Welcome to Thursday’s Overnight Health Care.
The House tonight is expected to vote to condemn the Trump administration’s Medicaid block grant policy. Also, the CDC is beginning to ship coronavirus diagnostics to health departments, and the Chinese doctor who warned officials about the disease has died from it.
We’ll start with the fight over block grants…
House to condemn Trump Medicaid block grant plan
The House on Tuesday is expected to pass a resolution officially condemning the Trump administration’s new Medicaid block grant plan.
The non-binding resolution won’t have much practical impact and is not likely to be taken up in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Democrats argue the administration doesn’t have the authority to approve such drastic changes, and Medicaid advocates argue the changes would hurt low-income people and invite states to cut costs and reduce coverage.
Republicans knocked Democrats for rushing through with a vote to condemn the administration’s plan only a week after it was introduced. They also criticized the Democrats for voting on a non-binding resolution. One GOP lawmaker even ripped a copy of the resolution in half, mimicking Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has been criticized by Republicans for doing the same with a copy of President Trump’s State of the Union speech.
“I watched with great interest last evening the debate over expressing one’s opinion and First Amendment rights in the body,” Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) said, before ripping the resolution in half, throwing it to the floor and walking away.
So why vote? The measure represents the latest effort of Democrats attempting to put Republicans in a bind on health care.
Democrats took control of the House in 2018 after tying Republicans to the repeated attempts to repeal ObamaCare and arguing the GOP wants to take away coverage from people with pre-existing conditions. They want to continue to position themselves as the party of health care ahead of the 2020 election.
Some sad news…Chinese doctor who warned of coronavirus early dies after contracting it
A Chinese doctor who was one of the first to warn others about the spread of coronavirus has died after contracting the virus himself, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Thursday.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Li Wenliang,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, a top WHO official.
“We all need to celebrate work that he did” on stopping the virus, Ryan added.
Li posted about concerning signs of the new virus on an online chat group for fellow doctors at the end of December. He was then detained by the police and accused of spreading “rumors.” He was released on Jan. 3 after signing a document saying he committed “illegal acts,” The Washington Post reported.
Later that month, he came down with the virus himself.
CDC ships coronavirus tests to health departments
Coronavirus tests developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shipped Thursday to U.S. and international laboratories, including those at state and local public health departments.
Previously, health providers and health departments sent samples for testing to the CDC in Atlanta.
The distribution of the tests means departments will be able to identify new cases quicker. The test can provide results in four hours.
“Our goal is early detection of new cases and to prevent further spread of the coronavirus,” said CDC Director Robert R. Redfield.
“Distribution of these diagnostic tests to state laboratories, U.S. government partners and more broadly to the global public health community will accelerate efforts to confront this evolving global public health challenge.”
About 400 test kits will be distributed domestically and internationally. Each test kit can test about 700-800 patient samples. More test kits will be produced and shipped in the future, the CDC said.
Report: Turnover for direct support staff for Americans with disabilities reaches ‘crisis’ level
The number of workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities integrated into the workforce has largely plateaued in the past year, and the national turnover rate for those providing direct support for such people is nearing 45 percent, according to a Thursday report from the ANCOR Foundation and United Cerebral Palsy (UCP).
The groups’ 2020 edition of their Case for Inclusion report, exclusively provided to The Hill, found that the percentage of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in integrated employment — that is, those working alongside abled people and earning market-driven wages — increased only 1 percentage point to 20 percent over the past year.
The report found that nationwide, 127,000 people with I/DD worked in competitive employment, compared to 124,000 the year before. The number of states with at least one third of I/DD residents participating in competitive employment increased from seven in 2019 to 10 in the most recent report.
However, the report also found the total number of people with I/DD on waiting lists for home- and community-based services increased by 49,000 in the past year, reaching 473,000. Waiting lists shrunk in 10 states but grew in 23.
Five new measles cases reported in Los Angeles area
Five cases of measles were confirmed in Los Angeles County on Wednesday, with the local Department of Public Health warning that the local outbreak included four residents and an “unimmunized, international visitor.”
The department listed 33 public places where that confirmed case was known to have been between Jan. 26 and Sunday.
“Unimmunized persons or those with unknown immunization status who were at these sites during the dates and times listed above are at risk of developing measles from 7 to 21 days after being exposed,” it said. “Individuals who have been free of symptoms for more than 21 days are no longer at risk.”
HHS address outbreak: In his annual “State of the Department” address, HHS Secretary Alex Azar looked back at the agency’s efforts to try and combat the measles outbreak.
“Sadly, this past year saw our country’s largest measles outbreak since 1992, threatening our country’s measles elimination status,” Azar said. “CDC led an aggressive response, in cooperation with state and local health departments. We took this troubling development as an opportunity to go on offense, launching an unprecedented media campaign of HHS leaders promoting the importance of vaccination.”
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What we’re reading
In effort to develop coronavirus vaccine, outbreak expert sees ‘hardest problem’ of his career (Stat News)
Why doctors are fighting their professional organization over Medicare for All (The Nation)
Democrats have good plans to tackle the opioid epidemic. They should talk about them. (Vox.com)
FDA crackdown on vaping flavors has blind spot: disposables (Associated Press)
Health insurers can use this loophole to push pricy medical bills onto you, the patient (Kaiser Health News)
State by state
Democratic Senate candidates vying to take on John Cornyn want changes in health care (Dallas Morning News)
Final push in Wisconsin to lower prescription drug cost, reform pharmacy benefit managers (WXOW)
Flu deaths climb up to 23 in Oklahoma, state health department reports (Newson6)
From The Hill’s opinion page