Overnight Healthcare: GOP brushes off Trump calling health bill ‘mean’ | Big decision for insurers | Trump order on drug pricing in the works

GOP brushes off Trump’s ‘mean’ remark

House Republicans are publicly brushing off comments from President Trump about the House’s healthcare bill being “mean.”

Several lawmakers said they do not regret voting for the legislation and questioned whether Trump even made such a remark.

That comment, first reported by the Associated Press and confirmed by The Hill, came Tuesday during a private meeting between Trump and Republican senators. Trump also said during the meeting that he wanted the Senate’s version of the bill to be more generous.

The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the private meeting.

{mosads}Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), a key proponent of the ObamaCare repeal bill from the moderate wing of the House Republican conference, questioned the accuracy of the news reports.

“I still haven’t seen the source, so I’m not going to comment on somebody, two unnamed sources who’ve said two different things,” MacArthur said. “I was with the president on Sunday [at a fundraiser] and he thanked me for my work on the healthcare bill, so I don’t know what these other people are saying he said or what the context was, I just don’t know.”

Rep. John Faso (R-N.Y), who hails from a swing district Democrats are targeting in the 2018 election, sounded a similar note.

“Those are unconfirmed reports so until someone puts their name behind that statement, I don’t give it a lot of credibility,” he said.

Read more here.

 

Crunch time for insurers: Insurers are nearing the deadline for deciding whether to propose massive rate hikes or leave the ObamaCare markets altogether in the face of immense uncertainty over the future of the law.

The federal deadline for insurers to file rate proposals with the federal government is June 21. Many insurers had been hoping that the Trump administration would say for certain whether it would continue to pay cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies for covering low-income enrollees.

No such assurances from the administration appear to be coming, leaving insurers with a difficult choice.

Next week’s filings will give the most comprehensive look yet at what the ObamaCare markets could look like next year. It’s not clear whether the Trump administration will make the requests public, though sometimes individual states will release the information for their insurers.

Read more here.

 

GOP chairman pushes for ObamaCare payments

A top Senate Republican is calling for critical payments to insurers to be funded through 2019 either by administrative action, legislation or both.

At a hearing Thursday, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) — the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — made the recommendation for making the payments to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price.

Alexander has been urging Congress to temporarily “repair” ObamaCare as Republicans work to dismantle and replace it.  

“The payments will help to avoid the real possibility that millions of Americans will literally have zero options for insurance in the individual market in 2018,” Alexander said at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the HHS budget request.  

Read more here.

 

Drug pricing executive order in the works

The Trump administration is preparing an executive order aimed at lowering drug prices, according to sources familiar with the process.

President Trump is set to meet on Friday with key officials including Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney to discuss the order, which is expected to be issued in the coming weeks, possibly before the July 4 congressional recess, the sources said.

While there had been some concern that the changes would have a negative impact on the pharmaceutical industry, the policies under consideration are not considered to be drastic. The order being crafted could be an interim step towards more comprehensive reforms later.

Executive orders can’t change or make laws, but they can be used to direct agencies to pursue certain regulatory actions.

One such policy under discussion could be to direct federal agencies to pursue value-based purchasing contracts for drugs. Value-based contracts require manufacturers and insurers to work together on payment for a drug based on how it performs.

Another policy that is under discussion would instruct agencies to pursue trade policies that would strengthen the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies.

Read more here.

 

Rand Paul denounces ‘new entitlements’ in emerging bill

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) sharply criticized central elements of the emerging Senate Republican healthcare bill on Thursday, indicating that he will vote against it unless dramatic changes are made.

Paul denounced as “new entitlements” two core elements of the Republican bill in both the House and Senate: a refundable tax credit to help people buy insurance and a “stabilization fund” of money to help bring down premiums.  

“I think we shouldn’t have new entitlements that will go on forever in a Republican plan to fix healthcare,” Paul told a small group of reporters. “We can’t pay for what we already have: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”

Read more here.

 

Murkowski: ‘I just truly do not know’ if I can support GOP health bill

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a potential key swing vote on an ObamaCare repeal-and-replace plan, isn’t sure she could support the emerging Senate Republican healthcare bill.

When asked Thursday if she had confidence she could eventually support a bill, Murkowski said she didn’t know.

“I just truly do not know, because I don’t know where it’s going,” she said.

Murkowski wouldn’t commit when asked if she would support a seven-year phaseout of the Medicaid expansion, which some moderate GOP senators are pushing. Nor would she say whether she would support a slower phaseout or a faster one.  

“My position on Medicaid expansion and my support for it hasn’t changed,” Murkowski said.

Read more here.

 

Cleveland Clinic to enter ObamaCare markets amid uncertainty

The Cleveland Clinic has entered a joint venture with Oscar Insurance Corp. to cover five Ohio counties, the companies announced Thursday.

Plans will be offered on and off the ObamaCare exchanges, a notable decision given the uncertainty surrounding the insurance markets under the Trump administration.

“I do want to acknowledge the turmoil and the uncertainty around the public exchange and the public marketplace,” Kevin Sears, the clinic’s executive director of market and network services told Cleveland.com.

“That said, the individual insurance segment is not going anywhere. We expect it will grow for some.”

Read more here.

 

What we’re reading

I’ve covered ObamaCare since day one. I’ve never seen lying and obstruction like this (Vox)

Secrecy surrounding Senate health bill raises alarms in both parties (The New York Times)

Trump administration prepares a drug pricing executive order (Bloomberg)

 

State by state

In Texas, people with erratic incomes risk being cut off from Medicaid (Fox)

California nixes full Medicaid benefits to undocumented young adults (Los Angeles Daily News)

Nevada ends years-long Medicaid wait for immigrant kids (U.S. News & World Report)

 

Send tips and comments to Jessie Hellmann, jhellmann@digital-staging.thehill.com; Peter Sullivan, psullivan@digital-staging.thehill.com; Rachel Roubein, rroubein@digital-staging.thehill.com; and Nathaniel Weixel, nweixel@digital-staging.thehill.com