Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

The Top Three...

With so much going on, if you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The New York Times: Here’s What Is In The Senate’s Gun Bill — And What Was Left Out The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, written by a small group of Republicans and Democrats in the aftermath of back-to-back mass shootings, would enhance background checks for gun buyers between 18 and 21 years old, incentivize states to enact “red flag” laws that enable firearms to be temporarily confiscated from people deemed dangerous, and provide hundreds of millions of dollars for mental health and school safety. It would also extend to dating partners a federal law that prohibits domestic abusers from purchasing guns. (Lai and Cochrane, 6/23)

Politico: FDA Orders All Juul E-Cigarettes Off The Market “We respectfully disagree with the FDA’s findings and decision and continue to believe we have provided sufficient information and data based on high-quality research to address all issues raised by the agency,” said Joe Murillo, the chief regulatory officer at Juul Labs, in a statement. “We believe that we appropriately characterized the toxicological profile of Juul products, including comparisons to combustible cigarettes and other vapor products, and believe this data, along with the totality of the evidence, meets the statutory standard of being ‘appropriate for the protection of the public health.’” Juul must immediately discontinue sales of its products. If it doesn’t, it risks enforcement actions from the FDA. (Foley, 6/23)

USA Today: Lack Of Universal Health Care Cost 300,000 US Lives In COVID: Study More than 330,000 Americans could have been saved during COVID-19 pandemic if the United States operated under a universal health care system – nearly one-third of the total COVID-related deaths – according to a recent study. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA last week found that universal health care would have helped address underlying and pre-existing conditions that contributed to the COVID-related deaths, ultimately saving over 338,000 lives between the start of the pandemic and mid-March 2022. (Elbeshbishi, 6/23)

For a Deeper Dive...

Modern Healthcare: Supreme Court Dialysis Ruling Sets Stage For Coverage Limits A Supreme Court decision that greenlighted a private health plan's limited dialysis coverage may set the stage for other insurers to cut pay for kidney care and other treatments Medicare covers. The high court rejected a challenge to an employer health plan's low reimbursements for dialysis, which the plaintiff argued discourage providers from joining its network and effectively nudge policyholders to enroll in Medicare instead. This legal decision offers a playbook that other group health plans could follow by designing benefit packages in a way that encourages people with end-stage renal disease to forgo private coverage in favor of Medicare, which is available to anyone with chronic kidney failure regardless of age. And the ramifications may extend beyond dialysis patients. (Tepper, 6/23)

Roll Call: Senators Release Bill Targeting Insulin Prices Two key senators on Wednesday released a widely anticipated bill aimed at lowering insulin prices and capping monthly copays under commercial and Medicare insurance plans. The move is the next step in advancing one of Democrats’ most popular provisions from a stalled reconciliation bill ahead of a tough midterm election. In March, the House passed its own standalone version sponsored by Democrats to cap insulin copays. (Clason, 6/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Administration Targets Removal Of Most Nicotine From Cigarettes The plan, unveiled Tuesday as part of the administration’s agenda of regulatory actions, likely wouldn’t take effect for several years. The Food and Drug Administration plans to publish a proposed rule in May 2023, though the agency cautioned that date could change. Then the agency would invite public comments before publishing a final rule. Tobacco companies could then sue, which could further delay the policy’s implementation. “Nicotine is powerfully addictive,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement Tuesday. “Lowering nicotine levels to minimally addictive or non-addictive levels would decrease the likelihood that future generations of young people become addicted to cigarettes and help more currently addicted smokers to quit.” (Maloney, 6/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Buying From Mark Cuban’s Pharmacy Could Save Medicare Billions, Study Says Mr. Cuban, the billionaire internet entrepreneur and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, launched his pharmacy in January with an eye toward disrupting the $365 billion U.S. prescription-drug market by sidestepping health-insurers and selling commonly used generic medicines directly to consumers with a transparent, fixed-rate markup pricing model. A group of Harvard Medical School researchers say that Mr. Cuban’s “cost plus” business model could also benefit health insurers, including Medicare, which spent an estimated $115.6 billion on prescription drugs last year, or nearly a third of total U.S. drug spending. (Walker, 6/20)

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