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New Republican attack on ‘Medicare for all’ will backfire. Republicans fending off Democratic attacks on healthcare have introduced the counterargument that liberal plans to extend Medicare to everybody will threaten the existing program. “If you want to protect Medicare, vote Republican,” Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for the U.S. Senate, tweeted. “If you want a socialist experiment with Medicare, by all means vote Democrat.” This argument has been pushed in various formulations, including by the National Republican Congressional Committee. But it is an argument destined to backfire. Medicare is one of the programs that functions most like a socialist-style healthcare plan in the U.S. system. Any rational strategy to stop its expansion would involve pointing out its unsustainability. By portraying it as sacrosanct instead, Republicans are providing liberals with the easiest counter-argument in politics: How could socialized medicine be so bad if you think the already socialized Medicare program is so great? And if Medicare for some is so great, why not expand access to all? The latest Medicare attack is a new twist on an old favorite. During the Obama era, Republicans routinely attacked Obamacare for cutting Medicare, without considering how their charges would undermine their push to radically overhaul the program.

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Patient groups sue Trump administration over short-term health plans. Patient groups are suing the Trump administration for allowing health insurers to offer short-term plans that provide coverage for limited benefits as an alternative to Obamacare plans. The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, becoming the latest legal case to push back against the Trump administration’s actions on Obamacare. It alleges that the Trump administration, by allowing the sale of short-term plans for up to three years, has threatened access to medical care for people with chronic pre-existing conditions conditions, such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, and mental illness. The plans are not obligated to cover the full range of medical care that Obamacare plans are and are not obligated to cover people with pre-existing illnesses. The lawsuit argues that Obamacare was intended to end such practices. It also says that allowing these plans for up to three years does not follow the definition of “short-term plans.” The plaintiffs in the latest case include the National Partnership for Women and Families; the National Alliance on Mental Illness, AIDS United; the Association for Community Affiliated Plans; Mental Health America; the American Psychiatric Association; and Little Lobbyists, an organization that advocates for families of children with serious health issues.

FDA proposes hospital subscriptions to medicines to fight deadly drug-resistant bacteria. Hospitals would subscribe to medicines intended to treat bacteria, rather than pay for them individually or in bulk, under a larger five-year proposal meant to fight antibiotic resistance that was unveiled Friday by the Food and Drug Administration. Under the model, hospitals would pay a flat rate for access to a certain number of doses for an antibiotic, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said. The move would be intended to encourage drug companies to develop better antibiotics. FDA is trying to tackle the lack of incentives by drug companies to create medicines in this area. Fighting antibiotic resistance depends on more careful use of antibiotics, meaning that drug companies tend to feel they don’t get a return on their investment when they are used sparingly. The bacteria often are colloquially referred to as “superbugs” and occur when someone has repeated exposure to antibiotics. A bacteria then mutates or takes on new genes, making an antibiotic unable to kill it or inhibit its growth. If people don’t die after an infection they can instead face long hospital stays, or become disabled. The larger antibiotic plan Gottlieb unveiled includes a developing drugs to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria, encouraging healthcare groups and businesses to be more judicious in how they prescribe antibiotics, tracking where outbreaks occur, and looking at alternative treatments.

Congress sends Trump its first spending bill for 2019. The House on Thursday passed the first package of fiscal 2019 spending bills, which will test President Trump’s threat to shut down the government over a lack of funding for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The House voted 377-20 to pass a $147 billion measure that would fund energy and water projects, military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the legislative branch for the new fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. The Senate approved the bill on Wednesday in a 92-5 vote. The legislation is a product of a rare compromise between Republicans and Democrats who had become entrenched in spending warfare and government shutdown threats for many years.  Now, lawmakers await Trump’s response. Both parties are eager to avoid the threat of a partial government shutdown in October, when lawmakers want to go back home and campaign. They are on track to finish most fiscal 2019 spending bills in the next few weeks.

What’s next for spending? The House is not in session next week but will return the week of Sept. 24 to complete work on a package of four spending bills funding Interior and Environment, Financial Services and General Government, Agriculture, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development programs. Congress will then vote on a two-part measure that would fund the Defense Department as well as Health and Human Services, Labor, and and Education Department programs. Three remaining 2019 spending bills that would fund the Homeland Security Department as well as Commerce, Justice, and State Departments won’t be completed by the Sept. 30 deadline. Lawmakers said they’ll pass a temporary funding bill to keep those programs operating until Congress reconvenes after the election.

House GOP blocks spending bill provision to require drug price disclosures in TV ads. House Republicans blocked a provision from a spending bill that would have required drug companies to post the prices of their products in TV commercials. The provision was not included in a larger healthcare spending bill finished by House and Senate negotiators on Thursday. The price disclosure requirement passed the Senate last month and has the support of of President Trump, though his administration is already working on regulations that would make companies post prices. The bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., noted during spending negotiations that it had the support of Trump and blamed drug companies for its failure in the House. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the co-sponsor of the provision, tweeted similar sentiments Thursday, saying the outcome was “embarrassing.”

House cancels Friday votes ahead of Florence. The House canceled votes on Friday to allow members to return home ahead of Hurricane Florence. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the House will gavel out after votes this afternoon, “so members can return to their districts.” In doing so, the House will follow in the footsteps of the Senate, which left town Wednesday for the week. Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., warned residents to “listen to your local officials” and “follow all emergency orders.” “Congress stands ready to assist people in these affected areas in any way that we can,” he said.

Judiciary Committee pushes vote on Kavanaugh nomination to next week. The Senate Judiciary Committee pushed a vote on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court until next week, and decided to consider his nomination on Thursday, Sept. 20, at 1:45 p.m. Kavanaugh’s nomination was included on the agenda for Thursday’s committee meeting, and it was expected the panel’s Democratic members would request the nomination be held over for one week. Grassley started the meeting by announcing Kavanaugh’s nomination vote would be held for a week due to Democratic objections. After a few minutes of debate, the committee voted along party lines, 11-10, to set the vote. Given that timeline, Republican Senate leaders now anticipate a Senate floor vote on Kavanaugh in last week of September, and have been aiming for Kavanaugh to take his seat on the Supreme Court by Oct. 1, the start of the court’s next term.

Judiciary Committee Republicans bat down attempts by Democrats to procure more Kavanaugh docs. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee spurned efforts by their Democratic counterparts to compel the release of more documents related to Kavanaugh’s tenure working in the White House. During the Senate Judiciary Committee’s meeting Thursday, several of the panel’s Democratic members made motions to subpoena documents and interviews related to Kavanaugh. Each of their motions, however, were defeated in party-line votes.

Chelsea Clinton: It would be ‘un-Christian’ to go back to pre-Roe era. Chelsea Clinton said that it would be “un-Christian” to roll back abortion protections granted by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. “When I think about all of the statistics, that are painful, of what women are confronting today in our country, and what even more women confronted pre- Roe, and how many women died, and how many more women were maimed because of unsafe abortion practices, we just can’t go back to that,” Clinton said during a SiriusXM Progress Town Hall clip uploaded Thursday. “That’s unconscionable to me. And also, I’m sure that this will unleash another wave of hate in my direction, but as a deeply religious person, it’s also un-Christian to me,” Clinton said. Clinton’s comments at the progressive event were in response to a question about how she stays motivated to continue advocating for pro-abortion policies, given those who support anti-abortion measures are just as passionate.

Maryland files dueling lawsuit to keep Obamacare working. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh has filed a lawsuit to protect his state from a potential legal decision in Texas that would rule Obamacare unconstitutional. Frosh, a Democrat, is seeking an injunction that would require Obamacare to continue to be enforced. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland as a countermeasure to the Texas v. United States case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The Texas case received a hearing Sept. 5, and if the judge invalidates Obamacare then the case could still be stayed by the 5th Circuit or the Supreme Court. It’s possible that the Maryland judge will rule that the Trump administration should keep enforcing the law, while the Texas judge will rule that the Trump administration should cease, Nicholas Bagley, an administrative law expert from the University of Michigan Law School, wrote in a blog post for the Incidental Economist. This would result in dueling lawsuits that would be settled by higher courts.

Swedish authorities clear ‘Natural Cycles’ birth control app. Swedish authorities have cleared a birth control app known as “Natural Cycles” just two weeks after a company ad was banned in the United Kingdom. The app at the center of the investigation was recently approved in the U.S. and operates by tracking women’s ovulation to determine which days of the month they are most likely to get pregnant. The Swedish Medical Products Agency found that women who use the app correctly have only a 7 percent chance of getting pregnant, which is in line with what the company said it was. The conclusions are based on studies of more than 22,000 women between January and June of this year. The app was referred to Swedish authorities in January after a major hospital in Stockholm reported that 37 of the 668 women who had abortions there had been using Natural Cycles. The agency formally closed its investigation and did not ask for any other changes.

Kevin Cramer says he backs guaranteed pre-existing conditions, accuses Heidi Heitkamp of misleading North Dakota on his healthcare position in new campaign ad. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who is running against incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., for a seat in North Dakota, said in a new ad that her “ads attacking Kevin on healthcare don’t pass the smell test.” Cramer disputes assertions that he wants to see Obamacare’s protections on pre-existing conditions go away, noting that he voted for a House bill on Obamacare repeal that would have preserved them. The House bill did call for preserving the protections but would have allowed certain customers to be charged more. 

RUNDOWN

Reuters Immigrants use less healthcare than people born in U.S.

Tampa Bay Times Medicare for All? Even Medicaid expansion is unlikely, Florida legislature says

The Hill Medicaid rolls set to be slashed under Trump-approved work rules

FierceHealthcare PwC: The financial risks of hurricanes hospitals might not be prepared for

CNBC Big tobacco stands to benefit from an FDA crackdown on e-cigs, analyst says

Oregonian Oregon DOJ says opioid manufacturer targets senior citizens, lied to sell drugs in state

Washington Post More than half of transgender male adolescents attempt suicide, study says

New York Times Top Sloan Kettering cancer doctor resigns after failing to disclose industry ties