Healthcare Tuesday

Health insurers dropping children-only plans: Just days before new rules take effect banning insurers from denying coverage to sick kids, a number of companies have decided to drop some policies catering only to kids — a move health-reform supporters are blasting. 

"We’re just days away from a new era when insurance companies must stop denying coverage to kids just because they are sick, and now some of the biggest changed their minds and decided to refuse to sell child-only coverage," Ethan Rome, executive director of the liberal group Health Care for America Now, said in a statement. "The latest announcement by the insurance companies that they won't cover kids is immoral, and to blame their appalling behavior on the new law is patently dishonest." 

Earlier in the year, insurers had criticized the prohibition on excluding kids with pre-existing conditions, arguing that parents would simply wait until their kids got sick to enroll them in coverage. The White House responded by allowing the companies to establish limited enrollment periods, as long as they comply with state law.  

The move by some insurers to drop children-only plans is an indication that the open-enrollment compromise wasn't convincing enough for some companies. http://bit.ly/aX6Uy4 

Dems unveil global drug-safety bill: Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday released draft legislation designed to ensure the safety of pharmaceuticals in an ever-globalizing world. Presented by Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), the proposal is designed to inspire a discussion about America's role in policing the international companies making the drugs that eventually find themselves to U.S. drugstores. 

The issue grew prominent in 2008 when defective, Chinese-made heparin, a blood thinner, killed scores of Americans. 

"We’ve learned more than a few troubling truths on the safety of some prescription medications, and we’ve learned it the hard way — with tragedies,” Dingell said in a statement. "We know we need to address this, the only question now is how. We must ensure the Food and Drug Administration is adequately equipped to carry out the important mission of protecting American consumers." http://bit.ly/97oNaq 

CMS to announce MA benefits: Top White House health officials are hosting a press call Tuesday morning to announce next year's benefits for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans — benefits they say will be "similar to 2010." 

The issue has been contentious because the Democrats' health-reform law cuts more than $100 billion in subsidies to the private MA plans. The move has led the sponsoring companies to warn that they'll likely be forced to drop some of the additional benefits MA plans often offer — things such as dental and eye care, which traditional Medicare doesn't cover.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Medicare Administrator Don Berwick will lead Tuesday's call. 

Dems versus insurers, Part XXVI: Top Senate Democrats are going after the insurance industry this week over the news that not only are some premium costs skyrocketing, but some companies are blaming the new health-reform law for the trend. 

"If an insurer thinks it can blame the enactment of the Affordable Care Act for its rising premiums, it is surely mistaken," Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) wrote to the country's largest insurance companies. "This level of misinformation is not acceptable." http://bit.ly/cuTeau

What did FDA officials know about the "phantom recall" on Motrin? That's the question Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is asking this week after ABC News reported Monday that e-mails bouncing between Johnson & Johnson executives suggest the Food and Drug Administration was aware the company had hired private contractors in late 2008 to scoop defective Motrin off of retailers' shelves. 

“Johnson and Johnson’s not off the hook," Issa told ABC Monday, "but neither is the FDA for being too cozy with industry and not forthcoming with Congress."

A House oversight hearing on the phantom recall is scheduled for Sept. 30. http://bit.ly/al76DR

Fish or threat? An FDA panel this week is weighing whether to allow the commercial sale of a salmon that's been genetically modified to grow much faster than its natural cousin. Early reports suggest the officials are leaning toward approval.

"Committee members, who were not asked to vote on whether the fish should be approved, did not point out anything about the fish that would seem dangerous, despite one study suggesting a possible increase in the potential to cause allergic reactions," The New York Times reported. "They said the chance the fish would escape into the wild was low." http://nyti.ms/ax8Cw9