Overnight Healthcare: Lawmakers dive into vaccine debate

The Senate's health committee will hold its first hearing on childhood vaccination Tuesday as the number of people infected with the measles nationwide surpasses 150 cases. The lawmakers will hear from pediatricians and officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the link between declining vaccination rates and the recent outbreak of the measles, as well as other preventable diseases. The Senate panel is diving into the debate at a time when the Obama administration is stepping lightly on the issue. While the administration has launched an aggressive effort to get people vaccinated for measles, it has been careful not to call for any new laws or policies related to the outbreak despite calls to do so from some Congressional and state lawmakers. Obama, as well as his top health officials, have made rounds on some of the most-watched news shows and amplified outreach to doctors and hospitals nationwide as the administration confronts its next big public health crisis. While the administration has widely acknowledged that vaccinations help control the spread of the disease, Obama and others have steered clear of the politically heated debate. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institutes of Infectious Diseases, said in an interview this weekend that vaccine laws are a "local and state thing" and not under the purview of the federal government. That view has also been reiterated by HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell. "Where asked for help in the states we will, and we'll continue to do our tracking so we can report on a nationwide basis," Burwell told The Hill last week. 17 PERCENT DISTRUST VACCINES: While the vast majority of people believe vaccines are safe, just over 7 percent say they don't know and 9 percent believe they are unsafe. While the issue does not appear to be partisan, a person's view does vary based on their age and education level. College graduates are the most likely to say vaccines are safe, at 92 percent. That falls slightly to 85 percent among those with some college and to 77 percent among those with a high school degree or less. Young people are the most skeptical of vaccines. Read more here. HEALTHCARE.GOV ADDS STAFF: The Obama administration has hired 40 percent more people to help with healthcare sign-ups in the final week ahead of the 2015 deadline for enrolling in health insurance through ObamaCare. A total of 14,000 people are running call centers across the country starting Monday, when prospective enrollees will have less than a week to meet the Feb. 15 deadline. Kevin Counihan, the CEO of HealthCare.gov, also warned of a "big, big surge" but said the administration is prepared. "Our system is stable. We've got call center support," he said. Read morehere. 'PHISHING' BLAMED FOR ANTHEM HACK: Weak security is being blamed for the mammoth hack of one of the nation's largest health insurance providers, which has put the private data of 80 million people at risk. Investigators are focused on weak security for login credentials, as the hackers are believed to have accessed Anthem Inc.'s information by stealing the system administrator's access information. "Anthem's primary security sin may not have been the lack of encryption, but instead improper access controls," security researcher Ken Westin wrote in a blog post.  Read more here. 'TURNING POINT' FOR OBAMACARE?: The second-in-command at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Monday that President Obama's signature healthcare law has hit a "turning point" in the century-old battle to provide universal coverage to all Americans. "To say that we are in the middle of a historic moment is no exaggeration," Deputy Secretary Bill Corr said in the keynote address to the Academy Health nonprofit health policy group. He also made light of the administration's massive campaign to enroll more people in ObamaCare: "This is the part of the speech where I'm required to tell you that open enrollment ends on February 15," he joked. Read more here. Tuesday's schedule The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing to examine the role of vaccines in the recent measles outbreak Vice President Biden will highlight a bipartisan effort called the ABLE Act, which creates new savings accounts for families with disabled people. The Advanced Medical Technology Association will unveil its 2015 agenda at a press briefing. State by state Georgia gets first case of measles in three years GOP-controlled committee in Kansas offers Medicaid expansion bill Gov. Wolf to ditch Healthy PA, institute straight Medicaid expansion Iowa Supreme Court to hear telemed abortion case What we're reading Teen HPV vaccine does not spur riskier sex E-cigarettes could be just as harmful as tobacco, Johns Hopkins researchers say In Puerto Rico, health overhaul gets an incomplete What you might missed at The Hill Approval of abortion policies drops to record low Bill would shield NIH funding from annual budget wars HHS: ObamaCare coverage costs $100 or less for many Bill would ban abortions across state lines Please send tips and comments to Sarah Ferris, sferris@thehill.com, and Peter Sullivan, psullivan@thehill.com. Follow on Twitter: @thehill, @sarahnferris, @PeterSullivan4

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