Updates | The Week of June 19, 2017
The Senate released its draft health care bill, which includes significant Medicaid cuts (NYTimes).
- The NYTimes compares the draft bill with the Affordable Care Act.
- Hospital and medical associations slammed the bill (The Hill).
- So did former President Obama (WaPo).
- And four Republican senators—Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Ron Johnson—have announced that they will not vote for it (The Hill).
- An updated list of senators’ stated positions on the bill is here.
- In the New York Times, Jennifer Steinhauer argues that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may be satisfied with failure of the Senate bill.
- And in the Washington Post, Amy Goldstein suggests the bill may not help struggling individual markets.
- Several disability rights advocates were arrested in protests of the bill (WaPo).
- Meanwhile, Michael Cannon argues in Cato@Liberty that the Senate bill “preserve[s] and expand[s] Obamacare.”
Trump Administration has made cost-sharing payments, which are the subject of ongoing litigation, to health insurers for the month of June, temporarily ending the prospect of an immediate and abrupt collapse of the Affordable Care Act (WSJ).
Four congressional Democrats are urging the Government Accountability Office to investigate HHS for pushing anti-Obamacare “propaganda.” (Rewire).
- Their letter is here.
A draft order on drug prices proposes easing regulations on the pharmaceutical industry (NYT).
HHS Secretary Tom Price’s “listening session” this week included several doctors with histories of anti-choice advocacy, note Ally Boguhn and Christine Grimaldi at Rewire.
The President’s opioid crisis taskforce is unlikely to recognize one proven way to reduce opioid addiction: increased access to medical marijuana, argues Paul Armentano at The Hill.