Gregg's Top Three Health Policy Articles

The Top Three...

With so much going on, it can be hard to know what to read. If you can only read three things about health policy this week, I suggest...

The New York Times: Abortion Rights Groups Take Up The Fight In The States “It’s all about the states from here on out,” said Jessie Hill, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University who has worked on abortion rights cases. “We can fantasize about federal solutions to this issue or nationwide settlements of the abortion question, but I think that after Dobbs, I don’t see a lot of possibilities at the federal level.” ... Professor Hill is part of a team of lawyers challenging in federal court an Ohio law that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. A judge allowed that law to take effect after the Supreme Court ruling. But Professor Hill said she believed that protections for individual rights in Ohio’s Constitution could make for a compelling argument that abortion is protected in the state. (Hubler and Smith, 6/27)

NPR: Biden Signs Gun Safety Bill Into Law President Biden on Saturday signed into law the first major gun safety legislation passed by Congress in nearly 30 years. ... "While this bill doesn't do everything I want, it does include actions I've long called for that are going to save lives," Biden said just before signing the measure. "Today, we say more than enough. We say more than enough," he added. "At a time when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential." (Clyde and Miranda, 6/25)

KHN: How Much Health Insurers Pay For Almost Everything Is About To Go Public Consumers, employers, and just about everyone else interested in health care prices will soon get an unprecedented look at what insurers pay for care, perhaps helping answer a question that has long dogged those who buy insurance: Are we getting the best deal we can? As of July 1, health insurers and self-insured employers must post on websites just about every price they’ve negotiated with providers for health care services, item by item. About the only thing excluded are the prices paid for prescription drugs, except those administered in hospitals or doctors’ offices. (Appleby, 7/1)

For a Deeper Dive...

The New York Times: The Ruling Was Just the Beginning: Both Sides Mobilize Over Abortion The Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade has unleashed a frenzy of activity on both sides of the abortion fight, with anti-abortion forces vowing to use the ruling to push for near-total bans in every state in the nation, and abortion rights groups insisting they would harness rage over the decision to take to the streets, fight back in the courts and push the Biden administration to do more to protect abortion rights. (Zernike, 6/26)

Roll Call: Senate Drafts Last-Ditch Drug Pricing Plan Ahead Of Midterms Senate Democrats are scraping together a last-minute plan to let Medicare negotiate prices directly with manufacturers for some prescription drugs ahead of the midterm elections, according to a summary of the plan obtained by CQ Roll Call. The effort attempts to revive a key piece of Democrats’ sweeping social spending and climate bill after intra-party divisions killed the original legislation. (Clason, 6/30)

Colorado Sun: In Colorado, Fixing The Health Care System Is About More Than Insurance For years, Colorado lawmakers have worked relentlessly to reform the state’s health care system. But that work has often focused on just one narrow area: health insurance. From expanding access to Medicaid, to setting up a state health insurance exchange, to engineering a complicated reinsurance program to creating the Colorado Option, a government-designed health plan, the brightest minds in health policy in Colorado have spent a lot of the last decade thinking about how to get more people covered at lower prices. That focus is now starting to change, though, simply because there’s not a lot left to do on insurance, according to one of the state’s most prominent thinkers on health care and reform. (Ingold, 6/27)

KHN: Government Watchdogs Attack Medicare Advantage For Denying Care And Overcharging Congress should crack down on Medicare Advantage health plans for seniors that sometimes deny patients vital medical care while overcharging the government billions of dollars every year, government watchdogs told a House panel Tuesday. Witnesses sharply criticized the fast-growing health plans at a hearing held by the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. They cited a slew of critical audits and other reports that described plans denying access to health care, particularly those with high rates of patients who were disenrolled in their last year of life while likely in poor health and in need of more services. (Schulte, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Senators Kill Sweeping Plan To Reshape Sprawling VA Health Care System A long-sought realignment of the country’s largest health care system was killed this week by bipartisan political resistance through a short news release from 12 senators who said they would not approve the nine nominees up for confirmation to establish the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission. And a costly four-year effort to reposition VA in an increasingly competitive health care market fell victim to the principle that, just as all politics is local, so, apparently, is any decision to shift services for a constituency as crucial as veterans. (Rein, 6/29)

For the Visual Among Us...