Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP Eyeing ACA Subsidy Cuts, Other Health Care Moves To Pay For Iran War
Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement. New efforts to rein in health programs are sure to be controversial and open the GOP up to election-year attacks that they're cutting health care to pay for an unpopular war. (Sullivan, 3/30)
On the Iran war's effects on the health care industry —
Fears of a helium crunch are mounting after a drop in global output since the start of the Iran war, as the conflict’s impact spreads beyond energy markets into other critical supply chains. The Gulf is a major exporter of helium, a byproduct of natural gas that is critical for the manufacturing of microchips — including those used to power the global AI boom — as well as for the functioning of some medical devices. (3/29)
As President Trump’s war in Iran rages on, it’s posing a growing threat to the pharmaceutical supply chain and risks spiking the prices of many drugs, particularly those that depend on petrochemicals. The war in Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have caused energy prices to jump and disrupted supply chains for a range of industries. While the Middle East is not a major pharmaceutical producer like China or India, there are still products that originate from the region, and many drugs rely on petrochemicals to be made. (Choi, 3/29)
The medtech company has been working to restore manufacturing, ordering and shipping operations since it was hit by a cyberattack on March 11. ... The attack has been claimed by an Iran-linked threat actor tracked as Handala, according to Check Point Research. The group claims to have wiped thousands of servers and mobile devices and stolen data. (Zipp, 3/27)
Also —
The extraction of the material would likely need to be conducted by an elite special operations team specially trained to remove radioactive material from a conflict zone. The highly enriched uranium is likely contained in 40 to 50 special cylinders that resemble scuba tanks. They would need to be put into transportation casks to protect against accidents. That could fill several trucks, said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University and a former nuclear negotiator with Iran. (Ward, Seligman, Linskey and Gordon, 3/29)
