Overnight Health Care: How 2020 Dems want to overhaul health care | Brooklyn parents sue over measles vaccination mandate | Measles outbreak nears record

Welcome to Monday’s Overnight Health Care. Washington is bracing for special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which is coming out Thursday. But there’s plenty of health care news as well, starting with a worsening measles outbreak.

But first, we broke down where 2020 Democrats are on their health care plans. Let’s start there…

Democratic proposals to overhaul health care: A 2020 primer

About 20 million Americans have gained coverage under ObamaCare since it was passed in 2010, but nearly 9 percent — 30 million people — still don’t have health insurance.

All Democrats running for president say they want to provide universal health care coverage to Americans. But they have different ideas about how to get there.

{mosads}We looked at the different plans supported by the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, from Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All to a Medicare buy in for those over 50.

The big one: Medicare for All

Sponsors: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has offered a plan in the Senate, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has introduced similar legislation in the House.

Who supports it: Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) have all sponsored the Medicare for All bills in the House and Senate. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg said he wants to work toward such a system.

What it would do: Of all the plans to expand Medicare, Sanders’s is the most ambitious.

Over a four-year period, it would transform Medicare, the nation’s health care program for those over 65, into a single-payer system that provides comprehensive health care coverage, including dental, vision and long-term care, to all Americans under one plan.

More here on the plan and its rivals: Medicare for America, the Medicare-X Choice Act and the Medicare at 50 Act.

Brooklyn parents sue over measles vaccination mandate

Reports on the spread of measles are piling up, worrying public health officials. But they are also seeing resistance over the steps New York state is taking to get people vaccinated.

A group of Brooklyn parents on Monday sued New York City over an emergency order requiring measles vaccinations, according to ABC News.

In the lawsuit, the parents seek a temporary restraining order argue that the New York City Department of Health’s emergency order was “arbitrary and capricious.”

Background: Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) issued the order last week, requiring everyone over the age of 6 months who lives within ZIP codes associated with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn receive the measles vaccination. The order also applies to people who work or attend school in the area.

Push back: The plaintiffs in the case argue there is “insufficient evidence of a measles epidemic or dangerous outbreak to justify” the order and that the city has not taken the least-restrictive measures possible to combat measles.

Read more here.

More measles news…

90 new measles cases reported as outbreak nears record

The number of measles cases in the United States continues to soar, putting the country on track to have its worst year since the disease was officially eliminated in 2000.

As of April 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there have been 555 confirmed cases of measles across 20 states, an increase of 90 cases from the previous week. No fatalities have been reported.

This is the second greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since measles was eliminated in 2000, the agency said, and the year isn’t even half over. The worst year for measles since then was 2014, when there were 667 cases.

Last week, the CDC confirmed 465 cases across 19 states, which was more than there were in all of 2018.

Where has the measles been reported? Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

Read more here. 

What we’re reading

Democrats feud over drug pricing policy, as progressives push pragmatists to be bolder (Stat News)

John Oliver revisits the opioid crisis on Last Week Tonight, this time with some celebrity help (Time)

State by state

Medicaid expansion may cover birth control for thousands more Utah women. Unwanted pregnancies, abortions will decrease, advocates say. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Sherrod Brown says Donald Trump can’t connect ‘human face’ to ObamaCare repeal (Cleveland Plain Dealer)  

From The Hill’s op-ed page

Three signs pharmacy benefit managers are desperately in need of reform