• A Key Republican Demands Subsidies to Calm Insurance Markets New York Times by Robert Pear—A powerful House Republican said Thursday that Congress should immediately provide money for subsidy payments to health insurance companies, which have been demanding big rate increases or fleeing from Affordable Care Act markets because of President Trump's threat to cut off the funds. The Republican, Kevin Brady of Texas, who is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, went out of his way to make clear that he now believes that Congress should continue the subsidies, which compensate insurers for reducing deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for seven million low-income people. 
  
  
• States Scramble to Prevent Obamacare Exodus  The Hill by Rachel Roubein and Nathaniel Weixel—Insurance commissioners are pulling out all the stops to keep insurers from leaving their states amid uncertainty over Obamacare's future. They are offering insurers new, previously unheard of flexibilities to try to keep them in the market. But the effort faces an uphill climb, given the Trump administration's wobbling over whether it will continue federal payments that compensate insurers for subsidizing out-of-pocket costs for lower-income households. There's also the question of whether Congress will repeal Obamacare this year. 

• Senate GOP Aiming for Vote This Month on Health Legislation AP by Erica Werner—Senate GOP leaders plan to vote as soon as this month on major health care legislation even though they remain uncertain, for now, whether their still-unwritten bill will pass, lawmakers said Monday. The House narrowly passed its own version of legislation to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's health care law last month. Senate Republicans have rejected the House bill but have struggled to come to agreement on a version of their own. But now, with pressing budget deadlines looming and President Donald Trump eager to focus on tax legislation, Senate GOP leaders have decided it's time to vote and move on.

• Too Many Cooks Threaten GOP Health Care Bill The Hill by Nathaniel Weixel—  Senate Republicans may have too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to healthcare, and it's complicating efforts to draft an Obamacare replacement bill. The main Senate group working on crafting healthcare legislation is the task force of 13 men backed by Senate leaders. It won negative attention early on for its lack of women, at which point GOP leaders opened it up to all members… Republican senators appear to be aware of the potential problems. "The only way of doing this, you can't have 52 people drafting the bill," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) recently told The Hill about the challenges faced by his conference. [But] without formal committee hearings or listening sessions, senators who would normally be involved in the decision-making process are suddenly finding themselves on the outside. So to make sure they have a voice, they've formed working groups.
  
  

• Senate Health Bill May Alienate GOP Conservatives New York Times by Jennifer Steinhauer and Robert Pear—Senate Republicans are closing in on a bill to repeal President Barack Obama's signature health care law, diverging from the House on pre-existing medical conditions and maintaining federal subsidies that proponents see as essential to stabilizing insurance markets around the country. The changes appear largely designed to appeal to Republican senators who hail from states where the Affordable Care Act is popular and who were critical of the House bill, which would eliminate insurance for millions of Americans covered under the current law, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the revisions may well alienate the Senate's most conservative members, who are eager to rein in the growth of Medicaid and are unlikely to support a bill that does not roll back large components of the current law. Even with more moderate Republicans on board, party leaders would have a very narrow margin for passage on the Senate floor.

• Wisconsin Submits Request to Drug Test Medicaid Applicants AP by Scott Bauer—Wisconsin submitted a federal request Wednesday to become the first state in the country to drug test applicants for Medicaid health benefits. Republican Gov. Scott Walker expects President Donald Trump's administration to approve the waiver, which would also impose new requirements on able-bodied, childless adults receiving Medicaid in the state. The request comes as Walker, a one-time GOP presidential candidate, prepares for a likely re-election bid. The proposal has been chastised by advocates for the poor who say the plan won't result in more people becoming drug-free. They said it would simply be another hurdle for people in need.
  
  
• Nevada Moves Closer to a Landmark Medicaid-for-All Health Care Model Los Angeles Times by David Montero—With his signature on a novel Medicaid-for-all-type bill, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval could rewrite the way many of his constituents get health care, and establish a model that other states might eventually follow in the absence of congressional action to fix or replace Obamacare. He got the bill delivered to his desk Monday. He hasn't said what he will do with it. If he doesn't sign or veto it by June 16, it will automatically become law.

• America Is a World Leader in Health Inequality The Washington Post by Carolyn Johnson—The divide between health outcomes for the richest and poorest Americans is among the largest in the world, according to a new study. Of people in households making less than $22,500 a year, 38 percent reported being in poor or fair health in a survey taken between 2011 and 2013. That's more than three times the rate of health troubles than faced by individuals in households making more than $47,700 a year, where only 12 percent of people reported being in poor to fair health, according to the findings published in Health Affairs. "Anything, any changes that are made that threaten to undo gains in insurance that have occurred since the Affordable Care Act . . . would risk setting us back in an area where the U.S. is in sore need of improvements," said Joachim Hero, who recently earned his doctorate in health policy at Harvard University and led the study.
  
  
• Drug Deaths in America Are Rising Faster Than Ever The New York Times by Josh Katz—New data compiled from hundreds of health agencies reveal the extent of the drug overdose epidemic last year. Drug overdose deaths in 2016 most likely exceeded 59,000, the largest annual jump ever recorded in the United States, according to preliminary data compiled by The New York Times. The death count is the latest consequence of an escalating public health crisis: opioid addiction, now made more deadly by an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50.

• Health Care Gained 329,000 Jobs in Past Year Politico Pulse by Dan Diamond—That's according to the latest job numbers on Friday. More than 15.7 million people now work in health care delivery, roughly one in eight workers in the private sector—a record. No other sector comes close to health care's year-over-year gains. But all those new health care jobs come with a price: More overall spending on health care, which ends up falling to patients and taxpayers. Economists say that the Obamacare repeal bill approved by the House includes spending cuts that will lead to health care job loss.

Editor: Peter Van Vranken