Welcome to Friday’s Overnight Health Care.
Congressional Republicans are taking a step back from President TrumpDonald John TrumpKamala Harris: Barr ‘lied to Congress’ Trump to Palestinians in Gaza: ‘End the violence and work towards peace’ O’Rourke: Mueller report affirmed need for impeachment against Trump MORE‘s ObamaCare attacks, San Francisco is suing the administration, and a new poll finds the public is concerned about the administration’s changes to a family planning rule.
We’ll start with ObamaCare…
GOP distances itself from Trump’s ObamaCare attacks
It used to be that you couldn’t turn around without seeing a GOP attack on ObamaCare. But now those criticisms are quieting down. At least from congressional Republicans. President Trump is on a different page.
The Trump administration on Wednesday filed its official legal argument calling for the entirety of the Affordable Care Act to be struck down.
How congressional Republicans see it: They’d much rather focus on criticizing the “Medicare for All” proposal backed by more and more Democrats, something they see as a winning line of attack compared to reigniting an ObamaCare debate that contributed to the GOP losing its majority in the House last year.
Why not attack ObamaCare? The law is more popular now. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll in April found that 50 percent of adults have a favorable view of the law, compared to 38 percent with an unfavorable one.
And many Democrats last year successfully campaigned on maintaining the law’s popular protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Trump on the other hand… The president recently touted repeal of the individual mandate and added “Now we’re going for the rest.”
Read more here.
Poll: Majority oppose Trump administration restrictions on abortion funding
The Trump administration’s controversial restrictions on family planning funding are opposed by a majority of the public, a new poll finds.
The poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 58 percent of respondents, including 48 percent of Republicans, oppose barring federal funding from clinics that provide abortions or referrals for abortions.
In addition, the poll found 69 percent of respondents said they would like their state to continue making payments to Planned Parenthood amid attempts by conservatives in a number of states to defund the clinics.
Those views were split along partisan lines, with 86 percent of Democrats wanting Planned Parenthood payments to continue and 57 percent of Republicans wanting those payments to stop.
The politics: The changes had been pushed by conservatives and anti-abortion groups as a way to partially defund Planned Parenthood, which serves about 40 percent of Title X patients.
Read more here.
Klobuchar unveils $100B plan to battle substance abuse, improve mental health
Sen. Amy KlobucharAmy Jean KlobucharButtigieg, husband meet with Jimmy Carter, sit in on Sunday school class Klobuchar is a worthy candidate, getting no attention Klobuchar: I don’t think Trump should conduct ‘foreign policy by tweet’ MORE (D-Minn.) is staking out a lane in the presidential primary as a more moderate, pragmatic option.
On Friday, she unveiled a $100 billion plan that would improve access to mental health care in America and increase resources nationwide for battling substance abuse.
The plan would increase funding for early intervention mental health organizations while also improving access to opioid addiction treatment centers. It also would provide for the hiring of health care workers to serve areas facing little or no hospital coverage.
The plan calls for a settlement agreement that hasn’t yet been proposed between a number of states and the opioid manufacturers they have targeted with lawsuits for their role in U.S. opioid abuse crisis. The crisis reached record levels in 2017 and shows no sign of slowing.
Read more here.
San Francisco sues Trump administration over religious protections rule
Another day, another lawsuit against a Trump administration regulatory move.
The city of San Francisco is suing the Trump administration over its new rule protecting religious providers when they object to providing certain types of care.
The lawsuit claims the administration’s rule will restrict access to contraception, abortion, HIV treatment and a host of other medical services.
That was fast: The suit was filed Thursday, just hours after the administration released the final rule.
The lawsuit seeks to have the new rule declared unconstitutional, as well as a court order preventing it from taking effect.
“At its core, this rule is about denying people medical care,” the city’s attorney Dennis Herrera said. “This administration is willing to sacrifice patients’ health and lives — particularly those of women, members of the LGBTQ community, and low-income families — to score right-wing political points.”
Read more here.
What we’re reading
Urgent steps are needed to prevent Ebola from spinning out of control in the DRC (Stat News opinion)
McKesson, drug distribution giant, settles lawsuit over opioids in West Virginia (The New York Times)
‘Medicare For All’ isn’t the only way to get to universal coverage (HuffPost)
State by state
Medicaid expansion backers in Kansas to try to block budget (Associated Press)
Tennessee will ask Trump to OK first Medicaid block grant (Politico)
Florida passes bill to bolster the state’s opioid lawsuits (Associated Press)