Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

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

The Top Three...

Modern Healthcare: How Harris, Trump May Affect ACA Markets Post-2024 Election The 2024 elections hold the possibility of dramatic changes for the health insurance sector as the presidential contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump reveals very different visions for the future. Yet the Democrat Harris and the Republican Trump may not act as expected when they confront key issues from the White House. And the outcome of the congressional elections that determine control of the House and Senate will pose different obstacles and opportunities to whoever is the new president. (McAuliff, 10/3)

NBC News: GOP Senator Eyes Health Care Overhaul And Extending Trump Tax Cuts In One Big 2025 Bill As Donald Trump calls for overhauling the Affordable Care Act with a new health care system, a Republican senator running for an influential leadership position says the party should combine that pursuit with a major tax bill in the new year. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told NBC News after the vice presidential debate in New York on Tuesday night that if voters elect Trump and a GOP-controlled Congress, Republicans will be able to “make health care more affordable, more tailored and more personalized than the one-size-fits-all option,” referring to the ACA, or Obamacare. (Haake and Kapur, 10/2)

KFF Health News: Vance-Walz Debate Highlighted Clear Health Policy Differences Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz met in an Oct. 1 vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News that was cordial and heavy on policy discussion — a striking change from the Sept. 10 debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Vance and Walz acknowledged occasional agreement on policy points and respectfully addressed each other throughout the debate. (10/2)

For a Deeper Dive...

Stat: Savings From Drug Pricing Law Will Be Smaller Than Expected: CBO A key aspect of the Democrat-passed law to lower drug prices is significantly more expensive to the government than expected, according to nonpartisan budget experts in Congress. The redesign of the Medicare Part D drug benefit will cost $10 billion to $20 billion more next year than the Congressional Budget Office initially projected. That office estimates that a separate recently announced program to pay insurers to lower drug premiums will cost $5 billion. (Wilkerson, 10/3)

MSN: U.S. Government Extends Negotiation Timeline For Medicare Drug Price Cuts The U.S. government has taken a step in its ongoing efforts to manage healthcare costs by extending the negotiation timeline for Medicare drug price cuts. This decision, announced on Wednesday, is part of a broader strategy to ensure that the process is both fair and effective. ... In response to feedback from both patients and drugmakers, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has introduced changes to the negotiation process. These changes include meeting with companies earlier and providing more opportunities for counter offers. The agency will now engage with drugmakers before making its initial offer, and one of the three allotted negotiation meetings will occur before the deadline for the first counter offer. (Morales, 10/2)

CBS News: Flu Vaccine Might Be Less Effective This Year, New CDC Report Suggests The effectiveness of this year's influenza vaccine was lower in South America than last season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, which might be a clue to how much protection the shots could offer people in the U.S. this winter. Vaccine effectiveness was 34.5% against hospitalization, according to interim estimates from a new article published by the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, among high-risk groups like young children, people with preexisting conditions and older adults. That means, vaccinated people in those groups were 34.5% less likely than unvaccinated people to get sick enough to go to the hospital. (Tin, 10/3)

Some Employers Test Arrangement To Give Workers Allowance for Coverage Employers are showing interest in a type of health reimbursement account that gives workers a contribution to choose and buy their own plans, rather than participating in group plans. (Michelle Andrews, 10/4 )

Axios: Hurricane Sends New Shudders Through Health Supply Chain A Baxter International plant responsible for making IV fluids for most U.S. hospitals is among the major casualties from Hurricane Helene. The closure illustrated yet again how taking a single plant offline can trigger a domino effect felt around the world. "It's a very serious situation," said Allan Coukell, chief government affairs officer for the hospital-owned drugmaker Civica Rx, which is addressing supply chain constraints within its consortium of health system and pharma members. (Reed, 10/1)

You Might Also Enjoy...

NEJM: Health Equity in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. M Alsan and R Yearby

NEJM: Health Coverage, Access, and the 2024 U.S. Elections. S Glied and BD Sommers

NEJM: Affordability of Health Care in the United States—Old Problems Awaiting a New Administration. JM Williams and SB Dusetzina

NEJM: Health Care Reform and the 2024 U.S. Elections—Low Visibility, High Stakes. J Oberlander

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