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White House study finds many safety net beneficiaries could work but don’t. Many of the people in major federal safety-net programs could work but don’t, according to a new White House study. The analysis, published Thursday by the Council of Economic Advisers, helps provide a basis for the Trump administration’s push for “welfare reform” in the form of more work requirements for safety-net programs. The analysis finds that majorities of Medicaid, food stamp, and housing beneficiaries are all working-age, nondisabled adults. Within those categories, majorities work fewer than 20 hours a week.

Watchdog finds extreme use of opioids among Medicaid beneficiaries in Ohio. A new report found that nearly 5,000 beneficiaries of Ohio’s Medicaid program received an excessive amount of unnecessary opioids. The watchdog for Health and Human Services found that from June 2016 to May 2017 nearly one in six Ohio Medicaid beneficiaries got at least one opioid through Medicaid. The report issued on Thursday said that the state has taken measures to address the epidemic, but underscored major problems surrounding the prescribing and use of opioids in the state. “Medicaid beneficiaries may be especially vulnerable to opioid misuse because they are more likely than non-beneficiaries to have chronic conditions and comorbidities that require pain relief,” the report said. The Office of the Inspector General said that from June 2016 to May 2017, 16 percent of the nearly 3.5 million beneficiaries enrolled in Ohio’s Medicaid program received opioids. During that same time frame, 4,754 got an excessive amount of opioids. This figure did not include beneficiaries who had cancer or were in hospice care, which typically require a lot of painkillers.

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Senate Democrats to centrist colleagues: You’ll ‘have to answer to history’ on Supreme Court vote. Senate Democrats have to stay united if they want to stand a chance at blocking President Trump’s pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. To do that, the majority of the Democratic caucus will hammer Trump’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, as an anti-worker, pro-corporate judge who would likely cast a deciding vote against Affordable Care Act protections for people with pre-existing conditions and fail to provide a check on executive power.

Democratic lawmaker uses coat hanger to illustrate abortion rights stakes of Supreme Court pick. Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel held up a wire coat hanger and banged it on the table at a briefing with reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday when discussing Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Frankel, D-Fla., expressed anger and fear over the possibility that Roe could be overturned.

DEA aims to stop flow of opioids diverted for abuse. In its effort to stem the national opioid crisis, the Trump administration has issued a new regulation giving the Drug Enforcement Administration greater control over how many prescription opioids are manufactured each year. The DEA already sets quotas for how many opioids a manufacturer can make in a given year. But the new regulation, finalized by the Department of Justice on Wednesday, allows the DEA to lower the quota for drugs that are found to be diverted for abuse in especially large quantities. The regulation comes just months after a congressional investigation found that rogue drug distributors had given millions of pills to small communities in West Virginia.

Overdoses linked to fentanyl may need multiple doses of antidote naloxone, CDC says. New and more potent fentanyl may need multiple doses of the overdose antidote naloxone as deaths due to illicit versions of the opioid continue to rise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency issued a new public health alert to local health departments and related law enforcement on rising numbers of deaths related to fentanyl and similar products. “Multiple doses of naloxone may need to be administered per overdose event because of fentanyl and fentanyl analog’s increased potency relative to other opioids,” the agency said. Naloxone could take one dose or more depending on the severity and type of the overdose. But orally ingested pills laced with fentanyl could require prolonged doses of naloxone at a hospital.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pledges to sue if Supreme Court rolls back Roe v. Wade

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pledged to sue if the Supreme Court rolls back Roe. Speaking to a crowd in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on Wednesday, the Democrat said Republicans in control of the state Senate may soon lack an excuse for not codifying on the state level the protections underlined in Roe and called on them to do so immediately. “We now need to codify Roe v. Wade, which will actually increase the protections in New York,” he said. “God forbid they do what they intend to do, which is overturn Roe v. Wade. I want to get it done before the Supreme Court does that, because I don’t want any gap in a woman’s right to protection, and we have a better legal case when the Supreme Court acts because I will sue when the Supreme Court acts.” Cheers ensued. It wasn’t immediately clear how Cuomo would sue or who he would sue. A request to his office asking for clarification wasn’t immediately returned. Cuomo has said that once the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, should President Trump’s nominee Brett Kavanaugh be confirmed, it would have two options: Roll it back and leave it to the state law, or they can roll it back and say it’s unconstitutional, period, for any state.

Judge blocks Nevada from administering death penalty with fentanyl injection. A judge has blocked Nevada from injecting a death row inmate with fentanyl, just hours before the state was set to become the first to administer the death penalty this way. Double-murderer Scott Dozier was to be executed with a trio of drugs: the sedative, midazolam; an opioid, fentanyl; and a paralytic, cisatracurium. Midazolam’s company, Alvogen, had sued the state over how the prison acquired the drug and demanded that it be returned. Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez ruled in favor of the pharmaceutical company, forcing the never-before-used lethal concoction to be put on hold for 60 days.

Airlines urge Trump administration to tighten rules on emotional service animals. The airline industry is pressuring the federal government to tighten rules governing which customers are permitted to bring emotional-support service animals on flights. In comments earlier this week to the Department of Transportation, which is reviewing current regulations on the matter, three top airline lobbying groups claimed that passengers who don’t have disabilities are bringing emotional support pets – including animals like ducks, kangaroos and peacocks that aren’t properly trained – on planes. “These animals, which are primarily dogs but also include wild and/or untrainable species, often are unable to behave appropriately in a public setting, including within the confines of an aircraft cabin,” they wrote. The carriers want to change the definition of “service animal” to align with the Americans With Disabilities Act, a shift that would mandate the animals be trained to accomplish a specific role. At issue for airlines, among other things, is lost revenue from pets that are labeled as providing emotional service. Carriers charge as much as $125 to fly with a pet, while service animals fly for free, according to the Wall Street Journal.

HHS: We’ve reunited all eligible migrant children under 5, but 46 remain un-reunited overall. The Trump administration has reunited all 57 eligible children under the age of five who had been separated from their parents as a result of the zero tolerance policy, cabinet officials confirmed Thursday morning, but 46 additional children remain separated. Health and Human Services Sec. Alex Azar, Homeland Security Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmed details of the reunifications, and provided reasons why each of 46 other young children could not be reunited with their parents at this time. A total of 57 of the 103 children under five who had been covered by the court case were released as of 7 a.m. ET Thursday. The 46 others were approved by the court as ineligible for release because the adult they were separated from did not meet U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw’s criteria. Of that group, 22 children had safety concerns in relation to the adult they traveled with to the U.S., including seven adults who were determined to be their parents, one adult who falsified a birth certificate, one adult who allegedly abused the child, one adult who planned to house the child with an adult charged with sexual abuse of a minor, and one adult who is being treated for a communicable disease. The remaining 24 kids who were not reunited were ineligible due to “circumstances of the adults in question,” according to HHS and DHS. Twelve have parents who have been deported and contacted; nine adults are in U.S. Marshals Service custody for other offenses; two are in state jails for other offenses; and one adult’s location has been unknown for more than a year.

Senate report shows 1.6 billion opioids entered Missouri from 2012 to 2017. Missouri experienced a flood of opioids over a five-year span, according to a new report that targets drug distributors for the deluge. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., released the report on Thursday into the volume of opioid dosages from 2012 to 2017. “It’s staggering. Over six years we averaged 260 pills for every man, woman, and child in Missouri,” McCaskill said in a statement Thursday. The report found that three drug distributors — McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health — shipped the 1.6 billion dosage units of opioids to the state. It is the latest congressional attack on drug distributors for flooding communities with opioids, and numerous states have filed lawsuits against the distributors for their role in the epidemic.

Planned Parenthood launches digital ads against Kavanaugh. Planned Parenthood is launching a nationwide digital ad buy aimed at pressuring senators to oppose Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. The ads will run in all 50 states through July and focus specifically on the future of reproductive rights.

RUNDOWN

Axios Employers’ healthcare costs are rising slowly

Washington Post In major abortion ruling, Kavanaugh offers clues of how he might handle divisive issue on the Supreme Court

Bloomberg Many drug makers ignore Trump and raise prices anyway

The Hill Kavanaugh nomination raises questions about Obamacare

Kaiser Health News Insurers fall short in catching and reporting Medicaid fraud, inspectors find

Politico House GOP appropriators block funding for gun violence research

Columbus Dispatch GOP Gubernatorial nominee Mike Dewine pledges to keep Ohio’s Medicaid expansion