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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

Republican Shelley Moore Capito is looking for a $45 billion commitment to ensure treatment for opioid addicts in her hard-hit state of West Virginia. (Associated Press)

Opioid funds tied to Obamacare repeal

Senate Republicans are dangling billions of dollars in opioid-fighting funds to try to entice wary moderates to sign onto their Obamacare repeal bill, looking to ink a final compromise.

June 13, 2017
Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a campaign fundraiser for Republican candidate for 6th Congressional District Karen Handel at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Friday, June 9, 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman) ** FILE **

Mike Pence says Obamacare is in ‘death spiral,’ cites insurer exits

Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday said Obamacare is in the throes of an "ongoing collapse" and that states across the Midwest will suffer the most next year, even as one insurer announced it is bucking the grim outlook and expanding its footprint in the law's exchanges.

June 13, 2017
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, after the House pushed through a health care bill, in this Thursday, May 4, 2017, file photo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Tom Price, HHS chief, and Democrats spar over Obamacare’s future

President Trump's health secretary on Thursday refused to commit his boss to making critical Obamacare payments through the coming year, infuriating Democrats who say the administration is sabotaging the insurance markets to bolster its case for repeal.

June 8, 2017
Rep. Al Green, Texas Democrat, called for the impeachment of President Trump again. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Al Green: I’m drafting articles of impeachment

Rep. Al Green, a maverick Democrat, said Wednesday he is drafting articles of impeachment against President Trump, alleging the Republican president broke the law in May and must be held to account.

June 7, 2017
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 9, 2017 file photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivers one of his State of the State addresses in New York's One World Trade Center building. New York officials estimate the House of Representatives' Thursday, May 4, 2017 bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act would lead to 2.7 million residents losing coverage and the state losing up to $6.9 billion in federal Medicaid money. Cuomo said such cuts would reduce support for hospitals, nursing homes and 7 million New Yorkers who rely on the program. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Andrew Cuomo moves to enshrine Obamacare protections

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said he will require insurers to cover Obamacare's "essential" health benefits and charge healthy and sick people the same amount, declaring his progressive state won't "stand idly by" as Republicans in Congress try to dismantle the 2010 health care law.

June 5, 2017
In this July 8, 2016, file photo, a pharmacist holds a package of EpiPens epinephrine auto-injector, a Mylan product, in Sacramento, Calif. Businesses will be allowed to stock EpiPens used to treat people having life-threatening allergic reactions under AB1386, which allows pharmacies to dispense the devices to colleges, private businesses and other venues that have a plan in place for using them. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

Chuck Grassley: EpiPen maker overcharged taxpayers nearly $1.3B

Mylan Pharmaceuticals, the maker of EpiPens for allergy sufferers, may have overcharged taxpayers as much as $1.27 billion by misclassifying their life-saving devices under Medicaid's drug rebate program from 2006 to 2016, a government watchdog has informed Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.

June 1, 2017
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chair of the Senate Republican Caucus, speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) ** FILE **

GOP health plan gets low marks, heaping pressure on Senate: Poll

Americans continue to view Obamacare more favorably than the House-passed plan to repeal it, according to a Wednesday poll that finds the public is increasingly wary of how the GOP replacement would affect them if it were passed by the Senate and signed into law.

May 31, 2017
In this photo taken Dec. 8, 2016, the Capitol Building as seen in Washington. Congress wrapped up the 114th session early Saturday, a tumultuous two years marked by the resignation of a House speaker, a fight over a Supreme Court vacancy, bipartisan bills on health care and education and inaction on immigration and criminal justice. The new Congress will be sworn-in Jan. 3, 2017.  (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

GOP health care plan could harm anti-opioid efforts

The House GOP's health care bill would leave 14 million fewer people on Medicaid and force other patients to pay thousands of dollars more for substance abuse treatment, analysts said, in what some lawmakers fear would be a major step backward in the national battle against opioid addiction.

May 28, 2017
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk from Marine One across the South Lawn to White House in Washington, Saturday, May 27, 2017, as they return from Sigonella, Italy. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Donald Trump picks fight with media upon return to U.S.

President Trump on Sunday picked up where he left off upon his arrival home from a nine-day overseas trip, using his phone and thumbs to attack the media on Twitter and decry the steady stream of governmental leaks that are embarrassing the White House.

May 28, 2017