Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

For the week of Apr 28-May 5, 2023

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...

Axios: The Health Care Dangers Of A Debt Default If the federal government breaches the debt ceiling, Medicare wouldn't be able to pay providers — and states wouldn't get their federal Medicaid funding, experts tell Axios. Losing out on those payments, even for a short time, could be disastrous for providers’ bottom lines — and the effects could trickle down to patients. (Goldman and Knight, 5/5)

Politico: U.S. Must Do More To Prepare For Future Pandemic Threats, Health Officials Say The United States must do more to prepare for future pandemics and biological threats, top federal health officials told the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday. “The increased frequency of outbreaks mean that we should not be asking if we will face another serious public health threat, but when,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said. (Lim, 5/4)

AP: Loneliness Poses Risks As Deadly As Smoking: Surgeon General Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in an 81-page report from his office. “We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing,” Murthy told The Associated Press in an interview. “Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that’s not right. That’s why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing.” (Seitz, 5/2)

For a Deeper Dive...

The New York Times: Covid Remained A Leading Cause Of Death Among Americans In 2022 Covid was the fourth leading cause of death in the United States last year, dropping from its place as the third leading cause in 2020 and 2021, when virus fatalities were superseded only by heart disease and cancer, the National Center for Health Statistics reported on Thursday. Unintentional injuries — a category that includes drug overdoses and car accidents — were responsible for more deaths than Covid last year and were the nation’s third leading cause of death. Deaths from heart disease and cancer both rose in 2022, compared with 2021. (Caryn Rabin, 5/4)

Bloomberg: Fentanyl Overdose Death Rates More Than Tripled In Five Years Drug overdose death rates involving fentanyl more than tripled in the US from 2016 to 2021, a grim marker in the escalation of the deadly opioid epidemic that worsened during the rise of Covid-19. (Peng, 5/3)

USA Today: DEA Tightens Rules For Buprenorphine, Opioid Epidemic's Lifeline Drug Doctors and advocates are concerned a federal proposal to roll back a pandemic policy allowing remote prescribing of a common opioid substitute medicine could jeopardize those recovering from addiction. With the public health emergency set to end May 11, the Drug Enforcement Administration proposal would require people to visit a doctor or clinic within 30 days of getting a telehealth prescription for buprenorphine. (Alltucker, 5/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Administration Warns Of AI’s Dangers. There’s A Limit To What White House Can Do The Biden administration is confronting the rapidly expanding use of artificial intelligence, warning of the dangers the technology poses to public safety, privacy and democracy while having limited authority to regulate it. (Siddiqui and McKinnon, 5/4)

NPR: Crisis In Nursing: Nurses Say Staffing Shortage Is Worse Than Five Years Ago Close to a third of nurses nationwide say they are likely to leave the profession for another career due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey from AMN Healthcare shows. This level is up at least seven points since 2021. And the survey found that the ongoing shortage of nurses is likely to continue for years to come. (Diaz, 5/2)

AP: What GOP's Plan For Medicaid Work Requirements Would Mean More than a half million of the poorest Americans could be left without health insurance under legislation passed by House Republicans that would require people to work in exchange for health care coverage through Medicaid. It’s one of dozens of provisions tucked into a GOP bill that would allow for an increase in the debt limit but curb government spending over the next decade. The bill is unlikely to become law, though. It is being used by House Republicans to draw Democrats to the negotiating table and avoid a debt default. (Seitz, 4/30)

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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