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As Vice President Kamala Harris seems poised to grow to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, well being coverage on the whole and reproductive well being points specifically are prone to have a better profile. Harris has lengthy been the Biden administration’s level individual on abortion rights and reproductive well being and was energetic on different well being points whereas serving as California’s lawyer normal.
Meanwhile, Congress is again for a short session between presidential conventions, however efforts within the GOP-led House to move the annual spending payments, due by Oct. 1, have run into the same old roadblocks over abortion-related points.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Stephanie Armour of KFF Health News, Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Stat, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
President Joe Biden’s determination to drop out of the presidential race has turned consideration to his doubtless successor on the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris. At this late hour within the marketing campaign, she is predicted to undertake Biden’s well being insurance policies, although many anticipate she’ll take a firmer stance on restoring Roe v. Wade. And whereas abortion rights supporters are obsessed with Harris’ candidacy, opponents are keen to border her views as excessive.
As he transitions from incumbent candidate to outgoing president, Biden is working to border his legacy, together with on well being coverage. The president has expressed pleasure that his signature home achievement, the Inflation Reduction Act, took on the pharmaceutical business, together with by forcing the makers of the most costly medication into negotiations with Medicare. Yet, as with the Affordable Care Act’s delayed implementation and outcomes, most Americans have but to see the IRA’s potential impact on drug costs.
Lawmakers proceed to be hung up on federal authorities spending, leaving appropriations work undone as they put together to go away for summer time recess. Fights over abortion are, as soon as once more, gumming up the works.
In abortion information, Iowa’s six-week restrict is scheduled to take impact subsequent week, inflicting rippling issues of abortion entry all through the area. In Louisiana, which added the 2 medication utilized in remedy abortions to its checklist of managed substances, docs are having issue utilizing the capsules for different indications. And docs who oppose abortion are pushing higher-risk procedures, like cesarean sections, in lieu of being pregnant termination when the mom’s life is in peril — as states with strict bans, like Texas and Louisiana, are reporting an increase in using surgical procedures, together with hysterectomies, to finish pregnancies.
The Government Accountability Office stories that many states incorrectly eliminated tons of of 1000’s of eligible folks from the Medicaid rolls in the course of the “unwinding” of the covid-19 public well being emergency’s protection protections. The Biden administration has been reluctant to name out these states publicly in an try to maintain the method as apolitical as doable.
Also this week, Rovner interviews Anthony Wright, the brand new government director of the buyer well being advocacy group Families USA. Wright spent the previous 20 years in California, working with, amongst others, now-Vice President Kamala Harris on numerous well being points.
Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn this week that they suppose it’s best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: NPR’s “A Study Finds That Dogs Can Smell Your Stress — And Make Decisions Accordingly,” by Rachel Treisman.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: Stat’s “A Pricey Gilead HIV Drug Could Be Made for Dramatically Less Than the Company Charges,” by Ed Silverman, and Politico’s “Federal HIV Program Set To Wind Down,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein and David Lim.
Stephanie Armour: Vox’s “Free Medical School Won’t Solve the Doctor Shortage,” by Dylan Scott.
Rachel Cohrs Zhang: Stat’s “How UnitedHealth Harnesses Its Physician Empire To Squeeze Profits out of Patients,” by Bob Herman, Tara Bannow, Casey Ross, and Lizzy Lawrence.
Also talked about on this week’s podcast:
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