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Billionaires Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett join forces on new healthcare venture. Two of the richest men in the world are combining forces on a new healthcare venture for their employees, an experiment that will no doubt be closely watched by other large companies confronted with high healthcare costs. Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have agreed to work together to provide healthcare for their employees that is “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.” The three companies are hoping to create a new healthcare company that they say will aim to improve employee satisfaction and reduce costs. The companies provided few details of their plans in a release, and said they were still in the early stages of developing their initiative. But they said healthcare is “among the greatest issues facing society today,” and said they will be looking at ways that technology can give employees a simple way to obtain high-quality healthcare, at a reasonable cost. The top companies’ executives indicated in their statements that they hoped what they come up with would serve as a model for other entities. “The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy,” said Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman and CEO. “Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable. Rather, we share the belief that putting our collective resources behind the country’s best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes.” Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, who also owns the Washington Post, said the executives were entering in to the plan “open-eyed about the degree of difficulty” in addressing the healthcare system. “Hard as it might be, reducing healthcare’s burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort,” he said. “Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner’s mind, and a long-term orientation.”
Republicans grill CBO head over Obamacare estimates. Republicans, who have been seething for months at how the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates undermined its push to repeal Obamacare, on Tuesday got their chance to publicly air their complaints with CBO Director Keith Hall. Among other things, Republicans were frustrated that the CBO said that 15 million would be uninsured just because of the repeal of the individual mandate, a number that included millions of people on Medicaid who would still be qualifying for benefits under their bill. “What you could have said is that we are going to increase healthcare freedom for people relative to current law,” Woodall said. “Every sentence has a political flavor to it.” Hall bristled at the accusation, saying the CBO’s language was not political. “We tried to be very factual about this,” he said. Hall said the CBO doesn’t make policy recommendations and it hires people based on their expertise. It works to prevent employees from having conflicts of interest.
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Congress looks to reauthorize pandemic program as flu cases swell. Congress is preparing to build on a law aimed at preventing and responding to pandemics just as the flu season is swelling in the U.S. and ways to address it are falling short. The law, the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act, or PAHPA, is up for its third reauthorization in the fall. It originally passed in 2006, soon after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast and a strain of bird flu was spreading across Europe and Asia. Senators will spend the coming months looking for ways to make the law better, and will consider whether the amount and the way they deliver funding should change. Over time, the appropriation for the programs created by the law have dwindled, and in recent years, political battles have gotten in the way of channelling funding quickly to various outbreaks. “I think everything is on the table when you look at the reauthorization of a program like this,” said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the author of the bill. In a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing led by Burr, HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander said the plan was to write legislation revisiting the act, mark it up in committee this spring, and then present it to the full Senate, where he hoped it would receive bipartisan support. The bill’s provisions expire in September.
Senate rejects bill banning abortion after 20 weeks. The result was expected because the bill needed 60 votes in favor of ending debate, which would have set up a vote to pass it. But even with all 51 Republicans in support, the bill needed nine Democrats, and those votes weren’t there — the bill fell in a 51-46 vote. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined all but three Democrats in voting against the bill. Democrats voting for the bill were Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. Trump said in a statement Monday night that “it is disappointing” that the bill was rejected. The bill would have made it a crime for doctors to perform abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. Under the bill, those who break the law would face a fine, up to five years in prison, or both. The legislation contained exemptions in cases of rape, incest and a pregnant woman’s life.
Senators explain their ‘no’ votes. After the vote, Collins said she was opposed to late-term abortions and would support legislation to ban them except in rare circumstances, calling the latest bill “well-meaning but flawed.” The bill, she said, severely restricts the exception for rape and incest when a minor is involved. She explained also that the bill did not contain exemptions for medical emergencies, such as when a pregnant woman is at risk of physical harm, like cancer, uterine rupture, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or preeclampsia, which often develops after the 20th week of a pregnancy and can lead to liver and kidney problems, seizures and strokes. Murkowski echoed similar reasons for voting against the bill, saying that she opposes late-term abortion and could support legislation with sufficient exemptions and protections. “I firmly believe that there should be clear and workable exceptions, particularly for victims of rape and incest and in cases where the life or physical health of the mother is threatened,” she said. ”For example, requiring a teenage girl who was raped by her father to report to law enforcement or a government agency prior to obtaining an abortion simply is not workable.”
Anti-abortion group launches ads against vulnerable Democrats. Susan B. Anthony List on Monday launched websites and digital ad campaigns to attack vulnerable Senate Democrats for voting against the 20-week ban. The messaging targets McCaskill and other Democratic senators, including Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Jon Tester of Montana for being “too extreme on abortion.” SBA List has been working in states since July to encourage voters to turn out to the polls in November to elect senators who oppose abortion. Public opinion on abortion remains slightly more in favor of abortion rights, but support wanes when an abortion occurs later in a pregnancy, according to past Gallup polls on the issue.
House Democrats want to subpoena documents related to HHS ‘gag order.’ House Democrats called for the subpoena of documents related to a probe into a “gag rule” of agency employees implemented by the Trump administration. Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia called for House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., to subpoena the Department of Health and Human Services. The subpoena would call for all documents requested by the committee as part of an investigation into whether the Trump administration violated a federal whistleblower law. Cummings is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee and Connolly the top Democrat on the government operations subcommittee. The letter focuses on reports in January 2017 that the Trump administration restricted employee communications for multiple agencies, including communications with Congress.
Aetna’s quarterly profits beat estimates. The health insurance giant, which is poised for purchase by CVS Health Corp, had higher-than-projected profits of $244 million, it reported Tuesday in its fourth-quarter earnings report. The result was partly because of higher yields in government businesses, meaning Medicare and Medicaid. Aetna exited much of the Obamacare exchange for 2017 and exited fully for 2018. The company expects that the GOP tax bill, which reduced the corporate tax rate, will increase gross adjusted earnings in 2018 by about $800 million. The suspension of the health insurance tax in the latest continuing resolution is expected to reduce earnings by between $30 million and $50 million, as it will not go into effect until 2019.
Virginia House speaker open to Medicaid expansion, with a catch. The speaker of Virginia’s state House is open to expanding Medicaid in the state, but only if it has work requirements. Speaker M. Kirkland Cox said in a letter to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam that the fate of expansion could depend on two bills that add work requirements to Medicaid, according to the Washington Post. The letter comes after the Trump administration made it easier for states to apply for work requirements for Medicaid. Virginia is one of 19 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans hold a one-seat majority in the House after a Democratic wave during an election in the fall hat also swept Northam to power. The GOP also has a one-seat majority in the state Senate.
RUNDOWN
Washington Post Sessions assigns dozens more federal agents to combat illicit opioid sales
Bloomberg Trump’s threats on drug prices leave investors unfazed these days
The Hill Tough flu season could kill tens of thousands
Axios Seniors’ out-of-pocket medical costs are rising
Kaiser Health News Idaho ‘pushing the envelope’ with health insurance plan. Can they do that?
New York Times Ireland to hold abortion referendum by end of May
Calendar
TUESDAY | Jan. 30
Noon. Rayburn 2103. Congressional Men’s Caucus to hold briefing on “Men’s and Boys’ Mental Health Issues: Gateways to Opioid and Drug Abuse?” RSVP Colin Stephenson at [email protected].
3:30 p.m. 430 Dirksen Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee roundtable on small business health plans. Details.
9 p.m. President Trump’s State of the Union address.
WEDNESDAY | Jan. 31
8:30 a.m. Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health. 700 Second St. NE. AARP policy forum on “Social Isolation: An Important Health and Public Health Issue and a Significant Cost to Medicare.” Details.
10 a.m. 1225 I St. NW. Bipartisan Policy Center event on “A Policy Roadmap for Individuals with Complex Care Needs.” Details.
Obamacare open enrollment ends in the District of Columbia, California and New York.
THURSDAY | Feb. 1
8:30 a.m. Cigna to release fourth-quarter earnings report. Details.
9 a.m. National Press Club. Health Affairs and National Pharmaceutical Council to hold live webcast on “Health Spending: Tackling The Big Issues.” Details.
