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...

The Hill: Health Costs, Medical Bills Are Top Economic Concern Among Voters: Poll Unexpected health costs and surprise medical bills are among the leading concerns of voters heading into the 2024 election, which contribute to their negative views about the economy, according to a poll released Wednesday by health policy research group KFF. At least 8 in 10 voters said it was “very important” for the 2024 presidential candidates to talk about inflation and the affordability of health care. (Weixel, 2/21)

The New York Times: Alabama I.V.F. Ruling Opens New Front In Election-Year Abortion Battles Yet, even as some Republicans backed away from the court decision, Republican legislators in conservative states planned efforts to push bills that would declare that life begins at conception — a policy that could have severe consequences for fertility treatments. (Lerer, Dias and Karni, 2/23)

Axios: Mental Health Is Seen As A Top Health Threat To U.S. Americans see poor mental health as one of the biggest threats to public health, ranking just behind obesity and the long-running opioid epidemic, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index. Almost 9 out of 10 people say their own emotional wellbeing is very or somewhat good, but they view mental health issues as a serious societal threat that now outranks access to firearms, cancer or COVID-19. (Millman, 2/23)

For a Deeper Dive...

CNBC: Doctors Feel Burned Out But Encouraged By Potential Of AI, Survey Says Doctors in the U.S. are struggling to contend with burnout, staffing shortages and overwhelming administrative workloads, but many are optimistic that artificial intelligence could help to ease these problems, a new survey found. (Capoot, 2/21)

The Hill: 6 In 10 Hold Favorable View Of Affordable Care Act In New Polling More than half of U.S. adults have a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as the health care measure used by millions of Americans continues to gain popularity, according to a poll released Wednesday. The survey, released by health policy research group KFF, found that 59 percent of U.S. adults had a favorable view of the ACA, though respondents differed along party lines on what they would like to see done with the law. (Nazzaro, 2/21)

Modern Healthcare: State AGs Call On Congress To Pass PBM Legislation Congress has heard from another constituency supporting stricter transparency rules for pharmacy benefit managers: state attorneys general. The National Association of Attorneys General sent a letter to House and Senate leaders Tuesday asking them to address drug costs by passing legislation that would require PBMs to disclose more about their prescription drug price negotiations. (Berryman, 2/22)

Politico: Red States Hopeful For A 2nd Trump Term Prepare To Curtail Medicaid Republicans in half a dozen states have a request for a second Trump administration: Require low-income adults to work for free government health care. In places like Idaho, Missouri and South Dakota, GOP officials are laying the groundwork to substantially overhaul their health safety-net programs. Their plans, if approved by a Trump White House, could cut hundreds of thousands of people from a program that conservatives have long complained is bloated — but the move could also save states and the federal government billions of dollars. (Messerly, 2/20)

Axios: Health Care Employment Picture Still Strong Job openings in health care and social services last year hit the second highest rate since data began to be collected in 2001, and the employment picture remained strong in January, especially in ambulatory care settings and hospitals. The findings from Altarum reinforce just how much the health industry is fueling a robust labor market, even as it's beset by churn and high levels of worker burnout. (Bettelheim, 2/23)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Staffing Not Meeting Demand Despite 2023 Hiring Gains The healthcare industry has significantly increased its staffing over the past few years, returning overall employment levels to pre-pandemic trend lines and leading other sectors in job growth. It’s a monumental accomplishment, but experts say these gains aren’t nearly enough to offset healthcare’s understaffing woes. With employee turnover, clinician retirement and health systems building more facilities to meet the service demands of an aging patient population, industry job openings still vastly outnumber the staff available to fill them. (Devereaux, 2/21)

Modern Healthcare: Congress Tiptoes Toward Healthcare AI Legislation Artificial intelligence is already a fact of life for the healthcare sector but for Congress, dealing with it remains a matter for the future. Congress doesn't appear anywhere close to moving significant legislation. For the most part, lawmakers are stuck in the stage of declaring that they should act, even as businesses embrace the technology and federal agencies issue regulations to address emerging issues and to carry out President Joe Biden's executive order. (McAuliff, 2/15)

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