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 New York Times: Federal Judge Blocks Trump Plan To Cut $600 Million In Health Funds A federal judge in Illinois on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to claw back $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats, amid a wider effort by the federal government to pull funding from blue states. Judge Manish S. Shah of the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois wrote in a two-page order that the plaintiff states — California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota — had provided enough evidence that the cuts were “based on arbitrary, capricious or unconstitutional rationales” to halt what would have been deep cuts in federal public health funding that had already been allocated while legal arguments continue in the case. (Cameron, 2/12)

CIDRAP: Trust In CDC Near Pandemic-Era Low After Vaccine Schedule Changes Public trust in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) remains near its lowest point since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a KFF Tracking Poll published today. “Six years ago, 85% of Americans, and 90% of Republicans, trusted the CDC. Now less than half trust the CDC on vaccines,” KFF President and CEO Drew Altman, PhD, said in a news release. “The wars over COVID, science, and vaccines have left the country without a trusted national voice on vaccines, and that trust will take time to restore.” (Bergeson, 2/6)

AP: Trump's EPA Rejects Climate Change As Health Threat, But Science Strongly Disagrees The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that climate change is a danger to public health, an idea that President Donald Trump called “a scam.” But repeated scientific studies say it’s a documented and quantifiable harm. Again and again, research has found increasing disease and deaths — thousands every year — in a warming world. The Environmental Protection Agency finding in 2009, under the Obama administration, has been the legal underpinning of nearly all regulations fighting global warming. (Borenstein, 2/12)

For a Deeper Dive...

Politico: RFK Jr. Shakes Up Leadership Team Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is remaking his leadership team, putting Director of Medicare Chris Klomp in charge of overseeing all HHS operations, he announced in an email to staff Thursday that POLITICO has obtained. Klomp has also been serving as deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Mehmet Oz. He will retain his roles at CMS and now also serve as chief counselor for the department. (Zeller and Röhn, 2/12)

The Hill: Warren, Hawley Introducing Legislation To Break Up ‘Big Medicine’ Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are teaming up to “break up big medicine.” The lawmakers introduced legislation to crack down on health care conglomerates that own multiple parts of the industry — including pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which act as a conduit between insurers and drug manufacturers, and pharmacies themselves. Warren and Hawley’s “Break Up Big Medicine Act” proposes prohibiting parent companies from owning a medical provider or management services organization and a PBM or insurer. (Rego, 2/10)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Proposes Sweeping Coverage, Oversight Rule For ACA Exchanges The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has unveiled numerous potential changes to Affordable Care Act exchange plans that could have far-reaching implications for enrollees and what they pay for coverage. In its draft payment rule for exchange plans in 2027, released Monday, the agency proposed getting rid of standardized coverage and accepting non-network health plans as qualified health plans. CMS also seeks to further broaden access to catastrophic coverage and continue a crackdown on exchange brokers. The proposal also would affect risk adjustment auditing policies for exchange plans. (Early, 2/9)

You Might Also Enjoy...

JAMA: How Unaffordable is Health Care? L Levitt

JAMA: Failing to Account for Real-World Complexities in Health Policy LJ Chen, E Duffy, A Grover

And if you are super nerdy, CBO Budget and Economic Outlook: 2026-2036 with analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

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