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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

States file lawsuit against revoking Obamacare rule

Twenty states filed a lawsuit Monday arguing the new law President Trump signed last year revoking Obamacare's individual mandate actually makes the rest of the 2010 health law unconstitutional as well.

February 26, 2018
In this June 27, 2017, file photo, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, right, joined by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Governors push for bipartisan middle ground on health care

Congress should restore contested Obamacare payments but let the states and private sector innovate to drive down costs, a trio of governors said Friday, stepping into the policy void left by a Congress deadlocked over fixing Obamacare.

February 23, 2018
This Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017, photo shows an arrangement of pills of the opioid oxycodone-acetaminophen in New York. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison) ** FILE **

House panel pledges to make opioids its ‘top priority’

Fighting the opioid epidemic will be the top priority for the House Energy and Commerce Committee over the next few months as Congress tries to put some substantive muscle behind President Trump's declaration of emergency on prescription painkiller and heroin abuse.

February 22, 2018
In this Feb. 14, 2018 photo, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar attends a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the FY19 budget on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Trump administration is clearing the way for a lower-cost alternative to comprehensive medical insurance plans sold under former President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

HHS looking to courts to settle illegal immigrant abortion rights

Health Secretary Alex M. Azar II said Tuesday that his department has a difficult balancing act when it comes to illegal immigrant girls seeking abortions, saying he has to balance their rights versus "as well as the interests of their unborn children."

February 20, 2018
FILE- In this Jan. 19, 2018, file photo, Del. Terry G. Kilgore, R-Scott, chairman of the House Commerce and Labor committee, listens during the floor session of the House at the state Capitol in Richmond, Va. Kilgore said Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, on the John Fredericks Show that he'd changed his mind after years of opposition to Medicaid expansion and now supports it. (Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP, File)

Medicaid expansion getting second look after work rule

GOP-led states that had been reluctant to expand Medicaid under President Obama are suddenly giving it another look after the Trump administration said last month they can require those on the program to also hold down jobs.

February 19, 2018
The White House budget allocates billions of dollars for cost-sharing payments, which reimburse insurers who under the law must cover some poor customers' out-of-pocket health care costs. (Associated Press/File)

Donald Trump’s Obamacare funds anger conservatives

President Trump's new budget envisions eviscerating Obamacare -- but it also includes money to fund contentious payments to insurance companies next year, in a move that conservatives say will end up sustaining the struggling law.

February 18, 2018
Health officials encourage people to get flu shots, even though the vaccine has been shown to be about only 30 percent effective against the H3N2 strain. Health experts are struggling to determine why flu-like illness in increasing among younger people. (Associated Press)

Trump officials beg Americans to get flu shot

Adults who get the flu shot this year are 36 percent less likely to get the illness, federal scientists said Thursday, imploring Americans to get vaccinated even though it is late in a "scary" flu season.

February 15, 2018
In this Jan. 5, 2018, file photo, Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter speaks to reporters about the 2018 legislative session at the State Capitol in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger, File)

Idaho insurer to offer plans that ignore Obamacare

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declined Wednesday to commit to protecting Obamacare from companies that are testing the bounds of the law by floating cheaper plans that flout federal requirements.

February 14, 2018
Senate Finance Committee member Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., questions Alex Azar during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, to consider Azar's nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) **FILE**

Senate report alleges link between opioid maker donations, lobbying efforts

Five opioid makers paid nearly $9 million to 14 outside groups who then "echoed and amplified messages favorable to increased opioid use" between 2012 to 2017, according to a new report by Sen. Claire McCaskill that alleges a link between donations and industry-friendly messaging.

February 13, 2018
This Feb. 19, 2013 file photo shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Opioids crisis costs estimated $1 trillion from 2001-2017

The U.S. opioids crisis cost more than $1 trillion from 2001 to 2017 and will cost another $500 billion in the following three years unless "concerted and sustained action" is taken to stem prescription painkiller and heroin abuse, a nonprofit consultancy estimated Tuesday.

February 13, 2018