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: Trump Got The Green Light To Fire Federal Workers. Now, They Wait. For weeks, thousands of federal employees have been waiting for the Supreme Court to make a decision about their continued employment with the government. On Tuesday, they got their answer: The Trump administration could move ahead with mass layoffs. The question of whether the layoffs are legal remains unanswered. For now, workers remain in limbo, this time waiting for their agencies to decide who stays, who goes and when. (Sullivan and Cameron, 7/8)

The New York Times: Medical Societies Sue Kennedy And H.H.S. Over Vaccine Advice Six leading medical organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and the federal Department of Health and Human Services, charging that recent decisions limiting access to vaccines were unscientific and harmful to the public. The suit, filed in federal court in western Massachusetts, seeks to restore Covid vaccines to the list of recommended immunizations for healthy children and pregnant women. (Mandavilli, 7/7)

The Washington Post: What Trump's Big Beautiful Bill Means For Your Health Care If you’re among the 78 million people on Medicaid or the 24 million with a health plan from the insurance marketplaces, changes to how you qualify for and enroll in coverage — and what medical providers are available to you — could be on the way. Republicans are looking to squeeze savings from these two major programs that provide many lower-income and disabled Americans with health coverage, as they hustle to pass a huge, tax-cut-extending legislative package President Donald Trump has demanded before July 4. (Winfield Cunningham and Abutaleb, 7/1)

For a Deeper Dive on OBBBA (also see slides below)...

Axios: Trump Bill's Health Effects Won't Be Felt Until After Midterms President Trump's tax and spending bill sets in motion nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and other health policy changes that could loom over the midterm elections. But the real effects likely won't be felt until well after the ballots are cast. (Goldman, 7/7)

The Wall Street Journal: What Medicaid Work Requirements Mean For Enrollees’ Coverage President Trump’s tax-and-spending megabill seeks to implement a policy long championed by Republicans: work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries. Policy analysts expect millions of people to lose coverage either because they won’t bother to comply with the new rules or because they aren’t able to keep up with the paperwork and other bureaucratic hurdles states will erect for proving eligibility. (Walker and Mosbergen, 7/1)

KFF Health News: Republican Megabill Will Mean Higher Health Costs For Many Americans President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” cuts federal spending on Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplaces by about $1 trillion over a decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, threatening the physical and financial health of tens of millions of Americans. The bill, which the Senate passed Tuesday, would reverse many of the health coverage gains of the Biden and Obama administrations, whose policies made it easier for millions of people to access health care and reduced the U.S. uninsured rate to record lows. (Galewitz, Appleby, Rayasam and Wolfson, 7/2)

For a Deeper Dive...

Fierce Healthcare: Judge Vacates Trump Administration's Removal Of Health Web Pages A federal judge ruled that the swift takedown of health information across several government webpages earlier this year was illegal and vacated agencies’ directives to do so. ... In an order filed Thursday, U.S. District Judge John Bates described the case as an example of “government officials acting first and thinking later,” writing that HHS and the Office of Personnel and Management, which had issued the memo directing webpage takedowns, had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” and in contrary of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). (Muoio, 7/7)

The New York Times: How Health Care Remade The U.S. Economy For years, the United States labor market has been undergoing a structural transformation. As jobs in manufacturing have receded, slowly but steadily, the health care industry has more than replaced them. The change has been particularly visible over the past year, during which health care has been responsible for about a third of all employment growth, while other categories, like retail and manufacturing, have stayed essentially flat. (DePillis and Zhang, 7/3)

Roll Call: Senate HELP Panel Advances Monarez For CDC Director The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday voted along party lines, 12-11, to advance Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to the Senate floor. (Cohen, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Inside Operation Gold Rush, Largest Health Care Fraud Bust In U.S. History Gerald Quindry was facing a quandary. The 73-year-old retired engineer received a statement last year that Medicare, his health insurance provider, had been billed $15,500 for urinary catheters — but his doctor had never ordered them, and Quindry never wanted nor received them. Quindry complained to Medicare. But he said the representatives seemed nonplussed by his complaint, and he could find little information about the incident himself beyond news reports of catheter-related fraud in the government program. (Diamond and Weber, 6/30)

CNN: What The First Meeting Of Kennedy’s CDC Advisers Reveals About The Future Of Vaccines In America A startling new vision of vaccination in America is becoming clearer — one likely to involve fresh scrutiny of established science and practices, and limits on vaccines that have been studied for decades. (Goodman, Koda, Dillinger and Gumbrecht, 6/27)

What is Changing...

KFF Health News: HHS Eliminates CDC Staff Who Made Sure Birth Control Is Safe For Women At Risk For Brianna Henderson, birth control isn’t just about preventing pregnancy. The Texas mother of two was diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal heart condition after having her second child. In addition to avoiding another pregnancy that could be life-threatening, Henderson has to make sure the contraception she uses doesn’t jeopardize her health. (Pradhan, 7/1)

KFF Health News: World’s Premier Cancer Institute Faces Crippling Cuts And Chaos The Trump administration’s broadsides against scientific research have caused unprecedented upheaval at the National Cancer Institute, the storied federal government research hub that has spearheaded advances against the disease for decades. NCI, which has long benefited from enthusiastic bipartisan support, now faces an exodus of clinicians, scientists, and other staffers — some fired, others leaving in exasperation. (Pradhan and Allen, 7/9)

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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