SIGN UP! If you’d like to continue receiving Washington Examiner’s Daily on Healthcare newsletter, SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://newsletters.washingtonexaminer.com/newsletter/daily-on-healthcare/

Supreme Court blocks Louisiana abortion law from taking effect. The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a Louisiana abortion law from taking effect in a split 5-4 vote. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberal wing in putting enforcement of the Louisiana law on hold. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh said they would have denied the stay application, allowing the law to take effect. The case marked the first time the Supreme Court has taken action on a case dealing with abortion since Kavanaugh, who replaced Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined the high court in October. The Louisiana law requires doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. The Center for Reproductive Rights and abortion clinics in Louisiana had filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court to block the law from going into effect, arguing that it was similar to a Texas law the Supreme Court struck down in a 2016 decision. “This should be an easy case — all that’s needed is a straightforward application of the court’s own precedent,” Nancy Northrup, CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement in response to the Supreme Court’s action.

Kavanaugh wrote the dissent. Kavanaugh said the case “largely turns” on whether Louisiana’s three doctors who provide abortions can obtain the necessary admitting privileges during a 45-day regulatory transition period. The plaintiffs then could bring a challenge to the law if the doctors were unable to obtain admitting privileges at the end of that period, Kavanaugh wrote.

The case could still get a hearing. Jeff Landry, Louisiana’s attorney general, said in a statement he is hopeful the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case on the merits of the law and argued the state’s abortion restrictions are “constitutional and consistent with our overall regulatory scheme for surgical procedures.” “We will not waver in defense of our state’s pro-woman and pro-life laws; and we will continue to do all that we legally can to protect Louisiana women and the unborn,” Landry said.

Welcome to Philip Klein’s Daily on Healthcare, compiled by Washington Examiner Executive Editor Philip Klein (@philipaklein) and Senior Healthcare Writer Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL). Email [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list.

Secret group seeks medical panel to judge the mental health of Trump and other candidates. A secretive working group is devising a plan to create a medical panel that would screen the health of the president and candidates in the hopes of determining that President Trump is not fit for office or stopping another like him. The public face of the five-person group, most of whom have decided to remain anonymous, is Dr. Bandy Lee, a Yale University psychiatrist who edited a controversial book of essays concluding Trump is dangerous to the country because he has shown he is mentally unfit. “Based on the experience with the current president, we are calling for regular fitness for duty exams on presidential and vice presidential candidates, preferably as a requirement sometime before they take on the job, and even preferably before they run,” Lee said. Lee’s group realizes that Congress won’t enact such a requirement, which would include annual exam every year after winning the election, and instead is looking to demand that candidates voluntary submit to being examined by the panel. They plan to publish a proposal and make the case that the medical panel is needed to prevent mentally unfit people from entering high office. “We would like to keep this entire process as voluntary and confidential as possible, but also in a democracy we believe the public has a right to know if a dangerous person is pursuing the presidency,” Lee said.

Brady hopes to start over if courts strike down Obamacare. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, has been telling reporters that he believes Congress would act if the courts ultimately declare Obamacare unconstitutional. In a meeting with the Washington Examiner’s editorial board on Thursday, however, he stated that he was open to bipartisanship but also said Republicans wouldn’t move to reinstate the rules on pre-existing conditions as they are spelled out in Obamacare. Instead, the proposals he put forward on healthcare would be nonstarters for Democrats. He said the plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, the American Health Care Act, would be the best way to go, and praised the Trump administration’s actions on the law. House Democrats have been holding hearings about the actions the administration is taking, and next week will consider three bills to protect Obamacare. The bills won’t advance under a GOP Senate and White House, but they’re aimed at signalling to voters that the party vehemently disagrees with where Republicans stand. Brady, in turn, disagrees with the Democratic approach, and said that Obamacare hasn’t been working because premiums are too high, the plans have narrow networks, and customers still face large out-out-pocket costs. “They’re propping up a failing healthcare law,” he said of the bills up for consideration.

All Judiciary Committee Republicans have signed onto 20-week abortion ban. All Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have signed on to the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the bill that bans abortion after 20 weeks and that has the support of President Trump. This is likely to ease the passage through the committee, and anti-abortion advocates have pressed the Senate to bring it to the floor so the vote of each senator will be placed on the record. An attempt to pass the bill during the last Congress fell short.

Johnson & Johnson to post list prices on ads. The healthcare company is the first to move forward in including list prices for drugs in TV commercials. It will begin with its drug Xarelto, a blood thinner, and will start putting out the commercials in March. The disclaimer will include the drug’s list price and what patients typically pay out of pocket, and direct customers to a website where they can check how their specific insurance will impact what they pay. The actions are pre-empting regulations from the Trump administration that will require all drug companies to do this in an effort to ultimately get list prices down.

Melania Trump shines spotlight on opioid addiction recovery efforts. Melania Trump kicked off her third year as first lady by highlighting success stories in overcoming the opioid epidemic. In her first solo event since December, Trump spoke about the crisis to dozens of students at the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America National Leadership Forum. She then received a briefing on the issue at the Office of the National Drug Control Policy. “Recovery is possible,” she told students in National Harbor, Md.

Nearly 14,000 unaccompanied minors referred to HHS so far this year. Almost 14,000 children who arrived at the southern border and were taken into custody have been transferred into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services since the start of the fiscal year, according to an HHS official. “Thus far, this fiscal year, we’ve received just under 14,000 referrals,” Commander Jonathan White, the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps for HHS, testified Thursday before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The fiscal year starts Oct. 1. White did not specify if those minors were people who arrived at the border alone or if it included some children who were separated from a parent while in Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. CBP data from fiscal 2019 shows a total 15,013 minors arrived by themselves between October and December. White didn’t clarify if the nearly 14,000 children referred to HHS is the total from October through December, or October through January.

RUNDOWN

Kaiser Health News Former Rep. John Dingell dies; longest-serving congressman was a force in health policy

Politico Liberals worry Pelosi may pivot away from a bold drug price plan

CNN Ahead of annual physical, Trump has not followed doctor’s orders

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Kemp to seek Medicaid, Obamacare waivers for Georgia

Reuters FDA pulls up Walgreens for violating tobacco sale laws by selling to minors

The Associated Press White House report claims Trump didn’t sabotage Obamacare