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: Supreme Court Wrestles With Challenge To Affordable Care Act Over Free Preventive Care The Supreme Court appeared divided during arguments on Monday over the constitutionality of a provision of the Affordable Care act that can require insurance companies to offer some types of preventive care for free. At issue is a part of the 2010 health care law that established a task force that determines certain kinds of preventative health measures that insurance companies are required to cover. (VanSickle, 4/21)

The Hill: Trump Swears-In Mehmet Oz As CMS Administrator President Trump on Friday swore in Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), granting the former TV host vast influence over the nation’s largest public health insurance program. At the swearing-in ceremony held in the Oval Office, Trump lauded Oz as an “internationally acclaimed heart and lung surgeon,” quipping “how convenient” it was that Oz attended Harvard University. The Trump administration has been engaged in an escalating back-and-forth with the university over its refusal to heed the White House’s demands in exchange for federal funding. (Choi, 4/18)

Stat: NIH Grant Awards Plummeted $2.3 Billion Under President Trump The National Institutes of Health has scaled back its awards of new grants by at least $2.3 billion since the beginning of the year, with the biggest shortfalls hitting the study of infectious diseases, heart and lung ailments, and basic research into fundamental biological systems, a new STAT analysis has found. (Molteni, Parker and Wosen, 4/24)

For a Deeper Dive...

Politico: RFK Jr. Eyes Reversing CDC's Covid-19 Vaccine Recommendation For Children HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is weighing pulling the Covid-19 vaccine from the government’s list of recommended immunizations for children, two people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO. The directive under consideration would remove the Covid shot from the childhood vaccine schedule maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and widely used by physicians to guide vaccine distribution, marking Kennedy’s most significant move yet to shake up the nation’s vaccination practices. (Cancryn, 4/22)

The Hill: Medicaid Cuts Risk Worsening Black Maternal Health Crisis Advocates are warning lawmakers that the proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will leave millions of pregnant Black women at a heightened risk of death, worsening the maternal mortality crisis and its racial disparities. Last month, the House budget resolution proposed up to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid over a decade, which would also lead to cuts to Medicare. But advocates say Medicaid is a vital resource for cutting into the maternal mortality disparities. (Daniels, 4/20)

Bloomberg: FDA Leader Says He Has No Plan To Act On Abortion Pill Access Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said he has no plans to change government policy on the abortion pill mifepristone, a hot-button issue in the US since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022. Makary would reconsider the issue if new data emerged that signaled a safety issue with the drug that is now used in more than half of US abortions, he said during an appearance at the Semafor World Economy Summit on Thursday. (Cohrs Zhang and Nix, 4/24)

The New York Times: Trump Declares Lab Leak As ‘True Origins’ Of Covid On New Website The Trump administration has replaced the government’s main portal for information about Covid with a website arguing that the coronavirus leaked from a lab, throwing its weight behind a theory of the pandemic’s origins that is so far not backed by direct evidence and that has divided intelligence agencies. Covid.gov and Covidtests.gov, federal websites that used to deliver information about Covid and allow people to order tests, now redirect to the lab leak web page. (Mueller, 4/18)

The New York Times: Trump-Allied Prosecutor Sends Letters To Medical Journals Alleging Bias A federal prosecutor has sent letters to at least three medical journals accusing them of political bias and asking a series of probing questions suggesting that the journals mislead readers, suppress opposing viewpoints and are inappropriately swayed by their funders. The letters were signed by Edward Martin Jr., a Republican activist serving as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. He has been criticized for using his office to target opponents of President Trump. (Rosenbluth and Robbins, 4/18)

CNN: Trump Is Defending Obamacare At The Supreme Court. A Win Could Boost RFK Jr.’s Influence President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is defending the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court – a notable contrast to his first term, when his administration sought to repeal the law in Congress and then refused to defend it in a major challenge brought by GOP-led states. But a win for the federal government in the current case, concerning the law’s mandates that certain preventive services are covered cost-free, could boost the power that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has in shaping those requirements. (Sneed, Luhby and Owermohle, 4/20)

Axios: MAGA World Signals Medicaid Protectiveness There are growing signs that Trump-aligned forces are ready to go to war with House Republicans if they attempt to pass large Medicaid spending cuts. New polling from a top Trump campaign pollster shared exclusively with Axios has found the Medicaid program is popular among all voters, including those who cast their ballot for Trump — yet another sign of the political peril of cutting it. (Owens, 4/23)

Politico: Equity Programs Out, Nutrition Programs In President Donald Trump’s CMS is changing how the federal government rewards doctors and hospitals for quality care. The agency is shifting focus from measures to fight racism and inequality care gaps to nutrition and well-being initiatives, POLITICO’s Robert King reports. CMS has signaled it wants to roll back several incentives and requirements for doctors and hospitals to address health disparities. The push marks a stark departure from the Biden administration, which made health equity a goal. (Cirruzzo and Hooper, 4/22)

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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