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The Vermont independent and former presidential candidate was all fire and brimstone at his first hearing on drug prices as head of the Senate HELP Committee. He also pursued a more modest goal of covid vaccine price reductions. It isn鈥檛 clear whether Sanders will succeed in even that, but he has put affordability front and center.
Mobile clinics that provided covid-19 testing and vaccines at the peak of the pandemic are now being used to provide a range of health services in hard-to-reach communities. A law passed late last year allows qualified health care centers to use federal grants to expand the fleets.
Last year, state lawmakers adopted the country鈥檚 toughest online privacy restrictions. The law offers Congress a path forward on federal protections even as it serves as a cautionary tale for taking on Big Tech.
As many lower-income Americans prepare to lose pandemic-era access to Medicaid, President Joe Biden vowed to stop Republicans from making deeper cuts to lower the national debt. Other changes may still be up for discussion.
When U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania checked himself into the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment of depression this month, he got an unusual reaction from his colleagues in Congress: compassion. It鈥檚 a far cry from how politicians once kept their mental health issues under wraps at all costs. Meanwhile, GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is stirring up controversy by proposing that all politicians over age 75 be required to pass a mental competency test to hold office. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥 the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too.
Politicians are again pointing fingers over who wants to cut Medicare. As past Washington brawls show, the party accused of threatening popular entitlements tends to lose elections 鈥 although it鈥檚 the beneficiaries relying on lawmakers to fund it who stand to lose the most.
The Senate鈥檚 top health committee focused on the worsening health care workforce shortage during its first hearing Thursday, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, its new chair, boldly promising bipartisan solutions.
Hundreds of physicians came to Washington this week to lobby Congress about their 鈥渞ecovery plan鈥 for physicians, which includes a Medicare pay boost and an end to some frustrating insurance company requirements.
President Joe Biden鈥檚 2023 State of the Union address leaned heavily on health care issues. Biden took a victory lap for recent accomplishments like capping prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare. He also urged Congress to make permanent the boosted premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, and he sparred with Republicans on threats to cut Social Security and Medicare. Also this week, both sides in the abortion debate are bracing for a court decision out of Texas that could, at least temporarily, make the abortion pill mifepristone illegal nationwide. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Kate Baicker of the University of Chicago about a possible middle ground in the effort to get universal health insurance coverage.
Our partners at PolitiFact fact-checked a range of President Joe Biden鈥檚 statements, including key health-related comments.
As he takes the reins of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, the independent from Vermont and implacable champion of 鈥淢edicare for All鈥 maps out his strategy for negotiating with Republicans 鈥 and Big Pharma.
Congress鈥 $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package included a two-year extension of pandemic-era funding that helped telehealth services grow nationwide. But that cash bridge, embraced by those delivering services to patients in rural areas, doesn鈥檛 provide much certainty for the future of remote medicine.
Abortion is a top issue for state lawmakers meeting for their first full sessions since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
KHN has teamed up with our partners at PolitiFact to monitor 100 key promises made by Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign 鈥 including those surrounding the Affordable Care Act.
Leaders of the new Republican-led U.S. House kicked off their legislative agenda with two bills supported by anti-abortion groups. While neither is likely to become law, the move demonstrates how abortion will continue to be an issue in Washington. Meanwhile, as open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act nears its end in most states, the number of Americans covered by the plans hits a new high. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
As flexible treatment options spurred by the covid pandemic wane, patients relying on medications classified as controlled substances worry that without action to extend the loosened rules, it鈥檒l be harder to get their meds.
The year-end spending bill passed by Congress in late December contains a wide array of health-related provisions, including a structure for states to begin to disenroll people on Medicaid whose coverage has been maintained through the pandemic. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is taking steps to make the abortion pill more widely available. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post join KHN鈥檚 chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Mark Kreidler, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR 鈥淏ill of the Month鈥 feature about a billing mix-up that took about a year to sort out.
New reductions in Medicare payments in 2023 will drive more doctors away from accepting Medicare patients, physicians say. They are again pushing back on efforts largely designed to control government spending.
While supporters cheer the PASTEUR Act as an essential strategy to stem the rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, critics call it a multibillion-dollar giveaway to Big Pharma.
Top negotiators in Congress have agreed to a framework for government spending into next year, but there are details to iron out before a vote 鈥 such as the scheduled Medicare payment cuts that have providers worried. Also, the Biden administration reopens its program allowing Americans to request free covid-19 home tests, as hopes for pandemic preparedness measures from Congress dim. Rachel Cohrs of Stat, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Rebecca Adams of KHN join KHN鈥檚 Mary Agnes Carey to discuss these topics and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
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