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House Democrats consider bills to protect Obamacare. The Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday, Feb. 13, to consider legislation aimed at protecting Obamacare and pushing back against the Trump administration’s actions. The bills would prevent the sale of short-term health insurance, boost funding for marketing Obamacare’s open enrollment, and undo the Trump administration’s list of ideas for ways that states could make changes to the law, according to the office of Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who chairs the subcommittee. “Health care was the single most important issue to voters in the 2018 election, yet the Affordable Care Act is still under attack nearly ten years after the landmark bill was signed into law,” Eshoo said in a statement.

Democrats are going after the Trump administration’s plans in another way, too. Democrats are asking the Government Accountability Office to determine whether the Trump administration’s proposals for ways that states could make changes to Obamacare are subject to the Congressional Review Act. If they do, then Congress would be able to overrule the regulations through an expedited legislative process. The guidance the administration put out involves 1332 waivers, which give states the option to make changes to Obamacare in ways that make coverage cheaper and extend it to more people. The Trump administration put out proposals that Democrats disagree with because certain parts could lead to the sale of health insurance that has fewer benefits and protections than Obamacare. The request to GAO came from House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J. and Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

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Five of seven drug companies agree to appear at Senate hearing. Five of the seven pharmaceutical companies who were invited to testify about the price hikes of their products have voluntarily agreed to appear before the Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 26. The companies who agreed are Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Sanofi, Merck & Co., Pfizer, and Janssen. AbbVie and AstraZeneca haven’t committed yet. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, have both blasted drug companies for initially declining to testify.  

Durbin bill would shorten drug exclusivity in reaction to price hikes. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is planning to formally unveil a bill next week that would shorten pharmaceutical companies’ exclusivity on drugs when they hike them by more than 10 percent in one year. Shortening the amount of time that drugs have exclusivity on a drug will allow less expensive generics to come to market faster. Companies are granted a monopoly on drugs by the Food and Drug Administration that is anywhere between five to 12 years, and during that period the prices of drugs can go up. While that’s going on the FDA does not review applications for generic drugs, which are copies of the brand name medication that tend to be less expensive when they come to market. Durbin’s bill, the Forcing Limits on Abusive and Tumultuous Drug Prices Act, would require companies to report their increases to the Department of Health and Human Services and could provide an appeal if they believe the price hike was justifiable.  “Whether it’s the overnight price hikes by greedy Wall Street executives, or the year-over-year increases for decades-old medications like insulin, these price-gouging practices must end,” Durbin said in a statement.

Trump administration sues to block supervised injection site in Philadelphia. Federal authorities announced Wednesday that they are suing a nonprofit organization that wants to build a facility in Philadelphia where drug users could inject heroin and illicit fentanyl under medical supervision to be protected from overdosing. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday against the nonprofit Safehouse and its executive director Jen Bowles, is the first of its kind. The lawsuit could set a precedent on whether other cities can set up similar facilities, known as supervised injection sites.  The filing by U.S. Attorney William McSwain, an appointee of President Trump, asked a judge in a civil lawsuit to declare the facility illegal under federal law. The lawsuit specifically states that it violates a portion of the Controlled Substances Act in the 1980s, dubbed the “crack house statute.” The law makes it illegal to have a place that is used to to make, store, or distribute illegal drugs. The case will be heard by U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

More adults who get coverage through work are underinsured: Study. Twenty-eight percent of U.S. adults who have health insurance through their employer were underinsured in 2018, up from 20 percent just four years earlier, according to a study out Thursday from the liberal Commonwealth Fund. People who are “underinsured” have high deductibles and other out-of-pocket medical expenses relative to their income, and therefore are more likely to have a hard time paying medical bills or to skip care because of cost. People who bought plans on their own, either directly from an insurer or through the exchanges, were the most likely to be underinsured, with 42 percent reporting a lack of adequate coverage in 2018.

Massachusetts Democrats push bill to allow more third-trimester abortions. Massachusetts Democrats are pushing a sweeping bill to allow more third-trimester abortions, meaning the commonwealth would join New York in having some of the loosest restrictions in the country. Massachusetts law currently bans abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy except if a woman’s pregnancy endangers her life, or if continuing the pregnancy would risk “grave impairment of her physical or mental health.” The Remove Obstacles and Expand Abortion Access Act, or “ROE Act,” would loosen those restrictions by dropping the “grave impairment” language and allowing abortions after 24 weeks to protect the mother’s “physical or mental health, or in cases of lethal fetal anomalies, or where the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside the womb.” The bill would give doctors much more latitude in deciding to conduct abortions and would delete the section in current Massachusetts law that requires doctors to “take all reasonable steps … to preserve the life and health of the aborted child,” including having life-supporting equipment in the room. It would also repeal existing law that requires a minor to get her parents’ consent before an abortion. “The ROE Act breaks down barriers to ensure that women are able to receive appropriate medical care, according to a physician’s best judgment, in tragic circumstances when there are lethal abnormalities or a risk to the woman’s life during the course of a pregnancy,” state Sen. Harriette Chandler, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, told the Washington Examiner. “The law should reflect that these are very difficult decisions that should be made between a woman and her doctor.”

RUNDOWN

New York Times Democrats unite to begin push to protect pre-existing condition coverage

Los Angeles Times In rush to revamp Medicaid, Trump officials bend rules that protect patients

Bloomberg Senators Borrow From Baseball to Fix Surprise Medical Bills

Science How HIV/AIDS ended up in Trump’s State of the Union speech
Politico Groups quietly mount Medicaid expansion ballot campaign in Florida

Dallas Morning News Pain and profit: Your tax money may not help poor, sick Texans get well, but it definitely helps healthcare companies get rich