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 New York Times: Immigrants With DACA Protections Will Be Eligible For Obamacare Thousands of undocumented immigrants will be able to obtain health care through the Affordable Care Act under a new federal rule, U.S. officials said this week. The new eligibility comes for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which since 2012 has protected undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as young people from deportation. The program also provides recipients with work permits. More than 500,000 immigrants have DACA protections but have been ineligible for benefits such as federal health insurance programs. (Aleaziz, 5/3)

Modern Healthcare: Lawmakers Slam UnitedHealth's Andrew Witty At Change Healthcare Hearings UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty endured withering criticism from lawmakers Wednesday as Congress held a pair of hearings on the Change Healthcare cyberattack and its fallout. The Senate Finance Committee got first crack at the healthcare executive Wednesday morning before Witty headed to the other side of Capitol Hill to testify before a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee in the afternoon. (McAuliff, 5/1)

Healthcare Dive: Walmart Health Shuts Down Walmart is closing its network of health clinics after failing to make them profitable, in a major setback for the retail giant’s push into healthcare. Walmart Health launched as a one-store pilot in Georgia in 2019, and has since grown to 51 centers in five states, along with a virtual care offering. Yet the network has shown recent signs of trouble: Earlier this month, Walmart decelerated its expansion plans for the centers, which offer inexpensive, fixed-cost medical services like primary and dental care. Walmart is now closing the clinics entirely due to a challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs resulting in a lack of profitability, according to a Tuesday press release. (Pifer, 5/30)

For a Deeper Dive...

The Washington Post: UnitedHealth Grew Very Big. Now, Some Lawmakers Want To Chop It Down. The firm ranks as the nation’s fifth-largest company by revenue, just behind Apple and ahead of tech giants Alphabet and Microsoft. (Diamond, Rowland and Gilbert, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Court Says State Health-Care Plans Can’t Exclude Gender-Affirming Surgery A federal appellate court in Richmond became the first in the country to rule that state health-care plans must pay for gender-affirming surgeries, a major win for transgender rights amid a nationwide wave of anti-trans activism and legislation. The decision came from a set of cases out of North Carolina and West Virginia, where state officials argued that their policies were based on cost concerns rather than bias. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit rejected that argument, saying the plans were discriminating against trans people in need of treatment. (Weiner, 4/29)

Stat: Senate Drug Shortage Bill Would Pay Hospitals Bonuses For Good Contracting Practices The Senate Finance Committee has drafted a bipartisan bill to mitigate drug shortages by rewarding hospitals for business practices that ensure an adequate supply of drugs. Drug shortages have been a persistent problem for years, and they’re worse than ever, according to a recent report by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Shortages are primarily a problem for hospitals and doctors who regularly administer drugs, including oncologists who have been running out of common chemo drugs. Generic injectables account for 67% of shortages, and more than half of drugs in short supply cost less than $1 per unit, according to the Finance Committee. (Wilkerson, 5/3)

ABC News: 3 In 4 Americans Feel That Mental Health Takes A Back Seat To Physical Health Even though one in five Americans lives with a mental illness, many feel it is not adequately addressed, with a new survey from West Health and Gallup suggesting that three in four Americans believe mental health conditions are not identified and treated in the same way as physical health conditions. Roughly 60% of Americans give a poor or failing grade to how mental health conditions are treated, according to the survey. (Rachmale and Kaur, 5/1)

The Wall Street Journal: CVS Made A Big Bet On Medicare. It’s Looking Risky. Last fall, CVS Health made seniors an enticing offer: If they signed up for the company’s Aetna Medicare plans, they could score free pickleball paddles. The benefit might also fund golf clubs, fishing rods and an array of other equipment appealing to spry retirees. The gambit worked. Enrollment in Aetna’s Medicare products surged this year. But it turned out CVS got more than it bargained for. (Mathews, 5/1)

ABC News: Rural Americans Are At Higher Risk Of Early Death Than Urbanites: CDC Rural Americans are more likely to die early from one of the five leading causes of death than those who live in urban areas, according to new federal data. Researchers looked at the number of potentially preventable deaths from 2010 through 2022. The report was published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Kekatos, 4/30)

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