Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

Health policy impacts everyone, but it can be hard to know what is important. If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

CNN: Work Requirements: Republicans Use Debt Ceiling Bill To Push Rules For Millions Receiving Medicaid And Food Stamps House Republicans are using the debt ceiling standoff to advocate for one of their longstanding goals – requiring more low-income Americans to work in order to receive government benefits, particularly food stamps and Medicaid. They see work requirements as a twofer, allowing them to reduce government spending, while bolstering the nation’s labor force at a time when many businesses are still struggling to staff up. (Luhby, 4/26)

Axios: CBO: 600,000 More Uninsured From House GOP Bill
About 600,000 people would become uninsured under the House Republican debt bill's plan to impose Medicaid work requirements, the Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday. The estimate from Congress' nonpartisan scorekeeper gives a sense of the coverage loss from the proposal, while also highlighting the federal savings. (Sullivan, 4/26)

The Health 202: What’s next for the abortion pill case.  On Friday evening, the justices put on hold a lower court’s ruling that would have reimposed strict restrictions on the abortion pill commonly used as part of a two-step regimen. The move means a lawsuit from antiabortion groups seeking to revoke the drug’s approval will continue to wind its way through the court system for months, or even longer. But, at the moment, access to a medication used in more than half of abortions in the United States will remain unchanged — a message groups supporting abortion rights were scrambling over the weekend to tell patients and reiterate to clinics. Yet, the nation’s highest court is almost certainly going to have the final say, setting the stage for the justices to decide another major abortion case after overturning the constitutional guarantee of abortion rights last year. (Roubein, 2/24)

For a Deeper Dive...

Stat: Another Powerful Committee In Congress Is Ready To Take On PBMs House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer plans to hold a hearing on the results of an investigation into the business practices of drug middlemen, he said Wednesday. Comer is not a fan of pharmacy benefit managers. The Kentucky Republican represents a rural part of the state, and independent pharmacists in rural areas tend to be vehemently opposed to some PBM business practices. (Wilkerson, 4/26)

Axios: Bipartisan Bill Would Subject Nonprofit Hospitals To FTC Oversight Nonprofit hospitals could be subject to investigations for anticompetitive conduct under a bipartisan House plan first shared with Axios. The nonprofits comprise nearly half of all facilities in the U.S. but fall outside the purview of the Federal Trade Commission. There's been growing concern in Congress over secret contracting practices and other behavior that some lawmakers contend justifies more oversight. (Dreher, 4/26)

Stat: Kaiser Permanente, Geisinger To Merge Into National Health System Kaiser Permanente has agreed to acquire Geisinger and create a new national not-for-profit system that encompasses health insurance, hospitals, and medical groups. (Herman, 4/26)

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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