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Kamala Harris gambles by calling for end to private insurance. When a few million people stood to lose insurance that they liked under President Obama’s healthcare law, it created one of the biggest political crises in his presidency. Now, five years later, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., a leading presidential candidate, is openly calling for getting rid of private insurance, which currently covers 177 million people. Have politics changed that drastically in just a half of a decade?

Harris made the comments during a CNN town hall style interview in response to a question from Jake Tapper, who pressed her on what her support for national healthcare, which she describes as “Medicare for all,” would mean for those who had private insurance that they liked. After describing the administrative difficulties of dealing with private insurers, Harris said, “Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.”

But 177 million people have private insurance, and per Gallup, 70 percent are satisfied with their coverage and 85 percent are satisfied with the actual care they receive. Harris would be throwing more than half the country off of plans they’re currently comfortable with in exchange for a promise of a great new hassle-free government plan that doesn’t exist yet. Indeed, a recent Kaiser survey that found 56 percent support for a national healthcare plan described as “Medicare for all,” but that support drops to 37 percent when told such a plan would “eliminate private insurance companies,” with 58 percent opposed.

The shortcomings of Obamacare, the bungled Republican repeal efforts, and the mind-bending presidency of Donald Trump have all made ambitious Democrats such as Harris believe that the ground has fundamentally shifted in politics. Equivocating about how her socialized health insurance plan won’t really threaten private insurance will only open her up to attacks of dishonesty. If she’s direct about it, she comes across as confident and bold, she’ll be on good terms with her base, and she assumes, it will not actually cost her a general election in a chaotic race against Trump. At a minimum, Harris has obviously determined that this is worth the gamble.

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Congress starts to go after big pharma. Congress on Tuesday jumped into its first round of hearings on drug prices for the year, vowing to take action on a problem that the president and the public see as a top concern for the country. The Senate Finance Committee and the House Oversight Committee began hearings Tuesday morning aimed at investigating the causes of high drug prices. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who became chairman of the Finance Committee this year, said in opening remarks that tackling high prescription drug costs is a priority for him, and blasted drug companies for agreeing to speak to lawmakers privately but not publicly at the hearing. The committee, he said, would extend an offer to the companies appear again in the future but would be “more insistent next time.” “I want to express my displeasure at the lack of cooperation from the pharmaceutical manufacturers recently ,” he said. Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the committee, echoed the same frustrations and also went after pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen that negotiate drug plans. He said it appeared the companies were negotiating rebates that aren’t passed off to patients. Tuesday’s hearings will serve as an early indication as to whether Republicans and Democrats are able to work together on drug prices.

Two other healthcare hearings are happening. Over in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee there will be a hearing on healthcare access in underserved communities. The House Ways and Means Committee is holding a hearing on “Protecting Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions,” which will include testimonies from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the American Cancer Society Action Network, and the American Heart Association. It also will have Oregon’s insurance commissioner and the chief administrator from the Farm Bureau in Nebraska. Democrats are planning to pressure Republicans on the protections, which they vowed during the midterms to support and protect while working the previous year to roll back Obamacare. “Republicans strongly support protecting patients with pre-existing conditions,” Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told reporters on Monday. He stressed that Congress had to work harder to lower healthcare costs, including through prescription drug prices, surprise medical bills, and lowering deductibles.  “We think it’s time for a fresh approach, this time with both parties working together to figure out how we can lower those costs and continue to improve accessibility as well,” he said.

Brady vowed Congress would work ‘within hours’ to pass legislation if Obamacare is struck down. Brady said that if the case making its way through the courts to overturn Obamacare is ultimately struck down then he believes Democrats and Republicans would work together to reinstate the protections that protect sick people from being denied coverage or being charged more. The Texas v. Azar case is being appealed to the 5th Circuit, and could make its way to the Supreme Court. Brady stressed that at the hearing Republicans wanted to get across that high healthcare costs remain a concern to voters, even outside of concerns about pre-existing medical conditions.

Medicare continues to drive federal spending: CBO. Medicare and Social Security cost the federal government about $1.3 trillion last year and are expected to reach $2.7 trillion by 2029, according to the latest analysis from the Congressional Budget Office. Healthcare costs are expected to grow faster than the economy over the long term, driven in large part by baby boomers aging into Medicare. The federal deficit is projected to grow 15 percent in 2019 to $897 billion, driven by mandatory spending on programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Sarah Sanders: Trump will have a yearly medical checkup, and it’s coming soon. President Trump will undergo his annual medical exam for 2019, but the White House hasn’t yet disclosed when. “The president will, as always, undergo a yearly physical, we’ll keep you posted on the date and time when that happens,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said during a press briefing Monday. Sanders did not elaborate on whether Trump, 72, would release the records to the public. No law obligates presidents to do so, and throughout history presidents have either released partial records or masked severe medical conditions from the public. The Washington Examiner noted that on Jan. 12 Trump had passed the one-year mark since his last routine medical checkup, which takes place at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The exam is likely to be overseen by Dr. Sean Conley, the White House doctor.

Anti-abortion groups pressure White House to defund Planned Parenthood. Anti-abortion organizations are asking Trump to fulfill his promise to them to cut off Medicaid funds from going toward Planned Parenthood. “Propping up Planned Parenthood with taxpayer funds enables their donors to redirect their donations from Planned Parenthood’s clinical side to its political arms, which spend millions of dollars working against your agenda and defeating your pro-life allies in Congress,” they wrote. The letter, sent Monday, was signed by leaders from more than a dozen anti-abortion organizations, including Susan B. Anthony List, March for Life, Students for Life America, and Civil Rights for the Unborn. The organizations praised Trump for writing to the House that he would veto legislation aimed at expanding abortion, for nominating justices that support their causes, and for supporting Senate bills that would to bar Obamacare funds from going toward abortions and create stricter rules about how Obamacare insurers demonstrate whether they cover abortions.  

Maryland introduces bill to legalize medically assisted suicide. Maryland lawmakers are introducing the Richard E. Israel and Roger ‘Pip’ Moyer End of Life Option Act today to allow dying patients the option to end their lives. The practice, known by supporters as “aid in dying,” would allow adults who would otherwise die within six months to take medications that would end their lives. As is the case in other states where the practice is allowed, patients must demonstrate to two doctors that they are mentally capable. The life-ending medication is ingested by a patient in liquid form, not administered through a needle by a doctor, as other countries allow through a practice known as euthanasia. Critics of the laws say that they eventually will target vulnerable groups including people with disabilities, while supporters say that people who will otherwise suffer painful deaths should have the option to have more control over how they die. This year New Mexico and New York are also considering legalizing medically assisted suicide. Live stream.

Medicaid expansion in Utah continues to hit roadblocks. Lawmakers have introduced legislation to roll back the Medicaid expansion that voters approved through a ballot measure during the election. One bill would cap the number of people who could enroll in Medicaid and add a work requirement, and the other would limit enrollment to people making 100 percent of the federal poverty level rather than 138 percent as Obamacare spells out. Both plans would need to be submitted to the Trump administration for approval. If lawmakers pass neither bill then the expansion will go into effect April 1. Defenders of the expansion are rallying at the state Capitol this afternoon. “Politicians are trampling on the most fundamental principles of representative democracy,” said Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of the Fairness project that organized the ballot initiative. “This is about respect. Legislators who vote for this bill would be disrespecting the voters of Utah, disrespecting the struggling families who were expecting access to healthcare, and disrespecting the basic principles of representative democracy.’

RUNDOWN

STAT News A year after Trump touted ‘right to try,’ patients still aren’t getting treatment

Bloomberg America’s love affair with cheap drugs has a hidden cost

The Federalist DC exchange website mislead customers about individual mandate

The Associated Press US Nobelist was told of gene-edited babies

FierceHealthcare Gottlieb welcomes furloughed FDA staffers back to work as he unveils new data projects