• According to a new Commonwealth Fund survey, while the uninsurance rate is still 12.4 percent — statistically unchanged from 2016 — the population of insured Americans whose out-of-pocket costs comprise a substantial share of their income is on the rise. Among those with employer-sponsored plans, the rate of underinsurance has surged from 17 percent in 2010 to 28 percent in 2018, or 44 million Americans. (Axios)

• Eli Lilly and Co. expressed support for the Health and Human Services Department’s recently announced proposal to end the system of rebates negotiated between drugmakers and pharmacy benefit managers, in an attempt to shift savings directly to patients. Pharmaceutical companies have cited rebates as a driver of their high costs, and Eli Lilly Chief Executive David Ricks said this rule would benefit patients, especially those taking “highly rebated” treatments such as insulin. (Reuters)

• The Trump administration is neglecting federal rules mandating that states assess how Medicaid work requirements are affecting low-income patients who rely on the federal health care program, according to an analysis. Of the eight states that have approval to implement work requirements, none have a plan to study whether beneficiaries find employment and see improvements in their health outcomes, while nine of the 17 states that have expressed interest in work requirements have been approved to proceed with their applications despite failing to evaluate how many people could lose insurance, as required by law. (Los Angeles Times)

Trump Promised to End AIDS. A Day Later He May Have Made the Crisis Worse
Scott Bixby, The Daily Beast

Less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump vowed to end HIV transmission in the United States within a decade, the Department of Justice announced that a U.S. attorney has filed a civil lawsuit to halt the creation of supervised injection sites, which exist to prevent opioid overdoses and the sharing of contaminated needles by intravenous drug users.

Measles Outbreak Sends Vaccine Demand Soaring, Even Among The Hesitant
JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News

Demand for measles vaccine has surged in the Washington county where the highly contagious virus is linked to more than 50 confirmed illnesses this year — including among people who had previously shunned the shots. Orders for two types of measles vaccines in Clark County were up nearly 500 percent in January compared to the same month last year, jumping from 530 doses to 3,150, according to state health department figures.

The federal government isn’t funding gun-violence research. Should the District?
Peter Jamison, The Washington Post

D.C. lawmakers are proposing a new center to study gun violence, a move that would place the District in the vanguard of local governments seeking to fund research that gun-safety advocates say has been neglected by federal officials. Legislation authored by D.C. Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5) would establish the center, which would be housed at a university or other academic institution and would “research the causes and effects of urban firearm violence and make recommendations to prevent” it.

Pelosi rips Trump’s childhood cancer research boost as inadequate
Adam Cancryn, Politico

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday trashed President Donald Trump’s plan to boost funding for childhood cancer research by $500 million over a decade, deriding his State of the Union proposal as severely lacking. “$500 million over 10 years – are you kidding me?” Pelosi said during a closed-door conference meeting, according to an aide in the room. “Who gave him that [$50 million] figure? It’s like the cost of his protection of his Mar-a-Lago or something.”

Halting U.S. HIV Epidemic By 2030: Difficult But Doable
Joe Neel and Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News

Trump administration health officials are spelling out their ambitious plan to stop the spread of HIV in the U.S. within the next 10 years. The plan would target 48 counties where the rate of HIV spread is the highest, along with Washington, D.C., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

2020 Dems walk fine line with support for ‘Medicare for all’
Peter Sullivan, The Hill

Democratic presidential contenders face a dilemma on how far to go in championing “Medicare for all.” Stopping short of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s fully government-run system risks alienating progressives, but embracing the Vermont independent’s bill opens up lines of attack around eliminating the private insurance coverage most people already have.

1 in 4 Florida health care providers skipped opiod training, state finds
Christine Sexton, Pensacola News Journal

About one in four Florida health care providers failed to take a two-hour continuing education course on proper opioid prescribing by the required Jan. 31 deadline, according to state officials. The Florida Department of Health now is preparing to send non-compliance letters advising the providers that they have 15 days to take the mandated course or face disciplinary action, agency spokesman Brad Dalton told The News Service of Florida.

Democrats Unite to Begin Push to Protect Pre-Existing Condition Coverage
Robert Pear, The New York Times

Democrats, claiming a mandate from voters, opened a legislative campaign on Wednesday to secure protections under the Affordable Care Act for people with pre-existing medical conditions, putting aside divisions over a more ambitious push for “Medicare for all” in favor of shoring up existing law.

Stocks Fall and Bonds Gain as Europe Frets Growth: Markets Wrap
Todd White, Bloomberg

U.S. stock-index futures fell with European shares after a mixed session in Asia as signs emerged that the global rally in equities is stalling. Most government bonds climbed in Europe after official growth forecasts were slashed for major economies in the region.

Groups quietly mount Medicaid expansion ballot campaign in Florida
Rachana Pradhan, Politico

Obamacare supporters are mounting a campaign to get Medicaid expansion on the Florida ballot in 2020, potentially elevating the Obamacare program as a key election issue in the presidential swing state. A mix of national and local health care groups, energized by the approval of Medicaid expansion ballot initiatives in three conservative states in November, have been collecting signatures for weeks to support a voter referendum that could cover an additional 700,000 low-income Florida adults.

TennCare work requirements would cost taxpayers nearly $19 million each year, experts say
Anita Wadhwani, Nashville Tennessean

Requiring people to work in order to keep government health insurance will hit low-income Tennessee parents, caregivers and children especially hard and cost the state more money than it saves, a panel of experts said Tuesday.

More patients getting this heart pump are dying
Bob Herman, Axios

This week, the FDA warned heart doctors that patients who had received a newer type of heart pump, called the Impella RP, were dying at much higher rates in the real world than in initial clinical trials.

Hospitals Turn to Biometrics to Identify Patients
Brian Gormley, The Wall Street Journal

Biometric technology is coming to the hospital. Biometric systems, which identify people through fingerprints or other physical characteristics, have long been in use in sectors like law enforcement and consumer electronics.

Novartis CEO Says U.S. Rebate Plan Will Return Cash to Patients
John Miller, Reuters

Novartis AG Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said his company’s prescription drug prices have been “flat to negative” over the last three years, and directed blame for high costs for U.S. patients on industry middlemen that manage drug benefits. In an interview with Reuters in New York on Wednesday Narasimhan, a 42-year-old U.S. doctor who has headed the Swiss drugmaker since Feb. 2018, threw his support behind a U.S. government proposal to end a system of rebates drugmakers pay to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and health insurers in order to get products on their lists of covered medicines.

Antidepressants Can Interfere With Pain Relief Of Common Opioids
Jonathan Lambert, NPR News

Antidepressants may dampen the effects of some common opioids, resulting in less effective pain management according to research findings published Wednesday. The researchers suggest physicians should consider alternative pain management strategies for patients on antidepressants.

In a field full of failures, a new blood test to predict Alzheimer’s aims to give drug makers a needed tool
Sharon Begley, Stat News

It would seem difficult to put up worse numbers than experimental Alzheimer’s drugs, 99 percent of which have failed in clinical trials since 2002. But another corner of Alzheimer’s research has managed it: blood tests to either diagnose the disease in asymptomatic patients or predict which healthy people will develop it years in the future.

Telemedicine’s challenge: Getting patients to click the app
Tom Murphy, The Associated Press

Walmart workers can now see a doctor for only $4. The catch? It has to be a virtual visit. The retail giant recently rolled back the $40 price on telemedicine, becoming the latest big company to nudge employees toward a high-tech way to get diagnosed and treated remotely.

A New Prognosis for Pain Care
Laura Landro, The Wall Street Journal

A new world of pain treatment is on the horizon. Advances in measuring pain could show doctors how much pain a patient feels more vividly and help them dial the treatment up—or down—more precisely.

Virtual Reality May Reduce the Pain of Childbirth
Andrea Petersen, The Wall Street Journal

Virtual reality may be coming to the delivery room. Researchers are studying the use of virtual reality to alleviate pain and anxiety during labor, and a handful of doctors and hospitals are already offering it to women.

Alphabet’s Verily is building a high-tech rehab campus to combat opioid addiction
Angelica LaVito and Christina Farr, CNBC

Verily, Alphabet’s life science division, is building a tech-focused rehab campus in Dayton, Ohio to combat the opioid crisis. Verily will join two health networks, Kettering Health Network and Premier Health, to create a nonprofit named OneFifteen.

Where Will Drug Overdoses Hit Next? Twitter May Offer Clues
Lisa Ward, The Wall Street Journal

The battle against opioid abuse could have a new tool in its arsenal: Twitter. Research indicates that the site provides a quick, reliable snapshot of who’s using what drugs and where throughout the country.

New Cures Coming From Value-Based Outcome Medicine
Matthew Kandrach, Morning Consult

There is no question America’s health care system is too costly. We spend $3.3 trillion on health care a year on average, equating to 18 percent of our total gross domestic product. Yet, there also is no question that the care provided and offered in the United States is the best available in the world.

Andrew Cuomo: Trump’s Assault on Abortion Rights Must Be Rejected
Andrew M. Cuomo, The New York Times

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Trump attacked the law that New York passed last month codifying a woman’s right to an abortion, and he proposed federal legislation to roll back the protections provided by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The president’s diatribe was part of the far-right’s escalation of its assault on a woman’s constitutional rights.

Health Insurance Coverage Eight Years After the ACA
Sarah R. Collins et al., The Commonwealth Fund

What does health insurance coverage look like for Americans today, more than eight years after the Affordable Care Act’s passage? In this brief, we present findings from the Commonwealth Fund’s latest Biennial Health Insurance Survey to assess the extent and quality of coverage for U.S. working-age adults.