Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP Senators Tapped By Trump To Work On Health Law Replacement Have Little Appetite For The Task
President Donald Trump promised a new plan to replace Obamacare. But the four Senate Republicans he tapped for the job aren鈥檛 jumping at the opportunity. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) says any new plan has to come from the White House 鈥 and that he had no warning Trump planned to make him part of the health policy group. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) won't say more than he and colleagues are 鈥渨orking on health care thoughts.鈥 John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), when asked about the Republican plan, turned the question back on the opposition, saying, 鈥淒emocrats want to go to the complete government takeover of health care.鈥 (Cancryn and Ollstein, 4/8)
The Trump administration will release a health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act 鈥渇airly shortly,鈥 acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday. Administration officials and White House aides, including Centers for Medicare聽& Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, met for a Saturday summit at Camp David to discuss possible proposals, according to CNN. (Budryk, 4/7)
And in other health law news 鈥
Republican lawmakers in Kansas pressed ahead Friday with allowing the state Farm Bureau to offer health coverage to members that doesn鈥檛 satisfy the Affordable Care Act, a state-level effort to circumvent an Obama-era law that President Donald Trump wants to replace. The Kansas House approved an insurance bill on an 84-39 vote that includes provisions to exempt health coverage offered by the Farm Bureau from state insurance regulation, anticipating that the nonprofit group could offer lower-cost products to thousands of individuals and families. The Senate approved the bill Thursday on a 28-12 vote, so it goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. (Hanna, 4/6)