First Edition: June 8, 2012

Today's headlines include reports that the House voted to repeal the health law's medical device tax. 

Kaiser Health News: Wallack On Vermont's Goal: 'Universal, Affordable Coverage' (Video)
KHN's Marilyn Werber Serafini talks with Anya Rader Wallack, who is tasked with moving Vermont to a single payer health care system. She's confident the state would enact its own individual mandate requiring people to buy insurance even if the Supreme Court strikes down the federal mandate. But, she says, "We'll have to cover [people] without adding new resources to the system or raising taxes."  This interview is part of KHN's video series "Supreme Uncertainty: What's Next After The Court Rules," which solicits views from public officials and policy experts about the upcoming high court ruling (6/7). Watch the video or read the transcript.

Kaiser Health News: Q & A: Will The Cadillac Tax Extend To Individual Plans Or the Self-Employed? (Video)
In this Kaiser Health News video, Insuring Your Health columnist Michelle Andrews responds to a reader's question about who will be affected by the health law's Cadillac tax, a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost plans set to start in 2018 (6/7). Watch the video. 
 
Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Young Adults Don't Necessarily Fit 'Young Invincible' Stereotype; The Downside Of Health Care Job Growth
Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Christian Torres reports: "Young adults' insurance coverage has significantly improved since the passage of the health law, but this trend could be derailed by the Supreme Court's much-anticipated ruling on the law, expected this month" (Torres, 6/8). 
 
Also on the blog, KHN's Jenny Gold reports that while "Health care employment has been the bright spot in the otherwise lackluster recent jobs reports," an opinion piece published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine argues that's not necessarily a good thing (Gold, 6/7). Check out what else is on the blog.

The New York Times' The Caucus: New Poll: The Supreme Court And The Health Care Law
More than two-thirds of Americans hope the Supreme Court will overturn some or all of the 2010 health care law, according to a new poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News. Just 24 percent said they hoped the court "would keep the entire health care law in place" (Liptak and Kopicki, 6/7).

The New York Times: House Acts To Repeal Medical Device Tax
In another assault on President Obama's health care law, the House passed a bill on Thursday to repeal a new tax on medical devices (Pear, 6/7).

The Washington Post: House Votes To Repeal 'Medical Device Tax,' But Senate Unlikely To Agree
Launching a summer-long effort to chip away at the 2010 health-care reform law, the House voted Thursday to repeal a key funding source for the reforms. The Health Care Cost Reduction Act of 2012 would repeal a 2.3 percent excise tax on gross sales receipts in excess of $5 million for manufacturers and importers of certain medical devices, including defibrillators, pacemakers and prosthetic limbs. Congressional budget officials estimate that the tax set to take effect Jan. 1 would raise nearly $30 billion in revenue between 2013 and 2022 (O'Keefe, 6/7).

The Wall Street Journal: Millions Of Young Adults Join Parents' Health Plans
About 6.6 million young adults signed up for health coverage through their parents' insurance plans in the first year after a new provision in the federal health law took effect, according to estimates in a study released Friday. As part of the law, most insurance plans offered by employers to their workers had to allow parents to enroll dependents on their plans up to the age of 26, starting in September 2010. Previously, parents had been able to include children only up to their 19th birthdays, or until the age of 22 if the children were full-time college students (Radnofsky, 6/7).

The Wall Street Journal: Molina, Centene Win Back Ohio Medicaid Business
Medicaid health insurers Molina Healthcare Inc. and Centene Corp. won back business in Ohio after protesting their prior rejection for new contracts starting next year. The state, which had initially named Aetna Inc. a winner, dropped that insurer from its list of five Medicaid health plans that will serve start starting Jan. 1. Meridian Health Plan, a nonprofit, was also dropped after initially being named a winner (Kamp, 6/7).

NPR: New Fetal Genetics Test: Less Risk, More Controversy
The full genetic code of a fetus has been cracked. The technique, used by scientists at the University of Washington, could offer parents safer and more comprehensive prenatal testing in the future. It also leaps into a debate over what information parents will eventually have -; and use -; to decide whether to have an abortion (Farrington, 6/7).

Los Angeles Times: Prop. 29 Backers Hold Out Hope As Gap Narrows
Proponents of the tobacco tax initiative on Tuesday's state ballot, Proposition 29, refused to concede defeat Thursday as election officials continued to count ballots and the gap narrowed. The measure was losing by just under 53,000 votes as updated tallies continued to trickle in from county elections offices. On election night, that number was 63,000 (Wilson, 6/7).