Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The Top Three...

Modern Healthcare: Insurance Navigators To Receive $100M Ahead Of Open Enrollment The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will grant $100 million to 44 organizations tasked with helping people sign up for insurance coverage during open enrollment on the exchanges. The agency plans to distribute up to $500 million over the next five years. (Early, 8/26)

Healthcare Dive: PBM executives threatened with fines and jail time for alleged perjury in House hearing  The chair of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is threatening the leaders of the three largest pharmacy benefit managers in the country with steep fines — or jail time — for allegedly lying in a recent congressional hearing. Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent letters on Wednesday to Patrick Conway, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx; Adam Kautzner, the president of Cigna’s Express Scripts; and David Joyner, the president of CVS’ Caremark arguing that statements they made in a July hearing contradicted committee findings and research by the Federal Trade Commission. (Pifer, 8/29)

The New York Times: Abortion Rights, On Winning Streak, Face Biggest Test In November Ballot measures on abortion rights have succeeded beyond what even their proponents imagined when the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. ... Now the strategy — and an unbroken winning streak — faces its biggest test ever, with 10 states asking voters whether to establish a right to abortion in their constitutions. On Friday, Nebraska became the final state to certify — it will be the only state with two measures, one sponsored by abortion rights supporters and the other by opponents. (Zernike, 8/23)

For a Deeper Dive...

KFF Health News: For Pharma, Trump Vs. Harris Is A Showdown Between Two Industry Foes Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have a rare point of agreement in their otherwise bitter and divisive contest: It’s up to the government to cut high U.S. drug prices. Harris cast the tie-breaking Senate vote in 2022 for legislation that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices for its more than 60 million beneficiaries. ... As president, Trump would likely retain Medicare price negotiations unless the pharmaceutical industry can come up with something more compelling that they’d put on the table, people close to him say. (Armour, 8/26)

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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