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...

Reuters: U.S. Healthcare Spending Rises To $4.8 Trillion In 2023, Outpacing GDP Healthcare spending in the U.S. is projected to have risen 7.5% in 2023 to $4.8 trillion, federal data showed on Wednesday, outpacing the projected annual gross domestic product growth rate of 6.1%. Spending on Medicaid and private health insurance drove the growth, with the insured share of the population surging to a historic high of 93%, data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) showed. (Aboulenein, 6/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Abortion-Pill Ruling And IVF Battle Highlight Vulnerability For GOP Reproductive-rights advocates saw some momentum during a dramatic week in which the Supreme Court maintained widespread access to abortion pills and Republicans were put on the defensive over whether they support in vitro fertilization. The rapidly unfolding events came as abortion and fights over related issues such as IVF and contraception are expected to drive turnout in the 2024 election. President Biden has campaigned aggressively on a pledge to protect abortion following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that eliminated the right to the procedure. Former President Donald Trump has taken credit for appointing justices who joined that decision but has struggled to articulate a message and has warned fellow Republicans that the issue is perilous for them. (Lucey and Kusisto, 6/14)

The 19th: New Biden Administration Rule Would Ban Medical Debt From Credit Reports “Medical debt makes it more difficult for millions of Americans to be approved for a car loan, a home loan or a small business loan, all of which in turn makes it more difficult to just get by, much less get ahead, and that is simply not fair. Especially when we know that people with medical debt are no less likely to repay a loan than those without medical debt,” Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday. “No one should be denied access to economic opportunity simply because they experienced a medical emergency.” (Davis, 6/11)

For a Deeper Dive...

PBS NewsHour: How Banning Medical Debt From Credit Reports Could Help Millions Of Americans When confronted with a grim diagnosis or a catastrophic accident, Americans often wonder not only how they will recover their health and well-being but also if their finances can withstand medical debt and its rippling effects. ... An estimated 100 million people in the United States have medical or dental bills they are paying off or that are overdue, according to the Urban Institute. (Santhanam, 6/12)

Axios: Gun Suicides Account For Most Firearm-Related Deaths In U.S. Gun suicides consistently outstrip gun homicides in the U.S., despite drawing less attention than other forms of gun violence. Suicide rates have increased in the U.S. over the past few decades and become a leading cause of death among young and middle-aged Americans. (Saric, 6/10)

CIDRAP: Black, Hispanic Adults At Double The Risk Of Losing Medicaid After COVID Emergency Ended, Study Finds Black and Hispanic adults were twice as likely than their White peers to be unable to renew their Medicaid enrollment after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) in spring 2023, a Northwestern University–led study estimates. For the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the researchers analyzed data from seven waves of the US Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey to estimate the racial distribution of adult Medicaid disenrollment from March to October 2023. (Van Beusekom, 6/12)

Axios: Ransomware Attacks Surged After Change Healthcare Hack Ransomware attacks against health care organizations surged following the hack of Change Healthcare that crippled much of the U.S. health care system, according to cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. (Reed, 6/13)

The Washington Post: Democrats Increasingly Take Aim At Patents In Bid To Lower Drug Prices Democrats have hit on a new tactic in their long battle with drug companies: challenge patents that they say are deliberate attempts to game the system and box out low-cost, generic competitors. ... The Democrats are targeting Novo Nordisk, including some of its patents related to expensive drug Ozempic; GlaxoSmithKline; and other companies that produce asthma and diabetes medications. (Diamond, 6/7)

Tools You can Use...

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: The Federal Tax Benefits for Nonprofit Hospitals.

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