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 Hill: These Nine Republicans Back Democrats’ Effort To Revive ObamaCare Subsidies Nine House Republicans voted on Wednesday to compel the lower chamber to vote on a Democratic bill to revive ObamaCare subsidies after they expired at the start of the new year. Republican Reps. Mike Lawler (N.Y.), Nicolas LaLota (N.Y.) Robert Bresnahan (Penn.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Penn.), Ryan Mackenzie (Penn.), María Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Max Miller (Ohio), David Valadao (Calif.) and Thomas Kean (N.J.) voted with all 212 House Democrats. The House will vote on final passage on Thursday. (Mancini, 1/7)

Stat: House Passes ACA Subsidy Extension As Bipartisan Negotiations Heat Up In Senate The House voted 230 to 196 to pass a three-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, with 17 Republicans joining all Democrats in favor. Five Republicans did not vote. (Wilkerson, 1/8)

The New York Times: Kennedy Scales Back the Number of Vaccines Recommended for Children Federal health officials on Monday announced dramatic revisions to the slate of vaccines recommended for American children, reducing the number of diseases prevented by routine shots to 11 from 17. Jim O’Neill, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has updated the agency’s immunization schedule to reflect the changes, effective immediately, officials said at a news briefing. (Mandavilli, 1/5)

For a Deeper Dive...

The New York Times: RFK Jr. Overhauls Food Pyramid To Emphasize Red Meat And Dairy In a striking reversal of past nutrition guidance, the Trump administration released new dietary guidelines on Wednesday that flip the food pyramid on its head, putting steak, cheese and whole milk near the top. ... After years of being advised to avoid eating too much red meat and foods high in fats, Americans are now being told to embrace them. The document, which is far shorter than previous versions, codifies some of Mr. Kennedy’s frequent talking points, like recommending that people cook with butter and beef tallow despite the fact that scientific evidence does not support doing so. (Callahan and Blum, 1/7)

CNN: The ACA’s Enhanced Subsidies Have Expired. Here’s What You Need To Know The leaders of state-based exchanges told CNN that they will be able to update their systems if Congress acts in January, though it may take time. A straightforward extension of the enhanced subsidies would be the quickest to implement. But if lawmakers make changes — such as setting an income limit or requiring minimum premium payments — it could take more time. (Luhby, 1/1)

Politico: The GOP's Obamacare Defectors Were More Numerous Than Expected Republicans in competitive seats see a grave threat to their reelections in skyrocketing insurance premiums. That was apparent Thursday in the defection of 17 in the House who voted for Democrats’ bill to restore expired Obamacare subsidies for three more years. The GOP revolt was bigger than anticipated and a stunning rebuke to Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump. The 17, primarily from swing seats or districts with large numbers of people enrolled in Obamacare plans, sent a clear message from the GOP’s most-at-risk members that they’re more afraid of losing their voters in an unfavorable midterm climate than they are of bucking their party leaders. (Kashinsky and Levien, 1/8)

The Hill: Health Care, Funding And More: 5 Things To Watch When The Senate Returns The Senate is staring down multiple flash points in the coming months as lawmakers head into a year colored by electoral politics but with plenty of policy fights on the horizon. Lawmakers wrapped up a grueling year by completing some of their pre-holiday agenda, including passing the annual National Defense Authorization Act and confirming scores of nominees. But they punted several key issues into January, including government funding bills to avert a shutdown and a potential deal to extend expiring enhanced ObamaCare subsidies. (Weaver, 1/4)

The Hill: House GOP To Question Health Insurers On Premium Hikes, Costs Amid ACA Turmoil House Republicans on Thursday said they are summoning top health insurance executives to testify later this month as part of a series of hearings about health care affordability. The move from the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees comes weeks after the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies expired on Dec. 31, resulting in significant out-of-pocket cost increases for tens of millions of low- and middle-income Americans on ACA plans. (Weixel, 1/8)

New York Post: Trump Cuts Off $10B In Funding To Five Blue States For Child Care, Social Services Over Fraud Fears The Trump administration is cutting off more than $10 billion in social services and child care funding meant for a handful of Democrat-led states over concerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens, officials told The Post Monday. The Department of Health and Human Services will freeze taxpayer funding from the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and the Social Services Block Grant program. The states affected are California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. (Christenson, 1/6)

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