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: Why Millions Of People Could Lose Medicaid Next Month Health officials are bracing for chaos as states begin to determine — for the first time in three years — who is eligible for Medicaid, as a key pandemic policy of guaranteed eligibility ends. Advocates warn that without a safety net, millions of vulnerable people will fall through the cracks and lose coverage. The Biden administration is giving states a year to go through the once-routine process of sorting through Medicaid rolls, though some are moving much faster. Arkansas for instance will speed through the redetermination process in only six months, citing cost concerns and the goal of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) to push people to “escape the trap of government dependency.” (Weixel, 3/22)

Stat: Hospitals Are Not Crumbling, Medicare Experts Say Hospitals’ financial situations are not nearly as dire as industry groups are making them out to be, Medicare policy experts are telling Congress. Profit margins hit all-time highs in 2021, and almost $200 billion of taxpayer subsidies provided hospitals with ample cushion to get through the worst of the pandemic, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission said in its newest report. (Herman, 3/20)

KHN: Sen. Sanders Shows Fire, But Seeks Modest Goals, In His Debut Drug Hearing As Health Chair Sen. Bernie Sanders, who rose to national prominence criticizing big business in general and the pharmaceutical industry in particular, claimed the spotlight Wednesday on what might at first seem a powerful new stage from which to advance his agenda: chairmanship of the Senate health committee. But the hearing Sanders used to excoriate a billionaire pharmaceutical executive for raising the price of a covid-19 vaccine showed the challenges the Vermont independent faces. (Allen, 3/23)

For a Deeper Dive...

Reuters: Moderna Expects To Price Its COVID Vaccine At About $130 In The US Moderna Inc expects to price its COVID-19 vaccine at around $130 per dose in the U.S. going forward as purchases move to the private sector from the government, the company’s president Stephen Hoge said in an interview on Monday. ... Moderna previously said it was considering pricing its COVID vaccine in a range of $110 to $130 per dose in the United States, similar to the range Pfizer Inc said in October it was considering for its rival COVID shots sold in partnership with BioNTech. (Wingrove, 3/20)

Stat: Bancel, Sanders Spar Over What Moderna Owes The Government Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel and Senate health committee Chair Bernie Sanders shook hands amicably before Wednesday’s hearing examining the company’s vaccine pricing strategy began. That’s about where the goodwill ended between the two. Sanders, a Vermont Independent, promptly highlighted the $12 billion the federal government spent on research, development, and procurement of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. (Cohrs, 3/22)

Stat: Senators Blast Medicare Advantage Companies' ‘Exorbitant’ Salaries Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) slammed seven different Medicare Advantage insurers for lobbying against proposed rate cuts to the program while their executives still collected “exorbitant salaries” and gave “massive payouts” to their shareholders. (Wilkerson, 3/23)

NPR: Medical Residents Unionize At Hospitals Around The Country Dr. Leah Rethy was pregnant during the first year of her internal medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She gave birth during her second year. She worked through her 40th week of pregnancy so she could save her time off and spend more time with her newborn. (Yu, 3/23)

The Washington Post: Working In The ER Used To Be A Cool Job. Now Medical Students Shun It. Daryl Traylor dreamed of becoming an emergency room doctor ever since working as an ER technician in the mid-90s helping physicians care for children who broke their arms or nearly drowned. But now he’s a first-year medical student, and those same doctors are urging Traylor not to follow in their footsteps. They warn of burnout after covid and patients’ increasing suspicion of doctors. The pay is not as good, they say, especially as hospitals rely more on nurse practitioners and physician assistants to staff emergency departments. And job prospects may be grim, they caution, as emergency medicine residency programs aggressively expanded in recent years. (Nirappil, 3/17)

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?

-Gregg S. Margolis, PhD