Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

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

The Top Three...

WaPo: White House fires CDC director who says RFK Jr. is ‘weaponizing public health’ The White House on Wednesday fired Susan Monarez as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after she refused to resign amid pressure to change vaccine policy, which sparked the resignation of other senior CDC officials and a showdown over whether she could be removed. Hours after the Department of Health and Human Services announced early Wednesday evening that Monarez was no longer the director, her lawyers responded with a fiery statement saying she had not resigned or been fired. (Sun, Diamond, Weber, 8/28)

Stat: HHS Terminates NIH Program Aimed At Diversifying Biomedical Workforce The Department of Health and Human Services is terminating a National Institutes of Health grant program that supports students from marginalized backgrounds in the biomedical sciences. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the elimination of the program — the Minority Biomedical Research Support Program — in a document posted to the Federal Register Monday. Kennedy cited the program’s failure to comply with the Trump administration’s executive orders that prevent federal agencies from supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion-related activities. (Paulus, 8/25)

STAT: Inside the CDC director’s ouster: Kennedy demanded acceptance of new vaccine policies; Susan Monarez refused. Susan Monarez, less than a month into the job as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, entered a meeting Monday with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his Washington office, along with his deputy, Stefanie Spear. They asked for her resignation, citing concerns about insubordination and her integrity, including instances related to vaccine policy. When she refused, Kennedy offered her another choice: Accept all recommendations from the agency’s vaccine advisory committee, whose members he had replaced with hand-picked allies who shared his hostile views about childhood immunizations, and fire a number of high-level officials at the agency. (Payne, 8/28)

For a Deeper Dive...

WaPo: CDC leaders who resigned said RFK Jr. undermined vaccine science, risking lives As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reeled from the ousting of its director, three senior leaders who resigned in protest told The Washington Post they were asked to participate in an unscientific vaccine recommendation process that they believe could harm the health of Americans. The officials spoke shortly before security officials escorted them off the CDC’s Atlanta campus Thursday morning. Staff and leaders of the agency are openly revolting against the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime CDC critic and anti-vaccine activist, after months of tension over vaccine policy and staffing cuts. (Sun, Weber, Ovalle, 8/28)

Newsweek: RFK Jr.'s MAHA Strategy Blasted By Farm Group That Endorsed Him Farm Action, a nonpartisan, farmer-led watchdog organization that advocates for accountability from the government and large corporations within the agricultural sector, rated the contents of a recent leaked draft of the MAHA strategy a "D+," saying, "It recognizes some of the right priorities and even overlaps with our recommendations in places, but the execution is timid and avoids the structural reforms needed to truly deliver on the MAHA Commission's own diagnosis of the problem." (Mordowanec, 8/25)

HealthCareDive: Top healthcare legislation to watch so far this year  Lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced legislation aimed at reforming Medicare Advantage plans, overhauling transgender healthcare, cementing artificial intelligence in the sector, curbing some business practices of pharmacy benefit managers, equalizing payments between certain providers and more. Some bills attempt to circumvent changes to healthcare policy made by the Trump administration, like those attempting to safeguard access to abortion and protect some ACA funding. Others try to cut government healthcare programs even further. (8/28)

WaPo: White House taps top RFK Jr. deputy as acting CDC director The White House on Thursday selected a top deputy of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after a clash over vaccine policy ended in the departure of several agency leaders, according to two people familiar with the decision. The selection of Jim O’Neill, currently the deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, as interim leader of the CDC, potentially clears a path for Kennedy to continue his efforts to overhaul federal vaccine policy after the agency’s previous leader, Susan Monarez, balked at his requests. (Diamond, 8/28)

KFF Health News: Blue States That Sued Kept Most CDC Grants, While Red States Feel Brunt Of Trump Clawbacks The Trump administration’s cuts to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of a state, according to a KFF Health News analysis. Democratic-led states and select blue-leaning cities fought back in court and saw money for public health efforts restored — while GOP-led states sustained big losses. The Department of Health and Human Services in late March canceled nearly 700 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants nationwide — together worth about $11 billion. (Larweh and Pradhan and Bichell, 8/26)

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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