Overnight Health Care — Sponsored by Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids — Arguments in ObamaCare lawsuit begin Tuesday | What to expect in major test for health law | Democrats launch new blitz against GOP over lawsuit
Welcome to Monday’s Overnight Health Care.
If you’re just tuning in after the July 4 break, welcome back. It’s a big week for health care, as oral arguments in the ObamaCare case are slated for tomorrow in Louisiana before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. And the political fight over the health law is as hot as ever, with Democrats excited to be able to use the lawsuit to hammer Republicans.
Tomorrow’s the big day for ObamaCare arguments in the Fifth Circuit
Judges will hear arguments in the case brought by 20 GOP-led states seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Scheduling: Arguments are at 2 p.m. Eastern time for Texas v. United States and each side gets 45 minutes. The court says it will post audio on its website by about 4:30 p.m. Eastern time.
What legal experts are saying: “I think there’s probably a better-than-even chance it gets reversed at the 5th Circuit,” said Tim Jost, a health law expert at Washington and Lee University. (A reversal of the lower court decision would mean upholding the ACA).
Experts say that if the 5th Circuit upholds ObamaCare, the case is unlikely to make it to the Supreme Court because the justices would decline to hear it. And if the justices do hear the case, the Supreme Court would “almost certainly” uphold ObamaCare, Jost predicts.
The judges: The case on Tuesday will be heard by a three-judge panel: Carolyn King, Jennifer Elrod and Kurt Engelhardt, who were appointed by former President Carter, former President George W. Bush and President Trump, respectively.
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The politics: Dems going on the attack over the lawsuit
The implications for health coverage are enormous. On the political side, Democrats are tripping over themselves to attack Republicans on this lawsuit. Republicans are largely silent, likely aware of the damage a “win” could do to the party.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is launching a round of ads on Tuesday morning.
The five-figure Facebook ad campaign launches ahead of arguments in court on Tuesday in the lawsuit.
The ad text: “Republicans are in federal court THIS WEEK pushing to eliminate coverage protections for Coloradans with pre-existing conditions- and Senator Cory Gardner is part of the problem,” reads one of the ads, targeting Gardner, one of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans up for reelection in 2020.
“Gardner has voted to tear down the health care law and its protections for Colorado, and now he’s refusing to do anything to stop his party’s dangerous lawsuit,” the ad continues.
The ads will also run in other states with contested Senate races, including Maine, Arizona, North Carolina, Iowa, Georgia, Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Michigan.
Democratic AGs are also launching an aggressive campaign
The Democratic Attorneys General Association has launched a six-figure ad campaign targeting their Republican counterparts for trying to undo the ACA in court.
The digital and print ad campaign will target Republican attorneys general in five states who are currently involved in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the health care law also known as ObamaCare: Curtis Hill (Ind.), Jeff Landry (La.), Eric Schmitt (Mo.), Sean Reyes (Utah) and Patrick Morrisey (W.Va.).
“Your attorney general Curtis Hill is in court this week wasting your tax dollars to take health care from 497,000 Hoosiers like you,” reads one ad that ran Sunday in the Indianapolis Star.
“President Trump may call the GOP ‘the party of health care’, but the truth is these Republican AGs are in court this week trying to sabotage health care coverage for millions of Americans,” said Farah Melendez, DAGA Political Director.
Why it matters: All five of the Republican AGs are up for reelection in 2019 or 2020, and health care is likely to be a big issue.
Joe Biden says he would bring back Obamacare’s individual mandate
In case you missed it over the holiday weekend: Biden told CNN he would bring back the individual mandate penalty, which was repealed by congressional Republicans in 2017.
“Yes, I’d bring back the individual mandate,” Biden said.
Context: We have not heard any other Democratic presidential candidates say they would bring back the individual mandate penalty for not having insurance, and for good reason — it is unpopular and controversial among both parties.
The mandate was included in ObamaCare to encourage healthy, young customers to sign up for coverage and balance the risk pools. But some health experts now say it is the law’s subsidies, and not the mandate, that were motivating people to buy coverage.
Biden has been campaigning on the fact that the Affordable Care Act was passed on his watch as vice president, and he is casting himself as a staunch defender of the law. But it’s not clear how beneficial bringing back the mandate would be for the individual exchanges, and it likely would be unpopular among voters.
Read more on Biden’s comments here.
And in some non-ObamaCare news:
Fight over vaccine exemptions hits state legislatures
State legislators across the country are moving to tighten limits on vaccine exemptions for children amid one of the worst outbreaks of preventable diseases in recent history.
In response, an unusual coalition of libertarians and liberals influenced by a debunked study has launched a loud and at times threatening campaign to protect the statutory exemptions. A few instances required police intervention.
Legislators in 26 states have introduced bills to crack down on parents who request vaccine exemptions for either personal or religious reasons. Three states — Washington, Maine and New York — have passed those measures. A fourth — California — is likely to pass its version next month.
The rush of legislation comes against the backdrop of the worst outbreak of the measles virus in more than a generation. In the first six months of the year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,095 cases of measles across 28 states.
Today, 45 states and the District of Columbia allow at least some recourse for someone with an objection to their child receiving vaccines.
The number of parents who seek and obtain those exemptions has been rising for the past two decades, fueled in part by a debunked study published in 1998 by a British doctor named Andrew Wakefield, who fraudulently linked vaccines to autism and who has since had his medical license revoked.
Lawmakers grow impatient for FDA cannabis rules
Congress is cranking up the pressure on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to draft rules to regulate cannabis-based products.
Lawmakers legalized the use of hemp-based cannabidiol (CBD) products late last year in the farm bill, sending the agency scrambling to figure out new rules around regulating a unique product that is both a drug and a dietary supplement.
But Congress is signaling that it is growing impatient as the FDA looks for a solution and may not wait on the sidelines for much longer.
The FDA held a public hearing at the end of May, and experts and industry representatives said it was a good start but did not advance the ball much in terms of giving clarity from a federal level.
In the meantime, lawmakers from both parties are trying to nudge FDA into action
A provision in the House appropriations package that passed last month sets aside funding for FDA to study and set specific levels of CBD to put in food and drinks.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) met with Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless and urged the agency to speed up the timing on CBD regulation. And Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a letter urging the agency to set an interim policy by Aug. 1 that would allow hemp-derived CBD to be added to food and drinks and sold as a dietary supplement.
More here on the push for CBD rules
What we’re reading
Abolish private insurance? It depends. (Vox.com)
New JAMA study shows legalizing pot might discourage teen use (CNBC)
Judge dismisses Johnson & Johnson’s request to toss out lawsuit over opioids crisis (The Guardian)
Sobering up: In an alcohol-soaked nation, more seek booze-free social spaces (Kaiser Health News)
State by state
Texas is going to court to end ObamaCare. It hasn’t produced a plan to replace it. (Texas Tribune)
ACLU effort to put Missouri abortion ban to vote can proceed (Associated Press)
New Hampshire delays Medicaid work requirements (Associated Press)
From The Hill’s opinion page:
Revealing negotiated prices won’t reduce health care costs
Trump’s health care transparency order a positive step toward a true patient-controlled system
Health insurance for undocumented immigrants? It’s only fair to all of us
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