Poll: 68 percent of Americans support a national health plan Presented by

WIth help from Rachel Roubein, Victoria Colliver and Renuka Rayasam

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— There's significant support for a national health care plan, according to a new POLITICO/Harvard poll that found 68 percent of respondents were in favor of an idea like Medicare for All.

— The Supreme Court will hear arguments in a drug-labeling case that could have wide-ranging implications for when drugmakers are protected from certain consumer lawsuits.

— A Trump appointee defended HHS' work to reunify migrant families in an interview with POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast, recorded after the official left the Trump administration on Friday.

WELCOME BACK TO MONDAY PULSE — And welcome to Day 17 of the shutdown, where it might feel like limbo, but the safety risks are real.

How's the shutdown affecting you? PULSE wants to hear your stories: Send them to [email protected].

DEMOCRATS OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORT A MEDICARE FOR ALL-TYPE PLAN — That's according to a new POLITICO and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll, which found that 84 percent of Democrats want Congress to enact a taxpayer-funded, national health care plan, such as Medicare for All.

About 42 percent of Democrats surveyed are in favor of repealing and replacing Obamacare — but that’s largely because they want to build on the health law’s coverage gains, POLITICO's Rachel Roubein notes.

… Republicans don't share Democrats' enthusiasm for a national health care plan, with just 39 percent in favor of the idea.

But GOP respondents were in favor of having more health coverage options, like a voluntary Medicare buy-in for people under age 65 (60 percent of Republicans surveyed) and, with a slim majority, a public option (51 percent of Republicans). Democrats were overwhelmingly in favor of both. (Most respondents weren't aware of these options when initially asked, but were broadly supportive of the ideas.) More here.

SUPREME COURT HEARS ARGUMENTS IN DRUG LABELING CASE — The case, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht, centers around lawsuits against Merck that contend the drug company didn't sufficiently convey the risk of fractures from its osteoporosis drug Fosamax.

Merck's argument: Yes, the drug caused the fractures, but Merck's not liable because FDA rejected the company's attempts to strengthen warnings on drug labels. SCOTUSblog recap.

— The case could have big implications for pharma companies' legal risks. POLITICO's Sarah Karlin-Smith will be on hand to break down the oral arguments.

PULSE CHECK: HOW HHS APPROACHED FAMILY REUNIFICATION — Chris Meekins, the Trump appointee who helped oversee migrant family reunifications before leaving HHS last week, described the process to put thousands of families back together and defended the administration’s work.

— HHS staff had to comb through more than 60 different datasets being kept by the Department of Homeland Security to find information to reunite families, said Meekins, who compared the process to a forensic data analysis. HHS also added new tracking capabilities to spreadsheets, which had been missing beforehand.

— "I personally disagreed with" the family separation policy, said Meekins — an official who normally worked on biodefense and emergency preparedness, but was brought in to help work on reuniting families. He demurred on repeated questions about whether HHS was prepared to implement the policy.

Meekins also defended the health department's role in the crisis, reiterating that the family separation policy was driven by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and implemented by DHS. "HHS did not separate kids. Period," he said.

Listen to the episode.

A message from PhRMA: Today, there are several promising vaccine candidates in stage three clinical trials. These trials have tens of thousands of participants, from every walk of life. From development to robust clinical trials, and throughout manufacturing, these vaccine candidates follow the same rigorous process of other vaccines that have saved millions of lives. More.

IT'S JPM WEEK AGAIN — Thousands of health care executives, investors and other leaders are descending on San Francisco for the 37th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, billed as the largest and oldest health care symposium in the world.

— Get the scoop: POLITICO’s Darius Tahir along with Victoria Colliver will have you covered, filing updates on the trends, key presentations (nearly 500 companies are slated to present, so manage your expectations) and cocktail-party chatter during the week.

— Want to connect? Find Darius at [email protected] or on Twitter @dariustahir, covering eHealth trends. Victoria, our California correspondent, is at [email protected] and @vcolliver.

— Meanwhile: JPM's keynote affected by the shutdown. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb cancelled his attendance due to the federal government shutdown, but will still deliver his keynote Tuesday remotely.

HEALTH CARE ADDS NEARLY 350,000 JOBS IN 2018 — That's according to Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates posted on Friday, a nearly 22 percent increase over 2017.

The biggest driver of jobs growth: Hospitals, which added nearly 108,000 jobs last year.

— More than 50,000 health care jobs were created in December alone, according to BLS, which would be the single biggest monthly gain in history, pending further revisions.

— One downside of more health jobs: Higher health costs. Writing in JAMA, Dartmouth's Jon Skinner and Harvard's Amitabh Chandra recently demonstrated the link between health jobs and health spending.

"The robust growth in new health care jobs during 2018 is, to me, good evidence that efforts to reduce health care spending substantially has failed," Skinner told PULSE.

FIRST IN PULSE: Young adults at risk from Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas. That's according to an analysis by Young Invincibles, which calculates that more than 32,000 state residents between ages 19 and 29 could lose their Medicaid coverage if they don’t meet the requirements. That's nearly 40 percent of all Medicaid enrollees in that age bracket. See analysis.

Arkansas on Jan. 1 extended its Medicaid work requirements to the age 19-to-29 population. POLITICO recently detailed how the state's work requirements are playing out.

FIRST IN PULSE: The AMA urges states to remove key barrier to MAT. Too many Americans are being harmed by delays in accessing medication-assisted treatment for opioid addictions, Barbara McAneny, the AMA's president, writes in an essay that was shared first with PULSE.

Many payers require physicians and patients to spend days or weeks waiting for authorization to use MAT to treat opioid-use disorder. The AMA — which applauded Pennsylvania's recent decision to get rid of prior authorization for medication-assisted treatment — has model legislation for states seeking to similarly remove prior authorization for MAT.

"There is no valid reason to delay or deny medically proven care that can help end the nation’s opioid epidemic and improve patients’ health and lives," McAneny writes. "Together, we can change policy and save lives."

Mary Mayhew to run Florida's Medicaid program. The senior Trump administration official overseeing Medicaid is leaving CMS after less than three months on the job, POLITICO's Rachana Pradhan and Alexandra Glorioso were first to report. Mayhew's known for her work to shrink the safety net in Maine. More for Pros.

— Elections have consequences, Florida edition. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum had pledged to push for Medicaid expansion for more than 700,000 Floridians. But Gillum fell a fraction of a percentage point short — and Ron DeSantis, Florida's incoming GOP governor, instead is signaling that he'll likely tighten eligibility.

Sen. Pat Roberts says he won't run for re-election. The Kansas Republican on Friday announced that he'll retire in 2020 instead. Roberts sits on the Senate Finance and HELP committees, the two key committees for health care legislation. The seat has been held by Republicans for decades.

— PULSE muses: What about Kathleen Sebelius? The ex-HHS secretary has won statewide races, as former Kansas governor and insurance commissioner, and while any Democrat would face long odds, the party won the governor's office and flipped a GOP House seat in November.

Sebelius also has an indirect connection to Roberts: Her father-in-law was Roberts' former boss and his predecessor in the House.

ICYMI: Health advocates want schizophrenia to be reclassified. The condition is a brain disease, not a mental illness, advocacy groups say — and if Congress agrees, that could unlock more money for cures, POLITICO's Brianna Ehley reports. More.

Electronic records lawsuit could force overhaul. A lawsuit brought by the National Federation of the Blind against Epic Systems has the potential to force hundreds of digital health vendors to reconfigure their EHRs so the blind can use them more easily, POLITICO's Darius Tahir reports. More for Pros.

California: Tam Ma to be deputy legislative affairs secretary for health, human services. Ma, who has been serving as an assistant secretary at California's Health and Human Services Agency, was previously director of legal and policy at Health Access California.

Texas: Senate health chair gives up post ahead of new session. Republican State Sen. Charles Schwertner plans to step down from leading the Health and Human Services Committee, the Texas Tribune reported.

Schwertner was recently investigated by the University of Texas over a report that he sent sexually explicit messages and photos to a student. Schwertner denied the accusation, and the university ultimately concluded that a third party possibly sent the messages.

Sandy Robert named to lead Association for Women in Science. Robert, who has more than two decades of experience at national scientific societies and educational institutions, will take the reins at the advocacy organization later this month.

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