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/

Paul Ryan: Entitlement reform the policy goal that ‘got away.’ House Speaker Paul Ryan said he decided to retire partly because he was able to accomplish many of his top goals, including a massive overhaul of the tax code. But Ryan admitted to The Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes on Monday that he’ll leave Congress next year without having reformed the nation’s entitlement programs, which he has been working to do since arriving in Congress in 1999. “The one thing that got away from us, which is my signature issue, is entitlement reform,” Ryan, R Wis., told Hayes at the Midwest Conservative Summit, sponsored by The Weekly Standard and held in Wisconsin. Ryan has long proposed curbing the growth of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, but he’ll leave Congress after his term ends, leaving the goal unfinished. President Trump has resisted entitlement reform and excluded it from the administration’s budget proposals. Ryan said the House-passed healthcare reform bill would have reformed the growth of Medicaid and replaced Obamacare, which is a new entitlement program. “I’m really encouraged we did our job and passed it in the House and it is discouraging that that bill failed by basically a vote in the Senate,” Ryan said. “Had that bill gotten done, we would have done it all, more or less.” Ryan said he talks to Trump often about why entitlement reform is necessary. He believes the president will try to tackle entitlement reform, even though Trump has mostly rejected the idea because “he knows the math.”

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.

Tom Price says repealing the individual mandate in isolation will raise costs. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told a crowd in Washington that he believes getting rid of Obamacare’s individual mandate in the Republican tax reform, absent broader reforms, will raise costs and destabilize the law’s exchanges. Price described repealing only the mandate as “nibbling at the side,” adding “there are many, and I’m one of them, who believes that that actually will harm the pool in the exchange market, because you’ll likely have individuals who are younger and healthier not participating in that market, and consequently, that drives up the cost for other folks within that market.” Price’s comments Tuesday at the World Healthcare Congress comes after he resigned as HHS secretary because of a scandal surrounding his rampant private jet use.

Obamacare allies pounce on Price’s statement. It didn’t take long for groups supporting Obamacare to use Price’s comments to bash Republicans. “One of the Trump Administration’s lead saboteurs has admitted the truth,” said Brad Woodhouse, campaign director for pro-Obamacare group Protect Our Care. “Americans now have it straight from Tom Price: Republicans are responsible for upcoming rate hikes.” Andrew Bates, spokesman for the super PAC American Bridge, added that “this shocking admission exposes the GOP’s disastrous healthcare record for what it really is.” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a frequent critic of the Trump administration’s health policies, said she was “glad to see former Secretary Price admit the truth, which is that families’ premiums are going up because President Trump and Republicans in Congress have spiked prices with their relentless, partisan healthcare sabotage.”

The percentage of people without insurance is once again rising: Survey. Gains in health insurance coverage under Obamacare are starting to backslide, a new survey from a liberal think tank said. The uninsured rate is now 15.5 percent, up from 12.7 percent in 2016, according to a survey released today from the left-leaning Commonwealth Fund. The think tank said that coverage declines are likely due to actions by the Trump administration to weaken Obamacare, including cuts to ads and a shorter enrollment period. The survey estimated that 4 million people lost coverage as of March compared to 2016. It found that rates were up significantly compared with 2016 among low-income adults. For instance, 25.7 percent of people who earn less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level are uninsured as of March, compared to 23.4 percent in June 2014. Commonwealth Fund added the uninsured rate was higher among states that did not expand Medicaid under Obamacare. States that expanded Medicaid have an uninsured rate of 11.4 percent, compared to 21.9 percent in March 2018.

Lawmakers soften their approach on addiction. Congress is forging ahead on legislation to reduce addiction and death caused by opioids, and the legislative body is now touting a mantra that addiction is a disease rather than a moral failing. “Substance use disorder is a medical illness and we must treat it that way,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said during a March legislative hearing. It’s a shift from the approaches of the 1980s and 1990s, when the “War on Drugs” centered on law enforcement and drug prohibition. Opponents to that approach have largely concluded that the efforts failed and charge that racism played a role. Experts say a combination of factors has led to the shift in thinking: research on addiction has improved, and there is a new focus on the root cause of opioid addiction — often legal prescriptions evolving into a seemingly unbreakable habit — have shifted the conversation. The opioid epidemic is also the deadliest of all illegal drug epidemics in the U.S., and effective treatment through medication is available. Read more in this week’s magazine.

Pence’s doctor complained to White House about Ronny Jackson last year. Vice President Mike Pence’s physician raised concerns within the White House in the fall about the possibility that White House physician Ronny Jackson may have violated federal privacy protection for second lady Karen Pence. The incident originally went unreported, but three memos from Pence’s physician detailing his fears were shared with CNN. Pence’s doctor accused Jackson of abusing his authority and inappropriately intervening in a medical situation involving Karen Pence, and then briefing the White House staff and sharing details with other medical professionals without consulting the vice president’s physician, according to the documents CNN obtained.

Trump weighing nominating John Kelly to head VA: Report. Trump is weighing nominating chief of staff John Kelly to take over the Department of Veterans Affairs after Jackson withdrew his name from consideration amid misconduct allegations, according to a new report. “There have been discussions among the senior staff and the president directly about the possibility of Gen. Kelly going there [to the VA],” a source familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal. Prior to serving as chief of staff, Kelly was the secretary of Homeland Security and, before that, a Marine general. Other possible candidates to take over the agency include former Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida and hospital executive Anthony Tersigni.

FDA cracks down on companies selling nicotine meant to look like candy. The federal government is cracking down on companies that have been involved in selling nicotine products meant to look like juice boxes, candy, and cookies. The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission sent 13 warning letters to manufacturers, distributors and retailers that sell the products, which are e-liquids used in e-cigarettes. Several of the companies that received warning letters were also illegally selling the products to minors. “No child should be using any tobacco product, and no tobacco products should be marketed in a way that endangers kids – especially by using imagery that misleads them into thinking the products are things they’d eat or drink,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said.

Trump to push massive welfare reforms. Trump signed an executive order last month requiring his administration to address poverty by strengthening work requirements. At first blush, Trump’s order targets a few big government programs, starting with food stamps. For conservatives, Medicaid, housing assistance and cash welfare are top candidates for stiffer work requirements. From the other side of the aisle, work requirements for those programs would amount to kicking millions of people off benefits. Yet Trump’s executive order goes much further than that. “I think it’s the starting point of the largest welfare reform movement we’re going to see in a generation,” said Kristina Rasmussen, vice president of federal affairs for the Foundation for Government Accountability, an outside group that has advocated work requirements for benefits. Read more in this week’s magazine.

CDC director requests pay cut after outcry. Robert Redfield, the new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has requested a pay cut after his $375,000 salary raised questions from Democrats. The request came after Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., wrote to the Trump administration last week about the salary. “At $375,000, Dr. Redfield’s salary is significantly larger than that of his CDC director predecessors, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald and Dr. Tom Frieden,” Murray wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Murray the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has been critical of Redfield’s appointment to the CDC.

Idaho group says it has enough signatures to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot. An Idaho grassroots group says it has gathered enough signatures for a November ballot initiative on whether to expand Medicaid. The group Reclaim Idaho planned to submit this week more than 60,000 signatures to get expansion on the ballot, according to a report in the Idaho Statesman. The group needs 56,192 valid signatures, which has to include 6 percent of registered voters from at least 18 legislative districts to be considered, the report said. The state must validate that the signatures are authentic.

RUNDOWN

Axios More people blame the opioid crisis on drug companies

Bloomberg Fitbit gains on pact with Google Cloud for healthcare push

Washington Post Pentagon to determine whether Ronny Jackson will face investigation

Associated Press Kentucky seeks relief as autopsy requests surge

Reuters U.S. appellate judge seems divided on gene editing patents decision