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

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Click on right here for a transcript of the episode.

President Joe Biden is the newest high Washington official to check optimistic 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, permit 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 seek out their footing within the wake of the Supreme Courtroom’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 lots 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 can be a serious change that drugmakers have efficiently fought for 20 years.
• The invoice, which hasn’t been launched in full, will embody solely these provisions which were accredited by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), as a result of all 50 members of the Democratic caucus within the Senate shall be wanted to move the invoice. Along with permitting value negotiations on 10 medication within the first 12 months, 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 12 months.
• The invoice can be anticipated to incorporate provisions to increase for an extra two years the improved subsidies for premiums on well being insurance policies bought by 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 Courtroom’s resolution 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 saying the way it plans to reply. For instance, instantly after the Supreme Courtroom launched the choice, the administration stated it might guard ladies’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 legal professional basic, who incorrectly stated 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 instructed that they’re break up on the right way to deal with conditions like this. Some leaders recommend the kid ought to have gone ahead with the being pregnant, whereas different teams stated individuals who have been raped shouldn’t have to hold a child to time period.
• Texas Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton is constant his push to limit abortion. The state principally shut down most abortions final September with a strict regulation that permits group members to sue medical doctors and others who assist a girl 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 stated that federal regulation doesn’t preempt the state’s restrictions.
• Texas’ onerous line on abortion might have an financial affect throughout the state. Some younger folks and corporations usually are not in favor of the abortion insurance policies and a few are threatening to go away 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 additional 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 Well being Powers,” by Lauren Weber and Anna Maria Barry-Jester

Shefali Luthra: Stat’s “Well being Care’s Excessive Rollers: Because 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 Needs to Put Covid’s Politicization Behind Him,” by Sarah Owermohle

Joanne Kenen: Inside Local weather Information’ “When the Energy Goes Out, Who Suffers? Local weather Epidemiologists Are Now Making an attempt to Determine That Out,” by Laura Baisas

Additionally talked about on this week’s podcast:

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