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No Memorial Day vacation for senators: Republican senators plan to write their bill to repeal Obamacare during the one-week, Memorial Day recess. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told reporters that the draft bill is being put together by leadership and staff on several committees. He didn’t detail the measures that would be in the draft but noted that it would not be the final version. The expectation is to put the draft together over the next week, which would give senators something to work with in further talks. The decision to start writing text came a day after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the American Health Care Act, the House bill that would gut Obamacare, would cause 23 million people to go without insurance through 2026 and would cause sick people to pay higher prices if they live in a state that waived Obamacare insurer mandates. The draft is being put together by leadership staff and the staff of the Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees. The draft likely will be an internal document that won’t be released publicly, Johnson said. He was welcoming the draft as a starting point.
Behind closed doors: Johnson chafed when asked about Democratic criticism that the Senate was drafting the bill behind closed doors and not going through the committee process. “I’m appreciative of the fact that we didn’t just have one committee and this has been a committee of the whole,” he said. “This has provided very fulsome and genuine input with every Republican senator that wants to attend.” The Senate working group was first open to only 14 lawmakers. But it has since been opened to any member who wants to go. Case in point was the meeting on Thursday, the day after the CBO score came out. The usual attendees such as Johnson and Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. entered the meeting. But there were some new additions as well, such as Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., who is probably the most vulnerable senator up for re-election next year. Heller criticized the AHCA after the CBO score came out, saying that he was worried about the impact on Medicaid recipients and people with pre-existing conditions.
Time may not be on their side: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., did not mince words when asked about the Senate’s timeline for the rest of the year, according to an account in Politico Playbook. “Here’s the reality: We’ve got 11 weeks between now and the end of September. We’ve got repeal of Obamacare, we’re talking about tax reform, we’re talking about a defense bill, we’re talking about … there’s about three other things, a looming debt limit. How do you pack all that in? And so far, I’ve seen no strategy for doing so. I’m seeing no plan for doing so.”
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Administration must turn over docs: A federal judge has ordered the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Management and Budget to turn over records of discussions on healthcare. By Sept. 5, the agencies must submit discussions between Congress and other agencies, which is likely to amount to thousands of pages. Some records will be submitted by the end of June and by the end of July.
Another way on pre-existing conditions? The Senate is considering an entirely new approach to managing the costs of people with pre-existing conditions. That’s according to Sen. Bill Cassidy, who wouldn’t divulge the details because he said he didn’t know whether the provision would work. He is having actuaries look at it.
Others are considering more money for high-risk pools: Senators appear not to have entirely dismissed the waiver provision in the American Health Care Act, saying that states need some type of flexibility. The waivers would allow states to apply to exempt insurers from certain Obamacare provisions, which, according to the CBO report released Wednesday, would make health insurance prohibitively expensive for people with pre-existing conditions, even with the funding for high-risk pools. Senators say much more money is needed to provide a safety net to ensure that those people can get affordable coverage. “We are working to get information from the insurance industry and actuarial people so that we can have a number that they say works,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R-S.D.
Hospitals urge Senate not to cut Medicaid. Coverage levels, the American Hospital Association stressed, should be maintained. “We believe that any legislation needs to be reviewed through this lens, and carefully evaluated regarding its impact on both individuals and the ability of hospitals and health systems – which are the backbone of the nation’s healthcare safety net – to care for all who walk through our doors,” the group wrote in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee.
AHCA becomes more unpopular: The poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University shows that the bill’s approval rating has dropped 1 percentage point from 21 percent in a poll earlier this month. The poll was conducted May 17 to May 23, so it doesn’t take into account the latest score from the Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday.
Senate plans to tackle VA reform. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday that reforming veterans’ care would be a top priority for lawmakers when they return to Capitol Hill the first week of June. Lawmakers will take up legislation to increase accountability within the Department of Veterans Affairs and protect its whistleblowers. “We know many challenges remain in ensuring that veterans have access to the care they need and deserve at the VA, but this legislation will further improve our ability to meet our commitment to them,” McConnell said, referring to the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act.
“Marijuana is not medicine,” DEA chief says: Chuck Rosenberg, appointed by former President Barack Obama and the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, reiterated an Obama-era stance Thursday that “marijuana is not medicine.” “If it turns out that there is something in smoked marijuana that helps people, that’s awesome,” he said, speaking at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “I will be the last person to stand in the way of that. … But let’s run it through the Food and Drug Administration process, and let’s stick to the science on it.” Dr. Vivek Murthy also was on stage and was asked about whether marijuana is a gateway drug. “When you develop a substance use disorder at a young age, it actually increases the likelihood of you developing an addiction to other substances,” he said. “So in that sense addiction to marijuana or any substance, including nicotine, during adolescence and young adulthood when the brain is developing is very concerning.”
Lawmakers worried about antibiotic resistance. Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter of New York, Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire sent a letter to Dr. Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner, Thursday asking that specific actions be taken by the agency.
“Congress, be bold on Obamacare. It’s what you’re there for.“ Lawmakers should not allow alarmism to distract their attention, says the Washington Examiner’s editorial today. Obamacare is shredding the individual insurance market, as the flight of insurers from its exchanges illustrates. Just as Republican members of Congress are likely to take a hit politically for whatever they end up passing, so they are certain to take the blame and a bigger hit if they timidly back away and allow this appalling law to keep crippling the nation’s healthcare system.”
Dems wants Mulvaney to abandon birth control change: A group of Senate Democrats is urging the Trump administration to not change Obamacare’s birth control mandate. The letter dated Thursday is in response to the Office of Management and Budget seeking to review an interim final rule that oversees the mandate that insurers cover birth control. Democrats in the letter, spearheaded by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., referred to a May 4 executive order from Trump on religious liberty. Democrats were worried the executive order would enable OMB to scale back Obamacare’s requirement that insurers cover birth control. The mandate has been the subject of several legal challenges from religious nonprofits that don’t want to provide it.
RUNDOWN
Kaiser Health News “You’ve got mail:” Emails and robocalls hit home in promoting Medicaid
Politico GOP turns gloomy over Obamacare repeal
New York Times McConnell may have been right: It may be too hard to repeal Obamacare
Associated Press GOP focus on lowering health premiums may undermine benefits
Roll Call NIH probe by House panel expands
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wisconsin GOP advances measure that would make state first to drug test health beneficiaries
Los Angeles Times What the DNA of the Zika virus tells scientists about its rapid spread
Health Affairs The burgeoning “Yelpification” of healthcare
CBS News Alzheimer’s deaths are skyrocketing, according to CDC
Axios How Medicaid spending caps would hit states
Calendar
MONDAY | MAY 29
Memorial Day holiday. Congress in recess for the week.
Senators begin to write draft of legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare.
WEDNESDAY | MAY 31
10 a.m. 1225 I St. NW, Suite 1000. Bipartisan Policy Center. Discussion on “Stabilizing the Individual Insurance Market” that includes Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader; Mila Kofman, executive director of the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority; and Brad Wilson, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. Details.
Noon. The Big Cities Health Coalition, the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the March of Dimes will host a webinar for reporters to discuss the threat posed by the Zika virus this summer.