Overnight Healthcare: Strongest Zika warning yet | Bipartisan breakthrough on health spending bill

The world’s top health leaders are warning millions of women in Latin America and the Caribbean to “consider delaying pregnancy” because of the Zika virus.

The World Health Organization issued sweeping guidelines urging women to consider a delay if they live in the nearly 50 Zika-affected countries.

{mosads}The controversial move stands in contrast with the strong insistence by U.S. health officials not to weigh in on the issue. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said as recently as May 11 that the federal government did not plan to issue specific guidance on what he said was an “intensely personal” decision.

The WHO quietly released the guidelines on Tuesday, though they received little attention until an update from the agency Thursday, first reported by the New York Times. It’s the first time the WHO has updated its Zika health recommendations since February. http://bit.ly/1sxI1Um

A bipartisan health spending bill, for real

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced its health spending bill to the Senate floor, drawing bipartisan support for the measure for the first time in seven years.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle hailed the bill, while acknowledging that tough decisions had to be made, given that the funding level is $270 million below this year’s amount.

The bill includes extra funding for two top priorities of both parties: medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and fighting the opioid drug abuse epidemic.

Notably, the bill steers clear of attacks on ObamaCare, serving as a step toward securing Democratic support and serving Senate Republicans’ goal of advancing appropriations bills this year. Read more here. http://bit.ly/1UpVl3B

Upton says not so fast on merging mental health and opioid bills

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) is skeptical about attaching a mental health bill to the conference committee working on opioid legislation.

The idea of adding in mental health, particularly a bill from Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), has been floated on the Senate side as a way to push the mental health issue forward, given that the opioid legislation is likely to move.

But the House is working on its own mental health bill.

“I think that’ll be hard,” Upton said of rumblings that mental health will be added to the opioid conference. “I mean we all want that [opioid] bill to move for sure, we all want mental health, there’s enough time, there is enough time to get this done.” Read more here. http://bit.ly/1OfbZ9o

HHS asks insurers to be patient with ObamaCare markets

Health insurers got an earful of optimism from HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt during the inaugural health issuers summit Thursday.

The two top ObamaCare officials sought to calm the nerves of insurers, urging them to take the long-term regarding the success of the marketplaces.

Burwell: “I know that rapid change can be hard. I recognize that this transforming market hasn’t been easy.”

Slavitt: “Progress won’t be even and for the first five years, we will continue to be in a learning and experimentation period – where a lot will be tested before best practices are more widely developed.” http://bit.ly/1UjjAo6

Health coalition wants a privatized version of ‘HealthCare.gov’ 

The Council for Affordable Health Coverage, a broad coalition of insurer and business groups, released a report that said the government should allow privately run shopping websites that could compete with the government one, with user experiences and tools like an out-of-pocket-cost calculator or searchable provider networks. Read the full report here.  

Dozens of fetal tissue researchers file amicus brief

Researchers helping to advance fetal tissue research are out with a 500-page friend-of-the-court brief to support the National Abortion Federation’s case against the Center for Medical Progress.

They specifically point to the key role that fetal tissue could play in the scientific investigation of the Zika virus. Read the brief here: http://bit.ly/1U48aWW

Medical debt decreasing in states that expanded Medicaid  

HHS officials are touting a new study Thursday by researchers at the New York Federal Reserve, which offers fresh evidence that states that expand Medicaid are helping lower costs for patients.  

“Early evidence that the Medicaid expansion is fulfilling the goal of health insurance: providing ‘peace of mind’ by protecting against financial hardship,” the researchers wrote. Read the report here: http://nyfed.org/21aWtN4

Latest Ebola outbreak over in Liberia

Liberia has gone 42 days without a new case of Ebola, the World Health Organization declared Thursday. The virus was first declared over in Liberia in May 2015, but the virus has re-emerged three times since then.

ON TAP TOMORROW:

The House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee considers tweaks to ObamaCare at 9:15 a.m.

Hillary Clinton delivers remarks to Planned Parenthood Action Fund in D.C. at noon.

WHAT WE’RE READING

Donald Trump is hosting high-level lobbyists from industries including healthcare at his company headquarters in New York on Thursday (Daily Beast) 

The World Health Organization is recommending smaller doses of the yellow fever vaccine to help stretch an extremely limited global supply (STAT News).

Pfizer has raised prescription drug prices by an average of 8.8 percent, marking the second time this year it has announced cost increases (STAT News).

IN THE STATES

Texas stripped money from an HIV prevention contract with Planned Parenthood in December, and its replacement has yet to begin testing. (The Texas Observer)

California’s physician-assisted suicide law goes into effect, becoming only the fifth state to allow the controversial practice. (NY Times)

More women in Texas are buying medication to induce abortion from Mexico, where it is legal to purchase without a doctor. (NPR)

State mental health workers say Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan must increase staffing and improve training to help employees avoid assaults by patients. (Baltimore Sun)

New Hampshire’s attorney general is alleging the maker of Oxycotin routinely engages in deceptive marketing that misrepresents the “risks and benefits of long-term opioid use for chronic pain.” (Concord Monitor)

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