OVERNIGHT HEALTHCARE: Ebola survivor to testify before Congress

by Sarah Ferris and Elise Viebeck - 09/11/14 7:00 PM ET

Next week’s Senate hearing on the Ebola epidemic will be a major media event now that Kent Brantly is scheduled to testify.

Brantly was the second American doctor evacuated from West Africa last month after catching Ebola from a sick patient. In a remarkable feat of medicine, he recovered from the disease with the help of an experimental treatment.

{mosads}His case has gained worldwide media attention and given him a platform to advocate for aid workers and patients in West Africa, where Ebola had killed at least 2,300 people as of this week.

Several U.S. health officials will testify in addition to Brantly, including Centers for Disease Control Director Tom Frieden, a key figure in coordinating the U.S. response to the outbreak.

Attending alongside Frieden will be Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

Both Fauci and Robinson have played a role in connecting sick Americans with experimental Ebola treatments.

They are now at the center of the effort to ramp up production of anti-Ebola drugs as pressure rises to heal not only U.S. aid workers infected with Ebola but African patients too.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold the hearing jointly with the Labor-Health and Human Services subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations panel.

The House is poised to pass $88 million in new funding for the Ebola epidemic, to be divided between the CDC and BARDA, with the Senate expected to follow suit this month. Read more here.

O-Care partners give to the GOP: Health insurance executives are tilting their campaign giving toward Republicans even as they work closely with the White House to sign people up for ObamaCare. The insurance industry’s lead political action committee, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) PAC, has donated $162,500 to Republicans this election cycle, compared to $115,500 to Democrats, according to a review of campaign records by The Hill.

Individual donations by major health insurance executives follow the same pattern. Donations from the 14 insurance leaders who met with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Sept. 4 have favored the GOP by a margin of more than 2 to 1, records show. Read more here.

GOPer raises concerns about abused migrants: Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) on Thursday accused the Obama administration of failing to properly investigate potential instances of human trafficking along the Mexican border. Burgess, an obstetrician and gynecologist who has visited the border, said he’s observed boys and girls under the age of 10 who displayed signs of abuse, but said federal workers are not told to investigate the cases or report them to state authorities.

“It’s like we’re indifferent to the fact that these children might have been sexually assaulted all the way up here,” Burgess said during a hearing held by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. Read more here.

HHS readies push to enroll minorities in O-Care: Federal health officials announced $3.2 million in new funding to help racial and ethnic minorities enroll in health coverage under ObamaCare. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of Minority Health awarded grants to 13 organizations that will help educate and encourage minority communities to sign up for health plans through the marketplaces.

Enrollment among minorities was not as strong as the administration had hoped in the exchanges’ first year. According to a report released in May by HHS, Latinos accounted for 10.7 percent of enrollments in the federal exchanges and blacks accounted for 16.7 percent. Read more here.

Dem hammers Walgreens over birth control co-pay: Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) is continuing her fight against illegal co-pays for generic birth control charged by major pharmacy retailers. In a letter to Walgreens CEO Gregory Wasson, Speier reported that some women have been charged cost-sharing when obtaining contraception even though the practice is now illegal under the Affordable Care Act. “CVS Health, Walgreens and all other pharmacies and health coverage providers who have experienced this issue must get to the bottom of how widespread these unlawful charges were and make sure that all of the individuals who were charged are reimbursed,” Speier wrote. Read the letter here.

Court victory for SBA List: A federal judge sided with the Susan B. Anthony List Thursday in its legal battle against an Ohio law that prohibits false statements in political speech. The ruling struck down the law as unconstitutional after the Supreme Court ruled that the SBA List had standing to pursue its case. The statute could have prevented the group’s election-year messaging on abortion from moving forward four years ago against then-Rep. Steven Driehaus (D-Ohio). Read more about the decision here.

Friday’s schedule

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) will deliver a speech in favor of his mental health reform bill at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

State by state

Mass. requests extension for expiring health insurance programs, Boston Business Journal

Navigators to help Tennesseans with ACA enrollment, Knoxville News Sentinel

Texas’ largest hospitals plan mergers, Dallas Morning News

Medicaid expansion is “dark spot” on Indiana governor’s record ahead of 2016, MSNBC

Reading list

Opinion: Ted Cruz’s Obamacare nightmare comes to life, New York Magazine

Dems struggle to get out from under ObamaCare in Senate races, Fox News

ACA hasn’t helped kids’ uninsured rate, BenefitsPro

Survey shows veterans relying on VA as primary source of mental health care, Washington Post