Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

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

The Top Three...

Axios: Dems Open To Income Cap On ACA Subsidies Some moderate Senate Democrats say they are open to placing an income cap on eligibility for Affordable Care Act tax credits to help facilitate a deal with Republicans. (Sullivan, 10/8)

Politico: The CDC And Its Advisers Have Quietly Expanded Access To The Covid-19 Vaccine For Pregnant Women The CDC and its independent panel of vaccine advisers have quietly opened the door to wider access to Covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy, softening an earlier decision by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stop recommending that pregnant women get the shots. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted in September to advise that adults get the Covid-19 shot through shared clinical decision making between patients and providers. (Gardner, 10/8)

Politico: CDC Panel Announces Plans To Assess Childhood Vaccines The CDC’s vaccine advisers will review the safety and efficacy of the childhood vaccine schedule, including the timing of shots given to kids and possible risks associated with common vaccine ingredients, according to a document posted Thursday to the agency’s website. A work group within the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will gather information as part of a “multi-year effort” to inform future recommendations on a raft of issues that vaccine skeptics — including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — have floated as possible drivers of chronic and neurodevelopmental conditions like autism despite ample research refuting most of their claims. (Gardner and Gardner, 10/9)

For a Deeper Dive...

ABC News: HHS Hits Back At Former Surgeons General Who Wrote Op-Ed Saying RFK Jr. Is Endangering Nation's Health The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hit back at an op-ed written by the most recent six surgeons general, who said they wanted to warn the U.S. about the dangers of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The op-ed, published in The Washington Post on Tuesday, called the health secretary’s policies and positions an "immediate and unprecedented" threat to the nation’s health. In a statement to ABC News, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the doctors are the same officials "who presided over the decline in America's public health." (Kekatos, 10/8)

NBC News: Emergency Medicaid Spending Accounts For Less Than 1% Of Program's Expenses, Study Finds Emergency Medicaid spending, an issue partly fueling the federal government's ongoing shutdown, accounts for less than 1% of the federal health insurance program's total expenses, according to a study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study analyzed data from Washington, D.C., and 38 states that reported their emergency Medicaid expenditures for fiscal year 2022. (Acevedo, 10/9)

CIDRAP: New Poll: Public Confidence In CDC For Vaccine Advice Tumbles A new KFF poll taken in the days after President Donald Trump linked acetaminophen use in pregnancy to autism—and said the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine should be separated into three monovalent (single-strain) shots—shows public trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now at its lowest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The poll also showed low support for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who also made the unsupported acetaminophen (Tylenol) link to autism. (Soucheray, 10/9)

Fierce Healthcare: AMA's Handling Of CPT Codes Enters Congress' Crosshairs The top senator on healthcare policy is taking a hard look at the American Medical Association’s “anti-patient and anti-doctor” handling of the healthcare system’s near-ubiquitous billing and claims processing codes. Bill Cassidy, M.D., R-Louisiana, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, chastised the nation’s leading physician association for “abusing” the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding system and said he will be “actively reviewing” the issue. (Muoio, 10/8)

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