Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

I will be off tomorrow, so releasing this a little early this week. If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

AP: Budget Office Says Trump’s Tax Law Will Add $3.4 Trillion To Deficits, Leave 10 Million Uninsured President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law will add $3.4 trillion to federal deficits through 2034, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday, a slight increase in the projection that takes into account the final tweaks that Republicans made before getting the legislation over the finish line. More than 10 million people will be uninsured under the law in 2034 because of the law, CBO found, an improvement from an earlier projection that found 11.8 million people losing coverage over the decade. (Freking, 7/21)

The New York Times: U.S. Quietly Drafts Plan To End Program That Saved Millions From AIDS The federal program to combat H.I.V. in developing nations earned a reprieve last week when Congress voted to restore $400 million in funding. But that may be short-lived: Officials at the State Department have been mapping out a plan to shut it down in the coming years. Planning documents for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, obtained by The New York Times, call for the organization to set a new course that focuses on “transitioning” countries away from U.S. assistance, some in as little as two years. (Nolen, 7/23)

Roll Call: Republicans Plan Bipartisan Health Package As Democrats Demur Senate Republicans say they are working on a bipartisan health package to lower drug and health insurance costs, a development that’s news to some Democrats who remain skeptical that their GOP colleagues will work with them. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is leading the talks, with a particular focus on more transparency from pharmacy benefit managers, so-called upcoding practices in Medicare Advantage and other health items. (Hellmann, 7/23)

For a Deeper Dive...

Roll Call: CBO Finds Health Agency Cuts Would Result In Fewer New Drugs The Trump administration’s proposed cuts at the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration could lower the number of new drugs that come to market in the next three decades, according to an analysis released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office. (Cohen, 7/18)

KFF Health News: Georgia Shows Rough Road Ahead For States As Medicaid Work Requirements Loom Every time Ashton Alexander sees an ad for Georgia Pathways to Coverage, it feels like a “kick in the face.” Alexander tried signing up for Pathways, the state’s limited Medicaid expansion, multiple times and got denied each time, he said, even though he met the qualifying terms because he’s a full-time student. Georgia is one of 10 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid health coverage to a broader pool of low-income adults. (Rayasam and Whitehead, 7/21)

Military.Com: Proposal To Expand Private Health Care For Veterans Advanced By House Panel A bill aimed at giving veterans easier access to private doctors using Department of Veterans Affairs funding has advanced out of a key House panel after stark partisan debate. Cost issues scuttled a couple of controversial provisions from the GOP-led bill advanced Wednesday compared to the version of the bill that was introduced earlier this year. But the legislation still stoked strong opposition from Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to privatize the VA as Republicans insisted they are trying to give veterans more options in their care. (Kheel, 7/23)

Modern Healthcare: Physician Fee Schedule Proposal Hits Specialist Billing Codes The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has set in motion a quiet transformation in how Medicare pays doctors. Tucked inside the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule for 2026 that the agency issued last Monday is a plan to move away from calculating rates using survey data from the Relative Value Scale Update Committee. (Early, 7/22)

The New York Times: Heath Insurers Are Denying More Drug Claims, Data Shows Prescription drug denials by private insurers in the United States jumped 25 percent from 2016 to 2023, according to a new analysis of more than four billion claims, a practice that has contributed to rising public outrage about the nation’s private health insurance system. The report, compiled for The New York Times by the health analytics company Komodo Health, shows that denial rates rose from 18.3 percent to 22.9 percent. The rejections went up across many major health plans, including the country’s largest private insurer, UnitedHealthcare. (Kliff, 7/18)

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