Overnight Healthcare: Conservatives seek changes to Senate bill | GOP may keep ObamaCare tax in health bill | Trump taps new surgeon general

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are seeking changes to the upper chamber’s ObamaCare repeal-and-replace legislation.

They met Thursday with GOP leaders and the Senate parliamentarian.

The conservative senators are pushing for a change to the bill that would allow insurers who sell plans that meet ObamaCare insurance regulations to also sell plans that don’t meet those rules.

{mosads}They say that change would help win their votes for the bill, which they currently oppose.

But the proposal has drawn resistance from other Republicans who want to maintain ObamaCare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions and worry that the change would allow plans to be sold without those protections.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2s76q32

GOP considers keeping ObamaCare tax in revised health bill

Senate Republicans are considering dropping a tax break for the wealthy from their ObamaCare repeal bill as they seek to secure 50 votes for the legislation.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Thursday said the bill would be changed to increase the subsidies that help lower-income people afford health insurance. The most likely way for that to happen is by keeping a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for high earners, Corker said.

“We [want to] address the issue of ensuring lower-income citizens are in a position to buy plans that are actually provide them appropriate healthcare,” Corker said. To do that, “my sense is the 3.8 percent repeal will go away.”

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2s63DHE

GOP adds $45 billion in opioid money to bill

Senate Republicans are adding $45 billion to their ObamaCare replacement bill to fight opioid abuse, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The move was widely expected as an attempt to win over moderate Republicans like Sens. Rob Portman (Ohio) and Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), who have both made the opioid epidemic a priority.

But both Portman and Capito have said that their concerns extend beyond opioid money to the deep cuts the legislation would make to Medicaid.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2t685rd

CBO: GOP healthcare bill would cut Medicaid by 35 percent

The Senate’s healthcare bill would cut Medicaid spending by 35 percent in the next 20 years, according to a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.

The updated report, which was requested by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) could make the GOP’s ObamaCare repeal effort even more difficult.

Senate Republican leaders are working to revise their legislation in the face of criticism from moderates about its impacts on Medicaid, among other issues. A previous CBO analysis found the bill would result in 15 million people losing Medicaid coverage and cut $772 billion from Medicaid over the decade.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2tuK008

Schumer to Trump on healthcare: ‘Try me’

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is doubling down on his push to get President Trump to meet with Senate Democrats to discuss a bipartisan healthcare deal.

“I repeat the offer I made to President Trump and my Republican friends yesterday: Let’s start over. Drop this fundamentally flawed approach … and we can discuss the problems that our Americans are actually concerned about: the cost, the quality, and availability on healthcare,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.

Schumer made an initial request on Wednesday that Trump agree to meet with the full Senate, but the president immediately dismissed the comments as not serious.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2s750pt

Trump taps Indiana health official for surgeon general

President Trump is nominating Jerome M. Adams to be the surgeon general of the Public Health Service.

Adams is currently Indiana’s state health commissioner and was appointed to the post by Vice President Mike Pence, during his time as the state’s governor.

If confirmed, Adams would replace Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams, the current acting surgeon general. Trent-Adams took over the post in April after President Trump dismissed the previous surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, an Obama appointee. Murthy had served in the post since 2014.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2tr2Apg

What we’re reading

GOP chair puts drug pricing hearings on hold (Stat)

Sean Spicer tweets misleading ObamaCare statistic (PolitiFact)

In an overlooked corner of pharma, drastic price hikes hit medicines for radiology scans (Stat)

State by state

Virginia launches statewide collaborative to enhance care of mothers, infants (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Ohio can use three-drug combination to resume executing those on death row, appeals court says (Cleveland.com)

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