiotics. The agency said the report, which details new data gathered from state and local health departments, underscores the need for greater identification of the bacteria. “Once [antibiotic resistance] spreads, it is harder to control,” the agency said. “Finding and responding to unusual resistance early, before it becomes common, can help stop its spread and protect people.”

Conway elaborates on Trump calling for the death penalty for opioid dealers. President Trump is “talking about high-level drug dealers, really drug traffickers in very special circumstances,” Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president who has also coordinated the White House’s efforts on the opioid crisis, said at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta Wednesday. She noted that the Department of Justice outlined specific guidelines that needed to be satisfied for the death penalty to be considered. She also touched on Trump’s request to Congress to lower mandatory minimum sentences, noting people go to jail for decades for killing a single person. “The penalties just aren’t there,” she said of drug traffickers who sell products that kill dozens of people.

Idaho candidate supports death penalty for women who get abortion if procedure becomes illegal. A Republican candidate for Idaho’s lieutenant governor said women who get an abortion should receive the death penalty if abortion becomes illegal in the state. State Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, said at a candidate forum hosted by the Christian podcast CrossPolitic that women getting an abortion should be punished. Moderators asked him if he supported including the death penalty as a possible punishment, and Nonini nodded in response, according to the Associated Press. His two challengers, GOP businesswoman Janice McGeachin and former Republican Party Chairman Steve Yates, both stopped short of supporting charging women with first-degree murder if they get an abortion, the report said. However, both agreed with Nonini that abortion is murder.

House Democrats introduce food labeling bill. House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., and Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., introduced the Food Labeling Modernization Act of 2018, which would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a standard front packaging nutrition labeling system. The labels would be intended to help consumers evaluate and compare different products to see how healthy they are, and prevent misleading claims. It would require guidelines specifically for claims such as “healthy,” “natural” or “made with whole grain.”

Trump administration seeks to delay immigration abortion ruling. HHS wants a federal judge to stay a ruling that prevents HHS from blocking illegal immigrant teens from getting abortions, according to a report in Politico. A federal judge ruled on Friday that HHS couldn’t prevent pregnant teens in federal custody from getting abortions. The administration argues in a filing Tuesday that the court stay prevents officials from providing appropriate medical care to illegal immigrant minors in the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an HHS office that helps refugees seeking safe haven. The head of the office, Robert Lloyd, has ignited controversy by blocking a minor from getting an abortion. That led to the initial legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union. But the administration argued in its filing Tuesday that the injunction would “significantly restrict its ability to provide appropriate medication attention to [unaccompanied alien children] in its care.”

RUNDOWN

The Hill Planned Parenthood CEO: Jared Kushner said funding depended on no longer providing abortions

Axios Taxpayers bore the brunt of Trump’s ACA changes

Washington Post People can’t be educated into vaccinations, but behavioral nudges don’t help, study finds

STAT News New alcohol-advertising research stopped with NIH branch director’s arrival

Kaiser Health News Older Americans are hooked on vitamins despite scarce evidence they work

Bloomberg Medicare official says he reacted to rate leaks with ‘extreme anger’

Fierce Healthcare Home health CEO backs merger as a way to help hospitals tackle readmissions, lower costs