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 Wall Street Journal: RFK Jr. To Oust Advisory Panel On Cancer Screenings, HIV Prevention Drugs Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to remove all the members of an advisory panel that determines what cancer screenings and other preventive health measures insurers must cover, people familiar with the matter said. Kennedy plans to dismiss all 16 panel members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force because he views them as too “woke,” the people said. The task force has advised the federal government on preventive health matters since 1984. The Affordable Care Act in 2010 gave it the power to determine which screenings, counseling and preventive medications most insurers are required to cover at no cost to patients. The group, made up of volunteers with medical expertise who are vetted for conflicts of interest, combs through scientific evidence to determine which interventions are proven to work. (Whyte, 7/25)

The New York Times: Trump Announces Health Care Records System For Consumers President Trump on Wednesday announced the development of a health care records system that he said would allow Americans to more easily and broadly share their personal health information with health care providers. The administration is working with some of the largest American companies on the record-keeping system, including Google, Amazon, Apple and OpenAI. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will oversee the effort. Many health care providers already allow patients to upload their medical information and schedule appointments through phone apps and online portals. (Kanno-Youngs and Abelson, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Medicare Part D Drug Plan Premiums Set To Rise Premiums for Medicare drug plans are set to increase sharply next year, due to rising costs, regulatory changes and cutbacks to a subsidy program. The subsidy program, which sent extra federal funds to the private insurers that offer the drug benefit—known as Part D—had largely shielded seniors from rising monthly bills in 2025. (Mathews and Essley Whyte, 7/28)

For a Deeper Dive...

The Hill: Trump Demands Pharma Companies Slash Drug Prices In Next 60 Days President Trump sent letters Thursday to 17 of the world’s largest drug companies, telling them to take more steps to slash the prices of prescription drugs to match the lowest price in certain foreign countries. The letters represent an escalation of the administration’s push for lower drug prices by launching a “most favored nation” model, which ties the prices of prescription medicines in the U.S. to the lowest found among comparably wealthy nations. (Weixel, 7/31)

CBS News: Senate Confirms Susan Monarez As CDC Director. Here's What She's Said About Vaccines, Fluoride And More The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday along party lines, 51 to 47, to confirm Susan Monarez as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Monarez has been serving as the acting head of the CDC since January, and previously worked as the head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. She was viewed as somewhat surprising pick for the CDC role because unlike most recent CDC directors, she holds a Ph.D. but is not a medical doctor. ... "If I'm confirmed as CDC director, I look forward to supporting the secretary with science and evidence, and making sure that I am giving him the best information possible," Monarez said at her confirmation hearing. (Moniuszko, 7/29)

The New York Times: Susan Monarez Faces Daunting Challenges As C.D.C. Director The agency’s new leader must contend with reduced budgets, mass layoffs, political tumult and a boss determined to reshape public health. Many current and former C.D.C. employees said on Wednesday that they were relieved to have a permanent director who could steer the agency and promote its priorities in the administration, but worried that Dr. Monarez might become a figurehead. “It’s probably better than not that there’s an acting director, but I’m not super optimistic that she’s going to be a strong advocate for the agency, given this political climate,” said Dr. Fiona Havers, who resigned from the C.D.C. last month.(Mandavilli, 7/30)

AP: Ousted CDC Vaccine Committee Members Criticize Meeting Held By Their Successors The 17 experts who were ousted from a government vaccine committee last month say they have little faith in what the panel has become, and have outlined possible alternative ways to make U.S. vaccine policy. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, accusing them of being too closely aligned with manufacturers and of rubber-stamping vaccines. He handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics. (Stobbe, 7/31)

Politico: Trump Drove Firing Of FDA Official President Donald Trump overruled his health secretary and FDA chief on Tuesday, and ordered the removal of the government’s top vaccine regulator, four people with knowledge of the decision told POLITICO. The four, granted anonymity to speak about the details of Trump’s decision, said Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary opposed dismissing Vinay Prasad, who had been on the job three months and had recently come under attack by right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer. (Lim and Gardner, 7/30)

Newsweek: What The Future Of Medicaid And Medicare Could Look Like On this day 60 years ago, the Medicaid and Medicare programs were signed into law by former President Lyndon B. Johnson. It was July 30, 1965, and both programs were established within the Social Security Act. In light of the programs' landmark anniversary, Newsweek has spoken to experts about what is in store for the programs in the coming years during the term of President Donald Trump. (Laws, 7/30)

KFF Health News: Deep Staff Cuts At A Little-Known Federal Agency Pose Trouble For Droves Of Local Health Programs A little-known federal agency that sends more than $12 billion annually to support community health centers, addiction treatment services, and workforce initiatives for America’s neediest people has been hobbled by the Trump administration’s staffing purges. The cuts are “just a little astonishing,” said Carole Johnson, who previously led the Health Resources and Services Administration. She left the agency in January with the administration change and has described the sweeping staff cuts as a “big threat” to the agency’s ability to distribute billions of dollars in grants to hospitals, clinics, nonprofits, and other organizations nationwide. (Tribble and Larweh, 8/1)

You Might Also Enjoy...

NEJM: Dismantling Public Health Infrastructure, Endangering American Lives. TR Frieden

NEJM: Progress Lost—The Unraveling of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. 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