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/

Obamacare allies plot campaign to punish repeal supporters. Obamacare advocacy groups are starting a new campaign aimed at pressuring Republicans over their attempts to repeal Obamacare. The groups Save My Care and Protect Our Care announced the “Enough is Enough” campaign Tuesday. It starts with a six-figure TV and digital ad buy in seven states: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Ohio and Tennessee. Advocates say polling shows healthcare continuing to be a top priority. “Our job is to stop repeal and stop sabotage and hold people who are for repeal and sabotage accountable and let the politics work itself out,” said Bradley Woodhouse, campaign director for Protect Our Care. “Everything we have seen indicated this is an extremely potent issue going to midterms.” Leslie Dach, campaign chairman of Save My Care, added that “healthcare activists will hold ‘Enough is Enough’ events across these states.” The campaign was started the same day the Trump administration announced a proposed rule aimed at extending the duration of short-term health plans to roughly 12 months.

Healthcare messaging comes as Democrats concerned about increasing popularity of tax cuts. The campaign was started amid new Democratic anxiety over polls showing increasing popularity of the GOP’s tax reform bill. A recent memo from the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA points to the popularity of the tax bill and a recent poll found for the first time a majority of Americans approve of the bill. “The approach has to be more big picture than personal, because you can’t tell people that are getting $200 a month more that that’s not good,” said Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., ranking member on the House Budget Committee, on Democrats’ 2018 strategy surrounding the tax cuts. “That’s big money for a lot of people.” Healthcare is more fertile ground for Democrats as polling of the GOP’s Obamacare bills has been poor.

Welcome to Philip Klein’s Daily on Healthcare, compiled by Washington Examiner Managing Editor Philip Klein (@philipaklein), Senior Healthcare Writer Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL) and Healthcare Reporter Robert King (@rking_19).  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.

Democratic leaders say Trump healthcare plans are “junk.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the year-long temporary health insurance plans green-lighted by the Trump administration Tuesday are “junk” that will drive up premiums. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Pelosi, D-Calif., said the plans would shrink the Obamacare marketplace, drive up premiums, and leave unsuspecting consumers who buy the new plans without coverage they may be expecting to receive. “Americans purchasing these shoddy, misleading short-term Trumpcare plans will be one diagnosis away from disaster, discovering they have been paying for coverage that may not cover basic care such as cancer treatment, preventative care or maternity care,” Pelosi said in a statement. Schumer called the plans “junk insurance” and called on Congress to write legislation that would fix the problems with Obamacare.

Idaho hasn’t asked HHS about its plans to change its Obamacare rules. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday that Idaho officials have yet to ask him about their plans to overhaul Obamacare, a step that that is normally expected when a state is looking to deviate from the federal law. “I personally am not aware of other states who have been talking about that, and I certainly have not had any interactions with Idaho myself,” Azar said of the state’s proposal to flout rules in Obamacare. Azar, who started in his role Jan. 29, added that he did not know whether state officials had contacted other federal officials about their proposal. Idaho officials have outlined a plan to offer health insurance policies that do not abide by Obamacare’s rules. The proposal has not been submitted to HHS for review, as would typically be expected under an Obamacare waiver. Congressional Democrats told Azar during budget hearings last week that they did not think the state would seek permission and asked him to detail how the administration would intervene.

Trump administration targets PBMs in new report. The Economic Report of the President released today hinted that pharmacy benefit managers won’t be immune from scrutiny as the administration searches for ways to fight high drug prices. Pharmacy benefit managers oversee drug plans for insurers and negotiate with drug makers over prices. “They negotiate rebates off manufacturers’ list prices and then pass on some of the benefit to health insurance plans and beneficiaries,” the report issued by the Council of Economic Advisers said. But the PBM market is highly concentrated, with only three companies accounting for 85 percent of the market. That allows them to “exercise undue market power against manufacturers and the health plans and beneficiaries they are supposed to be representing, thus generating outsized profits for themselves,” the report said. There is also a lack of transparency, specifically surrounding the size of the rebates and the percentage of the rebate passed on to insurers and patients. “The system encourages manufacturers to set artificially high list prices, which are reduced via manufacturers’ rebates but leave uninsured individuals facing high drug prices,” the report said.  It recommends policies to break up monopolies in the PBM market and other parts of the supply chain such as pharmacy wholesalers.

Report highlights new front in the opioid epidemic. The report also focuses on how the opioid epidemic is defying conventional public health approaches. It documents some relative success at lowering the amount of prescriptions for painkillers, which has been a key driver of the epidemic that federal data has shown on average kills 115 Americans every day. “Unfortunately, initiatives that have decreased prescription opioid abuse have led some abusers to turn from prescription opioids to cheaper, more available heroin,” the report said. Another major problem is the increased availability of cheaper and more potent fentanyl.

Senior HHS official put on leave after sharing social media conspiracies. Jon Cordova, principal deputy assistant secretary for administration at HHS, shared posts claiming Gold Star father Khizr Khan is a “Muslim Brotherhood agent” and that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was involved with prostitutes. The social media details were uncovered by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski. HHS officials said that Cordova, who was overseeing the workforce structure at HHS, has been placed on administrative leave while they look into the matter.

Lesbian couple sues HHS, Catholic Church over being blocked as foster parents. A lesbian couple has sued the Trump administration over a denial of their application to serve as foster parents for refugee children. The lawsuit, filed by the LGBTQ legal group Lambda Legal, says married couple Fatma Marouf and Bryn Esplin tried to become foster parents for refugee children. It was filed against the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. HHS gives the conference, which is made up of all active and retired Catholic U.S. bishops, grants for the foster care program through the agency’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia charges that HHS and the conference are violating equal protection clauses under the Constitution by allowing the conference to impose a “religious test governing the provision of federal child welfare services.” HHS said it had no comment on the lawsuit, and the USCCB did not immediately return requests for comment.

Kratom advocates push back against government claims that the product is infected with salmonella. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned the public Tuesday to stay away from the drug kratom, saying that 11 people they had interviewed who had salmonella recently used the product. But the Chapman Action Network, which lobbies on behalf of kratom rights, said the CDC’s warning was suspect and comes soon after the Food and Drug Administration raised concerns against the product. “The summary of these outbreaks does not actually justify the CDC’s claim that the source was ‘likely from Kratom,’ it simply shows that several people they interviewed with salmonella, had also used Kratom recently,” the group said in a blog post.

RUNDOWN

Axios The big picture on Trump’s healthcare changes

The Hill Dems seek reversal of nursing home regulatory rollback

NPR Doctors in China lead race to treat cancer by editing genes

STAT News New Medicare rule could limit cancer patients’ access to genetic testing, physicians warn

Politico Trump IRS seeks millions in Obamacare fines even though the law is ‘dead’

Wall Street Journal Albertsons scoops up remainder of Rite Aid as retailers face online threat

Los Angeles Times U.S. healthcare system needs more skills for paying bills, study says

Associated Press Bills would impose work requirements for Medicaid in Alaska