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Bernie Sanders misunderstood study he used to tout ‘Medicare for All,’ author says. Bernie Sanders and progressive Democrats have defended their push for “Medicare for All” in recent days with an unlikely aid: A study from a free-market think tank that concludes, in their reading, that the reform would save $2 trillion in healthcare costs. But the study’s author said that Sanders and company are glossing over key details in the findings. “Some are people under the misimpression that the study found that healthcare spending nationally would go down or rise more slowly if we enacted Medicare for All,” Charles Blahous, the author of the study published last month by the libertarian Mercatus Center at George Mason University, told the Washington Examiner. “The study absolutely did not say that. It says the opposite.”

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The Mercatus study looked at a bill introduced last September by Sanders, who represents Vermont as an independent in the Senate, that would expand Medicare to every American. Blahous found that Medicare for All would add $32.6 trillion in federal budget commitments over the next decade. But Sanders looked past the $32.6 trillion price tag to claim that the legislation would cut overall health care spending, public and private, by $2 trillion by lowering administrative costs and drug prices. Other progressives also touted that finding. But Blahous said that the savings in the study do not come from lower drug costs or lower overhead, but rather from simply cutting payments to providers.

But those cuts are a big assumption. Sanders’ bill would reimburse doctors and hospitals at Medicare rates, which are 40 percent below private insurance. The study was agnostic as to whether providers would react to the losses, or whether certain health services would be reduced or downgraded in quality. “My study was clear that actual costs would be higher,” Blahous said. The study does assume there would be some additional savings from negotiating lower prices, citing estimates from Sanders’ original bill that Medicare for All would save approximately $846 billion from 2022 to 2031, but suggested there are limits to such savings because generic drugs are already prevalent. Sanders’ office stood by its analysis of the $2 trillion figure.

Joe Donnelly is running hard against the wind in Trump country. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., is chasing crossover voters with centrist appeals to a bulky legislative record, highlighting times he’s been in sync with the Trump agenda. The senator has distanced himself from key liberal positions, bragging that he’s voted with the White House 62 percent of the time, even more so on the president’s nominees. Hoping to earn Republican voters’ forgiveness for opposing Trump’s tax overhaul and other signature measures, the senator is touting his work on bipartisan legislation to improve healthcare for military veterans; stem the opioid crisis; reduce the exodus of manufacturing jobs overseas; and make experimental drugs available to the terminally ill in the form of the Right to Try Act that Trump signed.

FDA approves birth control app tied to unplanned pregnancies in Sweden and the UK. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a mobile birth control app despite the fact that it is under investigation in Sweden and the United Kingdom for its apparent ineffectiveness. The app, known as “Natural Cycles,” relies on the “rhythm method” of birth control, which tracks women’s ovulation to determine which days of the month they are most likely to get pregnant. The app must be used precisely to work. It asks women to log their temperatures every single morning at roughly the same time using a basal body thermometer, a type that is more sensitive than a traditional thermometer. A major hospital in Stockholm reported that 37 of the 668 women who had abortions there had been using the app, and Sweden’s Medical Product’s agency launched an investigation as a result. Last month, Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority said it was launching a formal investigation of its own, after receiving complaints of unintended pregnancy. Women who had used the product saw it advertised on Facebook.

Monsanto found liable for causing man’s cancer in landmark case. A California jury on Friday found agriculture business giant Monsanto liable for causing a groundskeeper’s cancer in the world’s first ruling on the health effects of the popular weed killer Roundup. The Superior Court jury emerged from three days of deliberations to find the global company failed to warn a school groundskeeper, Dewayne Johnson, and other consumers of the cancer risks posed by its weed killers containing the chemical herbicide glyphosate. The jury awarded Johnson $39 million in compensation and fined the company $250 million in punitive damages. Monsanto was recently purchased by the German conglomerate Bayer for just over $62.5 billion. The Johnson lawsuit was the first to go to trial, but thousands more are pending in the U.S. Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer is one of the most popular and regularly used herbicides in the U.S. and around the world.

New analysis details extent of surprise medical bills consumers face. About one in six hospital stays for patients with large employer health insurance includes a bill that isn’t covered by the plan, according to a new analysis that provides new details on the extent of the “surprise bill” problem. The analysis, published Monday by the research firm Kaiser Family Foundation, could help shape the push for legislation to counter surprise medical bills expected in Congress later this year. A surprise medical bill occurs when someone goes to an in-network hospital for care but some of the services, such as a lab test, are out of the insurance network. Those out-of-network services can be much more expensive. Kaiser found that, in 2016, almost 18 percent of inpatient admissions to a hospital or surgical center have a claim for an out-of-network provider. “Even when enrollees choose in-network facilities, 15 percent of admissions include a bill from an out-of-network provider, such as from a surgeon or an anesthesiologist,” Kaiser said.

RUNDOWN

Axios Combining common drugs with a high price tag

The Hill States fight Trump on non-Obamacare health plans

Kaiser Health News Medicaid officials target home health aides’ union dues

New York Times A judge blocked a Medicaid work requirement. The White House is undeterred

Politico Lax state ethics rules leave health agencies vulnerable to conflicts

Wall Street Journal IBM has a Watson dilemma

Forbes A Harvard scientist thinks he has a gene test for heart attack risk. He wants to give it away for free

CNN Escape from the Mayo Clinic: Teen accuses world-famous hospital of ‘medical kidnapping’