Overnight Healthcare: Dems trying to force Zika vote | White House tries to stall opioids bill for $$ | Free Lyft rides from ObamaCare

With less than 48 hours left before recess, top House Democrats announced a discharge petition to force a vote on a nearly $2 billion spending bill to fight the Zika virus.

The last-ditch move comes about a week after the House and Senate officially began negotiations on how to merge their very separate Zika funding bills. But the outlook for those talks isn’t great, Democrats say.

{mosads}The bill, which contains $1.9 billion in funding, comes from the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, New York Rep. Nita Lowey – one of about a dozen members involved in the talks.

While Lowey said Democrats are “working in good faith” with Republicans on the conference committee, she said there was no sign of an imminent deal. She would not say whether a deal could be reached before the Fourth of July break.

Democrats would need support from dozens of Republicans to advance their petition. Read more here: http://bit.ly/28TeQUu

Will tomorrow’s Medicare report trigger cost-cutting board?

Federal health and treasury officials will release the latest report from the Medicare Board of Trustees on Wednesday.

Some health experts are warning that this year’s report could spur ObamaCare’s controversial cost-cutting panel – the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB – into action for the first time.

Under the healthcare law, IPAB is triggered when Medicare exceeds certain growth targets. (Those targets are determined by a wonky formula that uses the projected five-year average growth of the Consumer Price Index.)

The panel hasn’t officially been formed, in part because of fierce criticism from an array of Republican lawmakers and healthcare lobbyists. That means it will be up to the HHS secretary to come up with the cost-savings suggestions if Medicare’s spending does exceed that level.

Check back tomorrow after 10:30 a.m. for more updates.

White House urges Dems to stall opioids bill

Several of President Obama’s drug policy officials met with a half-dozen Democrats in Congress last week to plot ways to halt a major opioids package as they work to add several hundred million dollars to the bill.  

“We need to slow down the conference enough, so that the White House, with your help, and the help of your colleagues, can bring it back to the American people,” one of the White House officials said, according to a New Hampshire Public Radio reporter in the room. “We do need your help slowing it down.”

The group of Democrats hailed almost entirely from New England, including both Massachusetts senators and several lawmakers from New Hampshire.

Democrats pitched a range of ways to slow down the bill – from comparing the heroin scourge to a terrorist threat to holding high-profile press conferences that could bring focus to cable TV. Read the story from The Boston Globe here: http://bit.ly/28LSjed

#ObamaCare wants #millenials

With a backdrop of rising insurer angst, ObamaCare officials are zooming in on young people as they look to drive down uninsured rates and cushion healthcare companies against more losses.

For the first time, HHS is partnering with the IRS to reach out directly to taxpayers who paid the required fee last year because they lacked coverage. About 45 percent of people who paid the fee — or claimed an exemption, like financial hardship — were under 35, according to HHS.

Of course, there’s also a hashtag. And a Lyft discount for potential new ObamaCare customers. Read more here: http://bit.ly/28LYk6Y

ON TAP TOMORROW:

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) holds a press conference about the House GOP’s healthcare plan at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Health and treasury officials will release the Social Security and Medicare trustees report for 2017.

For your calendar this week. The Hill will be hosting Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) at an event on Alzheimer’s disease research and treatments next Thursday, June 23. RSVP here.

WHAT WE’RE READING

Advisers to the National Institutes of Health have approved the first human use of the gene-editing technology CRISPR to study three types of cancer. The venture has been funded by tech billionaire Sean Parker’s new cancer institute. (Washington Post)

One year after 21st Century Cures first passed the House, lawmakers have their last best chance to get it through the Senate and send it to the president’s desk. (STAT News)

Food banks are taking steps to offer healthier foods as a growing body of research links food insecurity to uncontrolled diabetes. (New York Times)

IN THE STATES

Indiana is in a standoff with the Obama administration over data safety concerns in its Medicaid expansion plans. (Evansville Courier Press)

New Hampshire officials are cracking down on keeping drugs out of state prisons and county jails amid a statewide epidemic. (Associated Press)  

California hopes to earn a waiver from the Affordable Care Act’s ban on letting undocumented people access state marketplaces – a step that state officials hope could have a ripple effect nationwide. (Governing Magazine)

Send tips and comments to Sarah Ferris, sferris@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Peter Sullivan, psullivan@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @thehill, @sarahnferris, @PeterSullivan4