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Trump administration highlights customers being ‘priced out’ of Obamacare. The health law is “increasingly failing” to cover people who don’t get the government to pay for premiums, according to the Trump administration. Twenty percent of people who don’t receive subsidies dropped their Obamacare coverage in 2017 due to increasing costs, show data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, highlighting a trend that has been occurring since 2015. Between 2015 and 2016, unsubsidized enrollment fell in 23 states, with 10 states seeing double-digit declines. “As the Trump administration took office, there were warning signs that we were dealing with a crisis in the individual health insurance market and Obamacare was failing its consumers,” Seema Verma, CMS administrator, said in a statement. “These reports show that the high price plans on the individual market are unaffordable and forcing unsubsidized middle class consumers to drop coverage.” The Trump administration drew attention to these Obamacare customers, who are cut off from the benefits of lower premiums. Like Obamacare customers who get subsidies, the unsubsidized tend to be self-employed or do not receive coverage through work. The difference is that they pay for increasingly expensive Obamacare coverage every year because they make more than the law’s income cutoff of roughly $48,000 a year. About 10 million people receive subsidies to help pay for coverage while an estimated 7 million do not. The majority of the unsubsidized buy coverage outside of the exchanges and directly from insurers. This group, CMS said, is being “priced out” and is dropping Obamacare coverage as premiums have risen.

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.

Editor’s note: Daily on Healthcare will not be published on July 4th in observance of Independence Day. We will resume on July 5th. Happy Birthday USA!

Obamacare sees decline in enrollment in latest figures. There were 10.6 million people who paid their Obamacare premiums as of March, a decrease of 9 percent from the people who signed up for Obamacare at the end of last year. Of the 11.8 million people who signed up for Obamacare during open enrollment that ended in December 2017, 10.6 million paid their first premium as of March 15, according to CMS. The agency argued in a report released Monday that the numbers will continue to decline throughout the year, pointing to 2017 figures. In March 2017, 10.3 million people paid their premiums for Obamacare plans, about 3 percent less than the February 2018 figure. But by the end of 2017, 8.9 million people stayed in their plans, CMS said. “This is likely caused by consumers struggling to pay premiums as costs continue to increase,” according to the report.

Legal uncertainty paralyzes Trump’s solution to keep detained families together. The Trump administration’s plan to expand housing for illegal immigrant families has been put on hold, as officials consider how a legal challenge to its latest border enforcement plan could be resolved by the courts. The administration said last week that it wants to detain immigrant families under the Department of Homeland Security’s authority, which would allow prosecutions of adults who enter the country illegally. That would solve the problem of family separations that happened when officials followed a court settlement that said children can only be detained for a short time before being sent to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. But so far, the administration hasn’t moved to implement its new housing plan, and officials reached by the Washington Examiner indicated they are still considering how the courts might react. “Given the recent differing court rulings, the interagency is still developing the next steps,” one official wrote in a text message.

Poll finds 63 percent of Americans agree with Roe v. Wade. Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, agree with Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal throughout the United States, according to a new poll. The poll released Monday from Quinnipiac University comes as President Trump is mulling a nominee to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had been a fifth vote to uphold the decision. Quinnipiac found that American voters agree 63 to 31 percent with the Roe v. Wade decision. Men agree with the decision by a 61 to 32 percent margin, and women agree 65 to 30 percent, the poll found. The stance of any potential nominee on Roe v. Wade is going to be a hot-button issue in their confirmation process, though, in recent decades, nominees have declined to comment on cases that could theoretically come before the court. Trump has said he will announce a pick by July 9. Quinnipiac’s poll was based on a survey of 1,020 voters nationwide and had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

Sarah Sanders mum on Trump’s meetings with Supreme Court candidates. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to provide any details of which of the four possible Supreme Court nominees Trump met with on Monday and she dodged questions related to the president’s position on Roe v. Wade. Sanders was peppered with questions during Monday’s White House press briefing as to which four contenders Trump interviewed at the White House, as well as whether any of those four were women. “The president is being very thoughtful about this process,” Sanders told reporters. “He’s looking for certain characteristics which we’ve outlined and beyond that, I can tell you he met with four people today.” Sanders said each meeting lasted around 45 minutes. When pressed about Trump’s position on Roe, Sanders declined to weigh in. “The president is pro-life, but in terms of the process of selecting a Supreme Court nominee, as the president said last week, he’s not going to discuss specific cases with those nominees,” she told reporters. During the presidential debate in October 2016, Trump said he would appoint “pro-life judges” to the Supreme Court and said that if he were to name two to three justices to the high court, Roe would be overturned.

Trump reshuffles White House staff to focus on Supreme Court nomination. Trump has temporarily reshuffled his staff to assist with the confirmation process of his second nominee to the Supreme Court. Sanders announced Monday that her deputy, Raj Shah, plans to take a leave of absence from his current role inside the West Wing press shop to “oversee communications, strategy and messaging coordination with Capitol Hill allies” once Trump announces his nominee. Shah will work closely with White House counsel Don McGahn, who is charged with leading the selection and confirmation process. And Justin Clark, current director of the Office of Public Liaison, will lead outreach initiatives to conservative and grassroots groups that are likely to support Trump’s nominee. Several of these groups, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Judicial Crisis Network, have already begun to place pressure on vulnerable Senate Democrats who will have to decide whether to vote in favor of a conservative Supreme Court Nominee ahead of the midterm elections.

Chuck Schumer hits Supreme Court contender Amy Coney Barrett over abortion, Obamacare. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, on Monday slammed federal judge Amy Coney Barrett, one of the front-runners to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, by calling her an “activist judge” who could put abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act at risk.

“Amy Coney Barrett is a judge on the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit & on @realDonaldTrump’s pre-approved list for SCOTUS. She passed his ‘litmus test’ on overturning Roe v. Wade & striking down the ACA. Here’s where she stands on Americans’ big issues,” Schumer said in a series of tweets Monday. “Barrett attacked the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, which has helped millions of people secure health insurance coverage. Barrett also fought efforts to ensure that all women have access to contraceptives,” he said. “She disagrees with ‘stare decisis’ — the idea that cases like Roe v. Wadeare settled law in the courts — and instead has said she wants ‘space’ for ‘reargument,’” Schumer tweeted. “The bottom line: Judge Barrett has given every indication that she will be an activist judge on the Court. If chosen as the nominee, she will be the deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and to strike down pre-existing conditions protections in the ACA. #WhatsAtStake.” Barrett, 46, is considered to be one of the top contenders to fill Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court. Trump nominated Barrett to the 7th Circuit last year, and she was confirmed in October. She previously worked as a law professor at Notre Dame Law School and clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.

New Hawaii sunscreen legislation may soon ban your favorite brands. Major sunscreen brands will soon have to reinvent their products in Hawaii or risk being taken off the shelves due to a new piece of legislation aimed at protecting coral reefs. The bill, SB 2571, is based on research that finds two chemicals contained in many sunscreens, oxybenzone, and octinoxate, to have “significant harmful impacts on Hawaii’s marine environment and residing ecosystems, including coral reefs that protect Hawaii’s shoreline,” the proposed law states. Both oxybenzone and octinoxate are commonly found in popular sunscreen brands from Banana Boat to Copper Tone, but certain over-the-counter products will still be permitted for patients with a prescription from a licensed health care provider, the legislation states. Gov. David Ige, D-Hawaii, is expected to sign the bill this week, the Washington Post reported.

Judge again Arkansas blocks abortion ban from going into effect. An Arkansas law that would have prevented medication abortion has been blocked for a second time by federal Judge Kristine Baker. The rule obligates doctors who provide the abortion pill to also have hospital admitting privileges, which clinics in Fayetteville and Little Rock do not have and therefore would have put them out of business. It had previously been blocked for two weeks in order to assess more evidence about whether women would be affected by the rule. Findings show that one clinic in the state would have been allowed to remain in business.

RUNDOWN

New York Times The online gene test finds a dangerous mutation. It may well be wrong

Reuters Trump administration names new drug enforcement chief

Kaiser Health News Despite U.S. court’s ruling, Medicaid work requirements advance in other states

Politico How Amy Coney Barrett vaulted onto Trump’s Supreme Court short list

STAT News Companies are racing to develop fast-acting depression drugs, but the process is tricky

Associated Press Judge extends halt to Arkansas abortion pills

Wall Street Journal Novartis injects itself into planned rollout of EpiPen competitor