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Obamacare insurers in California and Connecticut propose rate hikes. Insurers keep giving new fuel to Democrats aiming to run on rising health insurance costs ahead of this year’s midterm elections. California’s Obamacare insurers are seeking an average premium increase of 8.7 percent, and state officials say that the loss of the individual mandate penalty is largely to blame. The state’s insurance exchange, Covered California, said Thursday that the zeroing out of the individual mandate’s financial penalty starting in 2019 added between 2.5 to 6 percentage points to the rates from its 11 insurers. The remaining increase was linked to higher medical costs. The exchange, which serves more than 1 million people, said that most consumers could avoid any increase in premiums if they switch to the lowest-cost plan in the same tier. Last year the exchange paid $110 million for advertising and outreach after the Trump administration cut ad funding by 90 percent from $100 million in 2016 to $10 million. But even with the major ad boost the exchange still enrolled 2.3 percent fewer people in the last open enrollment compared to 2017’s open enrollment.

Meanwhile, health insurers in Connecticut have proposed to increase premiums for 2019 by an average of 12.3 percent for Obamacare plans, though there is a wide gap between the plans. The proposals range from a requested decrease of 10.9 percent by CTCare Benefits Inc., to a requested increase of 31 percent by Anthem Health Plans. Last year, Obamacare plans increased by an average of 25.5 percent in the state.

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Merck promises to avoid large price hikes. Major drugmaker Merck announced Thursday it wouldn’t increase the average price for its products by more than the rate of inflation. Merck’s announcement came after major drug companies Novartis and Pfizer said they would delay their planned price hikes. President Trump has been trying to pressure drug companies to stop price hikes. Merck said it will also lower the price of hepatitis C drug Zepatier by 60 percent. The treatment was approved in 2016 at a cost of around $54,600, which was below other major hepatitis C treatments like Gilead’s Harvoni which debuted at more than $80,000. The company added it will reduce the price of several other medicines by 10 percent, but did not identify the products. The move comes after Pfizer decided to postpone hikes on more than 40 products and Novartis also delayed hikes. Pfizer’s delay comes after pressure from Trump on Twitter and Novartis after new reports on $1.2 million in payments to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, to influence drug pricing policy at the White House.

Pro-abortion rights groups sue HHS for details on religious liberty division. The Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Women’s Law Center are suing the Trump administration for refusing to release records on a new HHS division that evaluates complaints from healthcare workers who say their freedom of religion or conscience has been violated. The groups had asked the Department of Health and Human Services for details about the division, housed within its Office of Civil Rights, including how it operates and why it is needed. The two groups are suing because they have not heard back after filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act in January.

Democrats ask for answers on Obamacare navigator funding. House Democrats are looking for answers on why Trump administration health officials have decided to cut funding for the Obamacare navigator program and where the funds will go instead. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J. and Kathy Castor, D-Fla., who are top members in the Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter of inquiry to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. “Given the Administration’s repeated attempts to sabotage the ACA at the expense of consumers across the nation, the practical elimination of Navigators constitutes another costly blow to consumers simply for partisan gain,” Pallone and Castor wrote. The Trump administration has cut funding from $34 million to $10 million, saying that navigators are ineffective at signing people up for coverage, accounting for half of total sign ups. The lawmakers are asking for a response by Aug. 2.

Manchin urges DOJ to reverse course on Obamacare lawsuit. Attorney General Jeff Sessions should defend Obamacare in the Texas v. United States case, says Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in a letter. West Virginia is one of 20 states that charges that because last year’s tax law repealed the penalties for going uninsured then the individual mandate can no longer be justified as a constitutional exercise of Congress’s taxing power and must be struck down, along with the rest of the law. Manchin is one of the swing voters for Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and has said that this case will weigh heavily in his decision. “It’s alarming that the Department of Justice decided to abandon its obligation to defend the law and the constitutionality of protections for people with pre-existing conditions,” Manchin wrote, urging sessions to reverse his decision.

Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan backs legalizing marijuana. Rep. Tim Ryan, a potential 2020 contender, announced his support on Friday for legalizing marijuana. “I’ve been hesitant to support legalizing marijuana in the past,” the Ohio Democrat wrote in an op-ed published by CNN. “But after meeting with countless Ohio families and youth whose lives have been irreparably harmed by a marijuana arrest, I find the social and economic injustices of our marijuana policy too big to ignore.” “I firmly believe no person should be sentenced to a lifetime of hardship because of a marijuana arrest,” Ryan wrote. “It is morally wrong and economically nonsensical. That is why I am calling for an end to marijuana being used as an excuse to lock up our fellow Americans.”

Kentucky to restore vision and dental benefits to some Medicaid beneficiaries. Kentucky said it will restore dental and vision benefits for some Medicaid beneficiaries by Aug. 1, after a federal court blocked the state’s rules that conditioned those benefits on a work requirement. The state’s work requirements program included an account called “My Rewards” that would allow participants to pay for routine vision and dental benefits after completing the requirements, according to Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services, or CHFS. But a federal judge ruled in late June that the work requirements were “arbitrary and capricious.” That decision shut down the program and its related benefits. Because of the court ruling, “there was no legal authority” to pay for the services out of the account, the state said, and that required a workaround. “In order to mitigate the consequences of the judge’s ruling, and avoid a prolonged coverage gap prior to the re-approval of Kentucky HEALTH, we have begun the process to reinstate vision and dental coverage, as well as non-emergency transportation services, for those whose benefits were affected by the June 29 court action,” according to a release.

RUNDOWN

Bloomberg Trump’s drug price push butts into two megadeals

Reuters VA whistleblowers faced greater risk of retaliation by officials: watchdog

Politico Medicare’s diabetes prevention program slows to a crawl

Kaiser Health News Long waits to see doctors in Puerto Rico, where medical needs are great post-Maria

Associated Press Democrats wrestle with election-year message on healthcare

New York Times What it takes to get an abortion in the most restrictive state in the U.S.

ProPublica Immigrant shelters drug traumatized teens without their consent