Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

The New York Times: Torrent of Anger for Health Insurance Industry Follows C.E.O.’s Killing The fatal shooting on Wednesday of a top UnitedHealthcare executive, Brian Thompson, on a Manhattan sidewalk has unleashed a torrent of morbid glee from patients and others who say they have had negative experiences with health insurance companies at some of the hardest times of their lives. “Thoughts and deductibles to the family,” read one comment underneath a video of the shooting posted online by CNN. “Unfortunately my condolences are out-of-network.” (Searcey and Kircher, 12/5)

Stat: Congressional Talks Over Big End-Of-Year Health Package Heat Up Negotiations over a large health care policy package are heating up this week as Congress hurtles toward a government funding deadline at the end of the month. Congressional Republicans on Tuesday made an offer to Democrats that included a three-year extension of pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities in Medicare, some reforms in how pharmacy middlemen operate, a Medicare pay bump for doctors, funding for community health centers, and extensions of public health programs in Medicare and Medicaid, according to a copy obtained by STAT. (Zhang, 12/4)

KFF Health News: 9 States Poised To End Coverage For Millions If Trump Cuts Medicaid Funding With Donald Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans taking full control of Congress in 2025, the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is back on the chopping block. More than 3 million adults in nine states would be at immediate risk of losing their health coverage should the GOP reduce the extra federal Medicaid funding that’s enabled states to widen eligibility, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News, and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. (Galewitz, 12/4)

For a Deeper Dive...

The New York Times: Killing Of Brian Thompson Sets Off Fear Among Executives Already Worried About Safety Leaders at Allied Universal, which provides security services for 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies, said their phones were “ringing off the hook” on Wednesday with potential clients. Allied covers a wide spectrum of services — including stationing guards outside offices, chauffeuring executives, surveilling their homes and tracking their families. Protecting a chief executive full time costs roughly $250,000 a year, said Glen Kucera, who runs Allied’s enhanced protection services. (Goldberg, 12/6)

The New York Times: Long A ‘Crown Jewel’ Of Government, N.I.H. Is Now A Target The National Institutes of Health, the world’s leading public funder of biomedical research, has an enviable track record. Research supported by the agency has led to more than 100 Nobel Prizes and has supported more than 99 percent of the drugs approved by federal regulators from 2010 to 2019. No surprise, then, that the agency has been called “the crown jewel of the federal government.” But come January, when President-elect Donald J. Trump and congressional Republicans take charge, the N.I.H. may face a reckoning. (Rosenbluth and Anthes, 12/1)

KFF Health News: Nursing Home Industry Wants Trump To Rescind Staffing Mandate Covid’s rampage through the country’s nursing homes killed more than 172,000 residents and spurred the biggest industry reform in decades: a mandate that homes employ a minimum number of nurses. But with President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the industry is ramping up pressure to kill that requirement before it takes effect, leaving thousands of residents in homes too short-staffed to provide proper care. (Rau, 12/3)

Stat: Medicare Advantage Set To Benefit Under Trump Medicare Advantage insurers thrived under the first Trump administration, and it’s expected to happen again now that Trump is returning to the White House and Republicans are taking control of Congress. The Medicare Advantage program is expected to cost taxpayers and beneficiaries more than $500 billion this year. For the past decade, it has been the insurance industry’s golden goose of profitability. But insurance companies have lamented recent regulations, worrying their margins will take a hit. (Herman, 12/3)

AP: Nearly 30% Of US Drugstores Closed In One Decade, Study Shows Nearly three out of 10 U.S. drugstores that were open during the previous decade had closed by 2021, new research shows. Black and Latino neighborhoods were most vulnerable to the retail pharmacy closures, which can chip away at already-limited care options in those communities, researchers said in a study published Tuesday in Health Affairs. (Murphy, 12/3)

Axios: Trump's Immigration Crackdown Could Reduce Caregiving Workforce Some of the earliest and lasting effects from President-elect Trump's promised immigration crackdowns would be in home health and long-term care, both of which rely on a substantial number of immigrants and undocumented workers. (Reed, 12/4)

The New York Times: Mike Johnson’s Newest Headache: The Smallest House Majority In History Republicans will be down to a 217-215 majority, on par with the narrowest controlling margin in House history. If all Democrats are present and united in opposition to a measure, Mr. Johnson won’t be able to afford a single defection on the House floor until those vacancies are filled later this spring. Even then, no more than three Republicans can break ranks without dooming a bill’s passage. (Edmondson, 12/4)

The New York Times: Most Rural Hospitals Have Closed Their Maternity Wards, Study Finds Over 500 hospitals have closed their labor and delivery departments since 2010, according to a large new study, leaving most rural hospitals and more than a third of urban hospitals without obstetric care. Those closures, the study found, were slightly offset by the opening of new units in about 130 hospitals. Even so, the share of hospitals without maternity wards increased every year, according to the study, published on Wednesday in JAMA, a prominent medical journal. Maternal deaths remained persistently high over that period, spiking during the pandemic. (Kliff, 12/4)

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For the Visual Among Us...

A few years ago I started a weekly e-mail for friends and colleagues who want to keep up on major federal health policy developments but did not have time to plod through all the minutiae--they were busy doing important things like running organizations and taking care of patients! Much to my surprise, it became pretty popular. I have now converted to a weekly newsletter format so you can manage your own subscription preferences and forward to others that might be interested.

These summaries represent my judgement on health policy issues that may not on the front pages, but are relevant to clinicians, administrators, and educators. I monitor many news sources and clipping services to identify content for this newsletter and I try hard to be as factual, balanced, and non-partisan as possible. While the articles are written by others (with credit attributed), the choice of what to include is entirely mine. If you are interested in receiving a daily summary of health policy news, you might consider signing up for the KHN Morning Briefing. If you enjoy podcasts, I suggest What the Health? and Tradeoffs.

-Gregg S. Margolis, PhD