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 Washington Post: White House prepares to replace FDA leader Marty Makary amid agency turmoil The White House has signed off on a plan to replace Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary after months of turmoil at the agency and criticism of some of his decisions, according to two individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal operations.

NPR: Abortion Pill Mifepristone Gets A 1-Week Reprieve From Supreme Court Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Monday put a one-week hold on major changes to how the abortion pill mifepristone can be prescribed. The ruling temporarily restores nationwide access to a drug used for most medication abortions in the U.S. On Friday, an appeals court had said the Food and Drug Administration needed to revert to rules that the pills, part of a two-drug regimen for medication abortion, must be prescribed only in-person. The change was effective immediately for the whole country. (Godoy and Simmons-Duffin, 5/4)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Blocked Publication Of Research Finding Covid And Shingles Vaccines Were Safe Officials at the Food and Drug Administration have blocked publication of several studies supporting the safety of widely used vaccines against Covid-19 and shingles in recent months, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed. The studies, which cost millions of dollars in public funds, were conducted by scientists at the agency, who worked with data firms to analyze millions of patient records. They found serious side effects to be very rare. (Jewett, 5/5)

For a Deeper Dive...

Healthcare Brew: With A New CDC Director Potentially Chosen, How Can The Role Influence Healthcare? After a long hunt for the next CDC director, former Deputy Surgeon General Erica Schwartz officially got the nomination on April 16. But in the $5.3 trillion healthcare industry that makes up 18% of the country’s GDP, what sort of impact can just one job really have? Especially considering how the Trump administration has made major shifts that have impacted how federal agencies are used and viewed over the last year and a half. (McGrath, 5/5)

The Hill: Rising Outbreaks And Low Preparedness: US Health Report Fewer than half of U.S. states are sufficiently prepared for a health emergency, according to research released Thursday. Only 20 states scored “high” on the annual report from Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) on national public health emergency preparedness. Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., scored in the “middle tier,” and 13 states fell into the “low tier.” The report comes as the U.S. is set to host 78 World Cup matches in 10 different states from June 11 to July 19. Five of those 10 states performed “high” in TFAH’s assessment, four in the “middle” range and one state — Texas — scored “low” on health emergency preparedness in the report. (Davis, 5/7)

The Washington Post: Health Care Costs Outrank Food, Vaccine Concerns For MAHA Voters, Poll Shows  While the Make America Healthy Again movement has largely forged its identity around food, vaccines and pesticides, it turns out that the cost of health care is by far the top issue for voters who say they support the movement. The poll findings released Wednesday by health policy research and news organization KFF highlight how affordability is a chief concern this year for Americans across the political spectrum. (Roubein and Clement, 5/6)

Politico: Some Red States Expanded Medicaid Against Their Will. Now They're Trying To Shrink It With Work Rules Voters in seven states bucked their conservative leaders to expand Medicaid at the ballot box. Now officials in six of them are deploying tactics to make the upcoming implementation of work requirements especially strict, which could dramatically reduce the number of people covered. (Ollstein, 5/3)

The New York Times: Doctors From Countries Under Travel Ban Now Allowed to Stay in U.S. Foreign doctors will be able to receive visas allowing them to practice in the United States, after the Trump administration quietly changed a policy to exempt them from a travel ban. A Department of Homeland Security policy stemming from a travel ban that was put in place in January had frozen decisions on visa extensions, work permits and green cards for citizens of 39 countries. As The New York Times reported last month, some physicians were subsequently placed on administrative leave by hospitals, and many others faced the imminent threat of being forced to stop working. (Jordan, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealth To Make It Easier For Patients To Get A Range Of Procedures UnitedHealth Group plans to stop requiring doctors to get approvals for an array of procedures, tests and services, cutting back on a process that has long been detested by physicians and patients. UnitedHealth, parent of the biggest U.S. health insurer, said the changes will slash the number of reviews by nearly a third starting later this year. Doctors have long complained about the paperwork they must complete to get insurers’ permission for care, which can lead to delays and denials. (Wilde Mathews, 5/5)

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