KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Drug Price Bill Is a Go in the Senate

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President Joe Biden is the most recent prime Washington official to check constructive for covid-19, following Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer. However work continues, significantly on a Senate invoice that might, for the primary time, enable Medicare to barter prescription drug costs and cap seniors’ out-of-pocket remedy prices.

In the meantime, each supporters and opponents of abortion rights are struggling to search out their footing within the wake of the Supreme Court docket’s overturn of the federal proper to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Shefali Luthra of The nineteenth, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being and Politico, and Rachel Cohrs of Stat.

Among the many takeaways from this week’s episode:

• Though some Democrats and plenty of political pundits are criticizing the Senate for scaling again the president’s Construct Again Higher agenda to be largely a well being care invoice, the proposal in that invoice to permit Medicare to barter costs for some medication could be a serious change that drugmakers have efficiently fought for twenty years.
• The invoice, which hasn’t been launched in full, will embody solely these provisions which have been authorised by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), as a result of all 50 members of the Democratic caucus within the Senate will probably be wanted to cross the invoice. Along with permitting worth negotiations on 10 medication within the first yr, the laws would penalize drugmakers that elevate costs above the speed of inflation and restrict Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket drug spending to $2,000 a yr.
• The invoice can be anticipated to incorporate provisions to increase for a further two years the improved subsidies for premiums on well being insurance policies bought via the Reasonably priced Care Act’s market. These particulars haven’t but been launched.
• Progressives have been dismayed on the administration’s lackluster reply to the Supreme Court docket’s choice overturning Roe. Even because the White Home notes that there are limits to what the president can do, the administration has been extra cautious than many anticipated in asserting the way it plans to reply. For instance, instantly after the Supreme Court docket launched the choice, the administration mentioned it might guard girls’s entry to remedy abortions — however there was little follow-up.
• The Indiana physician who handled a 10-year-old rape sufferer searching for an abortion is threatening a defamation lawsuit towards the state’s lawyer normal, who incorrectly mentioned on nationwide tv that she didn’t file the required paperwork.
• The case of that 10-year-old has put anti-abortion teams on the defensive and recommended that they’re break up on how one can deal with conditions like this. Some leaders recommend the kid ought to have gone ahead with the being pregnant, whereas different teams mentioned individuals who have been raped mustn’t have to hold a child to time period.
• Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton is continuous his push to limit abortion. The state mainly shut down most abortions final September with a strict regulation that enables neighborhood members to sue medical doctors and others who assist a lady get an abortion past six weeks of being pregnant. Now, Paxton is difficult the Biden administration’s assertion that federal regulation entitles folks searching for emergency care due to being pregnant issues to get an abortion. Paxton has mentioned that federal regulation doesn’t preempt the state’s restrictions.
• Texas’ onerous line on abortion may have an financial influence throughout the state. Some younger folks and corporations usually are not in favor of the abortion insurance policies and a few are threatening to depart the state.

Additionally this week, Rovner interviews Dr. Jack Resneck Jr., a California dermatologist who’s the brand new president of the American Medical Affiliation.

Plus, for further credit score, the panelists suggest their favourite well being coverage tales of the week they assume it’s best to learn, too:

Julie Rovner: KHN’s “Conservative Blocs Unleash Litigation to Curb Public Health Powers,” by Lauren Weber and Anna Maria Barry-Jester

Shefali Luthra: Stat’s “Health Care’s High Rollers: As the Pandemic Raged, CEOs’ Earnings Surged,” by Bob Herman, Kate Sheridan, J. Emory Parker, Adam Feuerstein, and Mohana Ravindranath

Rachel Cohrs: Politico’s “Anthony Fauci Wants to Put Covid’s Politicization Behind Him,” by Sarah Owermohle

Joanne Kenen: Inside Local weather Information’ “When the Power Goes Out, Who Suffers? Climate Epidemiologists Are Now Trying to Figure That Out,” by Laura Baisas

Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:

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KHN (Kaiser Well being Information) is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points. Along with Coverage Evaluation and Polling, KHN is among the three main working packages at KFF (Kaiser Household Basis). KFF is an endowed nonprofit group offering info on well being points to the nation.

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